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Can You Live With Crackling & Popping Noise?

I just got my first turntable, a Rega P5 and not sure whether I'm supposed to be delighted or otherwise. When I put on my first record, there was intermittent popping, hissing and crackling noise at low to moderate volume levels. Having lived with digital for half of my life, I find this to be somewhat annoying. For a while I was feeling disappointed and pondering whether I would end up selling this thing. After a while I thought what the heck, since I had got this thing home I might as well turn up the volume and enjoy the music. I started to crank it up to reasonably high levels and all the hissing, crackling and popping noise began to drown and disappear into the background music. Somehow the annoyance turned to musical bliss, well almost.

My question, especially for those who own high-end turntables, can you live with all the crackling and popping noise? I reckon all these noises will be quite noticeable especially when playing some clean vocals with minimum background music? What actually cause all these noises? Is the noise caused by dust sticking on the surface of the record assuming the record is in good condition? Is there any way these crackling and popping noises can be reduced or eliminated completely by cleaning the records?

The manual states as follows:-

"Don't worry about visible dust on the record surface, this is brushed aside by the stylus and any that collects on the stylus can be easily blown away. In general, record cleaning is overdone and one should not believe all the claims made by record cleaner manufacturers."

Does this mean that cleaning records is pointless? If that is the case how do we get rid of the crackling noise in the event the dust and fine particles are the ones that are causing these noises? Is there any easy solution to clean the records by ourselves?

For any newbie who wants to take the turntable route, I would urge you to reconsider your options particularly if you have minimal tolerance towards popping and crackling noises. Even all my good old cassette collection that ended up in the rubbish bin years ago didn't exhibit all these popping and crackling noises.

If all these noises do not exist in records then analog is really the one to beat.

Thank you for your patience.
ryder

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,074 posts
 
One way that is not obvious to reduce ticks and pops is to use a tube phono section that uses passive RIAA equalization. Transistor units will often over-react to ticks and pops as most of them use loop feedback for the EQ. Loop feedback enhances ticks and pops!

Another thing to be certain about is that the cartridge is properly loaded! If not loaded correctly, it will **emphasize** ticks and pops. Correctly loaded you will get full bandwidth and no tonal anomalies, plus the ticks and pops will recede more to the background.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,074 posts
 
I don't mind a few ticks and pops- they tend to exist in the speaker for the most part. The artifacts of digital tend to exist in the music itself. Fortunately digital has gotten a lot better over the years. The advent of 88.2KHz 24 bit recording equipment has really helped, but I still prefer the vinyl. Side by side it is simply more natural.

I rarely have to do any cleaning- only if a particular LP seems to need attention. I find that a tone arm/cartridge setup that can really track the LP without any breakup is also helpful- far less ticks and pops!

If I have a scratch- that is my own fault. I don't fault the medium for that anymore than I do if the surface condition of a CD affects its play-ability.
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