Tips on Buying Quiet Quality sounding LP's

For used lps, inspection by a trained eye is the best tool.

With experience, you can train your eyes to quickly inspect vinyl and determine the condition. Most vintage records that appear to be in good physical condition should be reasonably quiet and play properly, once properly cleaned.

Sometimes the trick is to be able able to distinguish a dirty record from one in good physical condition otherwise via visual inspection. It can be done reliably in most cases, but requires experience to train the eye on what to look for.

Also remember that the majority of lps exhibit some surface noise during playback and that this is normal. Its just part of the medium. lps can be near dead quiet under ideal conditions but seldom are in practice. If you want dead quiet background noise levels, that is a strength of digital, not vinyl.

For me, the greatest pleasure of vinyl these days is to pick up old lps that most no longer want for a pittance, clean them and then enjoy the quality sound often offered. With used lps, price is not an indicator of sound quality in many cases. You can pick up many fantastic sounding vintage titles from the golden age of vinyl for next to nothing at flea markets, yard sales, etc. these days.

So Mapman...what do you look for to detrmine good physical condition?...clearly any visual scratches are a no, no...but what else do you focus on to determine "good condition?"...thx

Another good site to search is Music Angle (Michael Fremer's web site) devoted to reviewing music. You can search a particular title and pull the review and there will be a rating on the music and the quality of the sound. The quality of sound incorporates both recording/mastering quality and the quality of the pressings.

Tvad's approach is a practical one. You are essentially relying on an expert to make the determination in advance for you on a title that you are interested in. That will work but will carry a cost premium of some sort which may or may not matter depending on the individual.

Groove damage is common and harder to spot reliably perhaps than other types of defects, like scratches, etc., but it can be done.

I typically buy a dozen or more used lps at a time when I find them, often for $1.00 or less. Its like picking out fruit at the market. If you are good at it, most of the time you can weed out the defective or damaged ones.

Many of these are titles I have never heard or heard of before that I am willing to try in the interest of new discoveries. Having been collecting for years, most titles that I really care about I probably already own. Inexpensive used lps are a very cost effective way to trow new waters musically, I find, especially if you are open minded to music recorded years ago, which is when vinyl was king.

I've probably acquired a couple hundred used lps over the last year this way and I would estimate less than 6 were unlistenable. 80% or more sounded very good or better (once cleaned).

Identifying good sounding lps is both an art and a science and can be very hit or miss though. But the audio rewards can be great, even if a few bad apples make it through inspection.