Wonder why pbb's first post did not clear the censors?
One of his passions is coming to the analog forum and bashing.
Well pops and most surface noise are only dirt that you are hearing, This can be cleaned to eliminate almost all of the noise. If you have a tick from a scratch this is something you cannot fix. A good analog rig will be a lot quieter than a low budget turntable with a mm cartridge.
I have records that I have played hundreds of times and they still sound great. Santanas first LP for instance on the Columbia 360 first edition, this LP is still the reference in all formats. As are many lp's. After many plays and 30 plus years they still kick the crap out of any cd version.
The only area where cd beats LP's in signal to noise but IMHO the analog signal is superior and I don't here any noise. Aside from maybe the odd pop from dirt or release agent. I cannot find it to offensive because I rarely clean my LP's and then only by hand. I really need a vacuum LP cleaning machine, and some of Pauls cleaning solutions, for some of those old rare lp's I got off ebay. This will actually make my all LP's sound better.
To answer you?'
Ok, we all know pops, ticks and surface noise are signs of record wear. But does it affect the music itself???? Are the highs dampened???? Is the overall volume lowered?? Dynamic range????
NO
What affects the sound is if you badly mistrack an LP with a bad turntable this will wear the record and you will find that the high's become distorted after many plays.
In this day and age bad turntables are dinosaurs, any modern turntable will play lp's with-out wear, unless your stylus becomes damaged, but you will be able to tell because it will sound like crap from the start.
Hope this helps you out. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Peace
Ron
