Tips on Buying Quiet Quality sounding LP's

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.

"So Mapman...what do you look for to determine good physical condition?."

Good question. I'll try to relate:

1) obvious scratches or other physical defects like warping or off center cutting (not so much dirt on the surface, which can be removed via cleaning in most cases). Sometimes, what looks like a scratch is only a linear dirt pattern or other surface deposit, which is less audible and can be removed via cleaning if needed. You have to inspect closely in order to determine if it is a scratch that has physically impacted the grooves or not, or to what extent.

2) visible groove modulation/quality (this can be hard to determine reliably with the naked eye, but generally grooves cut with more visible modulation will deliver better dynamics). I will sometimes buy a low cost record in good shape otherwise just for this even if the artist or material is unknown or not relevant to me at the time.

3) sheen/surface texture (specular reflection). Many better sounding records that are not worn tend to reflect light more specularly (like a mirror) than those that are worn, which reflect light more diffusely. If you can detect minute rainbow color patterns in the closer spaced grooves, then that is often an indicator of good groove quality and high frequency modulation that delivers crisp performance at higher frequencies.

Elizabeth,

I think I know what your saying about the Telefunken label and there may be other "less shiny" makes.

Would you say that given a reference Telefunken in good shape for comparison, one in lesser condition still might still be determined based on how it reflects light in comparison to the reference?

BTW, there are certain labels, like Telefunken and many of the commonly mentioned usual suspects, that I associate with high quality recordings in general. In these cases, I will often relax my recording quality standards for visual inspection that I apply in general more in that there is likely greater potential benefit to start with.