Help in reducing distortion from old mono records.

Hello JDaniel13,

When you said inner groove damage did you mean inner groove distortion? That's normal to some degree on LP's as it gets closer to the end grooves but it should be barely noticeable if at all. The distortion on the Ansermet LP I'm talking about is so bad in spots on the choral piece that it sounds like it's audibly cracking up.

Also, I don't see what difference it would make whether an LP was tube-cut or not in a physical sense as far as groove damage was concerned, and weren't most LP's from the fifties tube-cut? I know that most home audio and TV's were still tube up to the early sixties.

Regarding "tube-cut," I'm only talking about sound-quality, the lp's have a "glow," supposedly imparted by the tubes, that later Lp's do not. (My point was that, the last released *may* be the least played.) This was just an aside, had nothing to do with the topic. (There were three tube-cut releases of Furtwangler's Mono EMI Tristan: the first, in six separate lp covers, then a 6 lp box set, and finally a 5 lp "Everyman Opera Series" box set) I obsess over this performance, and have had the best of luck with the last mentioned.)

And yes, I meant inner groove damage, which causes a type of inner groove distortion. Your description and curiosity reminded me of my own concerns when I first stumbled across the issue. I, too, was curious as to why a hugely complex orchestral passage--closer to the end of the record mind you--did *not* have damage, while a relatively quiet but sudden vocal passage toward the beginning of the record *did.* IMHO, vocal, piano, and choral, sometimes even loud solo flute, are the first to go bad.

It bothered me a lot the first time I came across such damage. I called my stereo guru and had him try different realignments, etc. The "cure" came when I stumbled upon the exact same record, which played perfectly, or--when I've found reviews from ages ago about a certain records which complain about the exact same passage; that they were cut too hot, or--I acquired the reel to reel or CD and discovered the distortion was in the master tape.

I would throw away the lp and move on. There is no one pressing that is alike, and one can never know how an lp was previously handled, which makes the exploration fun but also frustrating.

Thanks for the info JDaniel13,

I agree that some pressings of LP's, even identical ones, can be very different from others. Just like some bottles of the same wine can be different, and just like wine, it does make it frustrating when you come across a bad one but also very rewarding and fun when you get a great one!

I recently picked up a still sealed London stereo LP of Ansermet conducting Hayden, Mozart and Schumann (not too much luck with the London/Ansermet LP's lately huh?) and it too had a couple of spots of distortion and even mistracked in one area. It was bad out of the box!

Such is the minefield that one has to occasionally put up with when buying these types of LP's. I can understand why some would rather have the newer reissue LP's, or just buy the CD. They are much more consistent.

Fortunately, I only paid $1.00 for the mono Ansermet LP and only $10.00 for the stereo one. I wouldn't risk any big bucks on LP's like this unless I trusted the dealer and he had a good return policy. At least I can still listen to the great performance of The Fire Bird suite on side 1, and if I ever find another pressing of this that plays fine all the way around, I have a NM cover to slip it into!

The problem is that I had to learn this stuff myself the hard way. There is a lot of misleading info out there from fanatically biased LP lovers, who will always blame the equipment, the amount of money one spends on it, the cleaning method used, etc., as the reason for poor sound. When in reality, the LP just sounds plain bad.

Amen to all that. Please allow me to take a moment to suggest two Firebird's I've enjoyed thorougly: Stravinsky's own, with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in pretty decent Columbia sound, (I've tried every incarnation and the best IMHO is the one included with the Franklin Mint 100 Greatest Recordings). Stravinsky never lets the orchestra or the listener forget the ballet's avian roots, even in the finale. The other I always reach for is Dutoit's on London digital lp. His is simply the most perfumed and exotic, esp in the first half. I know everyone raves about the Dorati on Mercury, and while the Infernal Dance is, *wow*; the rest isn't as magical as the above. Luckily both can be had for around $2.

Ditto the Stravinsky conducting the Firebird. I think the later Columbia pressing of the complete Firebird in the 3-record box (with Rite, etc) is very good, and smoother sounding than the latest CD reissue (which contains some distortion in the loud parts).

One has to ask, why do we put ourselves through all this agony, but then I was listening to an old mono version of Ansermet doing Debussy's Jeux this morning (after I gave it a good cleaning) and the sound was really nice...though I had to listen through a bit of surface noise here and there.

I got a new cartridge about a month ago, and it has improved my tracking of "problem" records noticeably. But not all of them. And there is still some end-of-side distortion. But the good Lps sound warmer and easier to listen to than most of the corresponding CDs (to my ear). And a really good record tracks beautifully (like the Arrau Debussy on Phillips...an under-rated label, in my book).