Is it possible to have a quiet vinyl records


Hi, I am new to vinyl. I own VPI prime and ortofon quintet black cartridge. For the record cleaning I use record doctor V, brushes and proper sleeves. As much as I am impressed with the sound quality, I am also very disappointed that many records sound bad with very laud background noise. I read some reviews which point out that some turn tables with some cartridges are super quiet, but does it only happen with the best pressed records and most others will still make lots of pops and background noise. It there a a good method to truly enjoy quiet vinyl music or its something I have to get used to. Thank you.
kkonrad

Showing 3 responses by whart

Certain cartridge and phono stage combinations tend to exacerbate the problem- I don’t know the Ortofon, so others will have to weigh in- I have the Allnic 3000 which I’ve been using for about 5 years and have run Lyras and then Airtight cartridges. No clicks and pops (unless the record is damaged- i buy and play mostly older copies). A good cleaning regime can take care of a lot of the snap ,crackle and pop, so long as it isn’t damage to the vinyl. So, perhaps there is something you can improve in your cleaning methods- I have found a rinse step to be essential, others may not.
PS: cartridge set up is also critical. Can’t help you there, no experience with VPI arms. But you might go back through your set up procedure step by step and see if that helps.
You shouldn’t have that many noisy records. I buy quite a bit- say 15 records a week? Many old copies, some new. Sure, the older ones could have been abused (I try to limit myself to M- grading, but that’s no assurance) and occasionally I’ll get a new pressing that is defective. But, leaving aside the ones I reject or return (a relatively small fraction), the vast majority play fine- no clicks, no groove noise.
Ralph @Atmasphere wrote recently in another thread about how phono preamps can oscillate in a way that emphasizes noise. I thought you said you had the Allnic 1201 but I may be misremembering. What phono stage? If decent, I’d focus on the cartridge itself--what do others who own that cartridge say? Set-up- I can set my arm/cartridge well or really, really well if I take the time, so that’s worth revisiting. And the cleaning? If you have a new record that appears clean, try it without wet cleaning -something I don’t usually advocate- see how it plays, then do your cleaning and see if it is worse. That could tell you if something in your cleaning process is causing the problem--
Kind of hard to diagnose stuff remotely, but I’m sure others can weigh in on the Ortofon/VPI set up, on which I have no insight.
Punchline: records aren’t that noisy, click or pop ridden unless abused or badly pressed. You should not have to suffer this- it is NOT part of the vinyl experience for those of us who have worked through it (and you don’t have to be a genius to do this-- it’s partly isolating the problem and then rectifying it). Records can play clean, quiet and without the annoyances of clicks and pops you describe. Static is another potential gremlin. Do the records seem charged when you remove them from your cleaning machine or unsleeve them? FWIW, I quit dry brushing records b/c I’ve found the brushes ineffective, shed and can actually impart a charge (though they claim to be ’anti-static’).
@dgw4tube makes a good point about keeping the stylus clean. I use a cheap 10x jeweler’s loupe which is enough to see if there is crud on the stylus- i dry brush the stylus after each side, just to be sure and do a deeper clean of the stylus periodically.
I clean a record thoroughly, and resleeve it in my preferred aftermarket sleeve (keeping the original inner). I also use a thick HDPE outer jacket ’bag,’ so I’m not sliding the resleeved record back into the jacket, but instead between the jacket and the original inner- like a sandwich. This reduces the amount of friction in pulling a record from the jacket.

Once my records are cleaned and resleeved, they are not static-charged.

I play records and handle them in bare feet (shoes and socks, particularly on carpet create a charge).
Humidity is also a factor- in the winter, with central heating, the relative humidity goes down, making static more likely. What part of the country/world are you located in?
Lot’s of little things - I’m sure others have their own methods.
Many rely on a Zerostat to neutralize the charge on the record. I’ve owned several of them over the course of more than 40 years, but seldom need to use it.
PS: I see that you are using the Zerostat- is the record ’neutral’ before you put it on the platter? I wonder why spinning it causes a charge if it was discharged before you placed it on the platter and played it. Shoes/socks/carpet?