Records are getting noisy

i think it's bad pressings. older records are not getting this problem no matter how many times they are played and cleaned.

I think I am going to concentrate now on finding older records in great shape.

I am sooooo glad you started this post. I've been collecting seriously since the mid '80s (most my pressings are from the UK btw), and whilst this resurgence in vinyl is definitely a good thing, I have been hugely disappointed with the QC on a number of new releases/reissues.

Brand new records, on 180 or 200gm that have pops and clicks right from the get go. from the very 1st play. I can only wonder that the new crop of small pressing plants out there just don't have the experience to work with this very sensitive medium and are thus producing sub par vinyl. I only hope they get better and improve their QC - but we as the end users must get this information out somehow.

WOW! I thought it was me! I even had VPI exchange my bearing 'cause of a ka-whump sound. I never really thought about it primarily being my new records, but it is. The new single sided 45-RPM Norah Jones is excellent however. I think I'll mainly concentrate on buying used vinyl...

most modern(non Japanese) Vinyl is garbage in terms of pressing quality . Sadly some of the re-mastering we are seeing now (eg Neil Youngs Harvest ,Steve Hoffmans Rumours ) is fantastic, but they dont press like the good old days . Im just about given up buying New Vinyl and focus on SACD or sealed Vinyl from Ebay from the pre 90's era . Of course anything pressed in Japan i get , even their new stuff.Im amazed record companies turn a profit with the amount of vinyl that gets returned . Over the last 2 years Id say 10 -20 % of new Viny is a f**** joke in terms of pressing quality so this has become an expensive hobby.PS none of us in the 1970's washed their records and it was a blast to listen to without all the bull*** tics , pops etc we have to put up with today . (dynaflex /Styrene and some 70's US oil crisis era Vinyl excepted

I'm sure most of you here know this.. but for those that don't, almost all the re issues they are putting out on vinyl these days are coming off digital sources. They are either cutting directly from a source like a CD or are dumping the original magnetic tapes track by track into something like digital pro tools and reworking the mixes. Once you digitize the sound wave.. say good bye to the true quality.

I don't know how loud I can scream this, but you simply CANNOT put back into the music what has been taken away by ANY kind of digital sampling.

Being an artist and record producer myself, I am always shocked at how much we lose even dithering down from a 24 bit mix to 16 bit going onto a CD.

I really have to have a chuckle at people that spend 50K or more on a system that is basically playing standard CD's.

You are always limited by the sound source, and all CD's are junk because of the 16 bit process.

While I have no problem with some light clicks and crackles on my vinyl, I understand that some coming from the digital world might find this distracting. A better option is to go into the world of open reel to reel recordings. Pick your poison. Crackles of vinyl, a thin layer of tape hiss on reel, or the horrible sound of CD's.

I heard the latest so called high fidelity digital files in a high end audiophile appointment only shop in SF, and was not impressed.

If you want great sound.. you have to keep the analog stream away from ANY digital conversions.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade here but
I speak the truth.