Interesting Article

Hello Peter,
One point, in my first post, is that distortion is embedded in the music during the molding process which creates the record. I don't think a piece of airborn dust can cause the tremendous POP heard on the (virtually new) Hendrix album.
Also, no record cleaning device can remove it.
I think the people who knew how to create a clean stamper either died or retired thirty years ago.
As well-intentioned as technicians today might be, there is no substitute for 40 years of experience doing one thing.

I keep a turntable for music that will never be released on digital. How many times I've approached listening rapture only to take a knee in my aural groin by "CLICK", "POP", "SHHHHHHH-FITZ", etc..

I'm waiting for digital nirvana and it may be close...

Czarivey is right. The implication is that something is not right with your setup. True we do have filters but these only operate within reason. I often check the noise levels during silent passages on popular & classical discs listening for nothing but the noise and it invariably proves unintrusive.

Not to cause offence, ironically, the worst T/T demo I've ever heard was the VPI Classic (!!) It was a fully tricked up model with peripheral clamp, JMW Memorial etc. with a Transfiguration cart.
The Dealer had pre-cleaned 2 albums 4 times each and the result was the most nightmarish surface-noise-from-Hell experience you've ever witnessed. Persistent and continuous, the bangs & cracks were LOUD! You couldn't ignore or filter them any more than if someone was slapping your ear every half-second.

Prior to the demo they'd tried 2 other brand new pressings. Again, each had been cleaned 4 times on a VPI 17.5 to no avail.
There were a lot of people in the room and every one of them, being analogue enthusiasts, maintained a dignified composure but you could feel the discomfort at the embarrassing severity of the problem. If you had been a digital enthusiast this would have been the worst possible introduction to analogue.
While all this was going on, privately I longed to be playing bashed up 2nd hand (noiseless) vinyl back home on my own system. Trashy old 2nd hand LPs sounded like a shining beacon of demonstration-quality audio compared with this stuff.
That was 2 hrs of my life that I'll never get back. :(

Contrast this with my most recent experience of new vinyl. An album sealed and stored in a cupboard for nearly 2 years, probably saturated with MRA, played straight from the bag without cleaning but displayed noiseless and "inky black" backgrounds throughout (paying attention, not "filtering", and checking these factors was the specific object of the experiment BTW because I expected to have to clean it).
Peaks also tracked perfectly ;^)
My 40+ year old (uncleaned) vinyl gives the same experience.
What am I doing wrong?

It is a fact that poorly designed or optimised phono stages can exaggerate/stretch the duration of noise pulses from the vinyl. So can turntables under the wrong conditions. Static in a low humidity environment can also be a factor whether you use a zerostat or not.
My comments are not intended as a rebuke or a defence of analogue playback but more an expression of disbelief. :(

BTW Dweller, you mentioned problems with new vinyl specifically and that people don't know how to make LPs anymore? I should warn you that certain LPs that have expressed/exuded a surfeit of MRA will sound exactly the way that you described. It may not be the embedded problem that you think it is?
If the MRA is then successfully removed using a power cleanser you will be treated to a 100% silent disc...that tracks properly on peaks.

Just a thought....

Terryb - thanks for the article. Provides interesting insight into the vinyl mftg. process. AND the real differences between vinyl today vs from "back in the day".

There is no venue where music does not have some kind ambient noise except for Digital music. To me it is too clean and unnatural. I do listen to digital music, the scale and depth is getting better with hires. Vinyl is preferred, it does have issues but sounds more natural.