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Can You Live With Crackling & Popping Noise?

I just got my first turntable, a Rega P5 and not sure whether I'm supposed to be delighted or otherwise. When I put on my first record, there was intermittent popping, hissing and crackling noise at low to moderate volume levels. Having lived with digital for half of my life, I find this to be somewhat annoying. For a while I was feeling disappointed and pondering whether I would end up selling this thing. After a while I thought what the heck, since I had got this thing home I might as well turn up the volume and enjoy the music. I started to crank it up to reasonably high levels and all the hissing, crackling and popping noise began to drown and disappear into the background music. Somehow the annoyance turned to musical bliss, well almost.

My question, especially for those who own high-end turntables, can you live with all the crackling and popping noise? I reckon all these noises will be quite noticeable especially when playing some clean vocals with minimum background music? What actually cause all these noises? Is the noise caused by dust sticking on the surface of the record assuming the record is in good condition? Is there any way these crackling and popping noises can be reduced or eliminated completely by cleaning the records?

The manual states as follows:-

"Don't worry about visible dust on the record surface, this is brushed aside by the stylus and any that collects on the stylus can be easily blown away. In general, record cleaning is overdone and one should not believe all the claims made by record cleaner manufacturers."

Does this mean that cleaning records is pointless? If that is the case how do we get rid of the crackling noise in the event the dust and fine particles are the ones that are causing these noises? Is there any easy solution to clean the records by ourselves?

For any newbie who wants to take the turntable route, I would urge you to reconsider your options particularly if you have minimal tolerance towards popping and crackling noises. Even all my good old cassette collection that ended up in the rubbish bin years ago didn't exhibit all these popping and crackling noises.

If all these noises do not exist in records then analog is really the one to beat.

Thank you for your patience.
ryder
kmulkey
173 posts
 
If you truly want to delve into vinyl and get full enjoyment, get a vacuum record cleaning machine. Most of what you've describe is the little nasties in the record grooves. Get rid of em and you'll be shocked. I have LP's that are as quiet as CD's after a good cleaning.
The VPI 16.5 is a great machine for not a crazy amount of money.
If you can't swing the $550, for under $100 you can get the Disc Doctor manual system along with a few towels and a dish drainer. It's fully manual but works quite well.
As for Regas assertion that record cleaning is overdone, you must also realize that Roy Gandy thinks letting the stylus clean the groove is just A-OK.
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atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,993 posts
 
One way that is not obvious to reduce ticks and pops is to use a tube phono section that uses passive RIAA equalization. Transistor units will often over-react to ticks and pops as most of them use loop feedback for the EQ. Loop feedback enhances ticks and pops!

Another thing to be certain about is that the cartridge is properly loaded! If not loaded correctly, it will **emphasize** ticks and pops. Correctly loaded you will get full bandwidth and no tonal anomalies, plus the ticks and pops will recede more to the background.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,549 posts
 
Welcome to the real world of vinyl playback!

Record noise is par for the course with many records. To keep it to the minimum, get a good record cleaning machine or check other threads here for some manual cleaning techniques that can work very well also if you have the time and patience to do it right.

Personally, I hate record noise but have learned to live with it when required over the years
zenblaster
504 posts
 
The good news is that the hissing, popping and clicking you are experiencing are optional. In order to enjoy analog to it's fullest you are going to have to develop a cleaning system for your records. When I first get a record I do a pretty aggressive steam cleaning, new or used. I limit my used records to very good quality, as new. ONce a record is scratched you can not improve that pop/click, dust and grundge can be cleaned, to a degree. A record cleaning machine is a great option, but expensive. There are many threads you can look up here and else where on the net. After the initial cleaning a light dusting is all that's need prior to playing.
As my analog system has moved up the food chain one of the benefits has been the ability to put extraneous noises "up on a shelf in the background" of the soundstage, relegating it to white noise. The music you are listening too is front and center, more lifelike than I have been able to get from my digital front end. It is a bit more work than is required with digital but the rewards in my case have been worth it.
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