New Vinyl Defects

thanks for the input guys - I'm feeling better.

regarding some of the "provisional" points made above - a little background:

My turntable is a Pink Triangle Anniversary with a OL Modded Rega arm. I believe it's well tuned - most of the LP's I play are stunning - better than CDs on my Meridian 508.24 CD player.

I have a VPI 16.5 RCM and have have been buying used LP's by the armful during the last 2 months especially, but also during the last 2 years sporadically. I also had a collection of about 400 LPs I bought in the 70's. The defective albums were cleaned - but no use. Most of the used LP's I've bought cleaned up and sound great, except of course those that I don't really expect to be "pop free" (ie cheap/worn LPs I bought cause I wanted them cheap. net-net - I'm having good luck with used LPs and expect most of my purchases will be used . . . just thought it'd be nice to pick up some new ones too - especially those not available used.

thanks again for all the input, it sounds like my experience isn't that unusual, and I realize a sample of 4 isn't a statistically valid sample to project 50% defects from.

I plan to return the 2 defectives, and will post how it goes back here. By the way, the 2 in question are 1) Johnny Cash "American V: A Hundred Highways" 180gm on Lost Highway Records; and 2) Lambchop "Damaged" on Merge Records. The Lambchop record is bizarre - on side one the grooves are cut off-center by about 1/4". How can that happen, I wonder?? Both are excellent. I cleaned both before playing them. I cleaned the Johnny Cash album a second time and listened to it again this morning on my second system. Same results on track one, so I think we can rule out equipment as the source.

Albert - your point on phono stage is interesting, and I didn't realize that the phono stage could introduce this kind of noise. I'm using a Lehman Black Cube SE into a Musical Fidelity NuVista preamp on one system (Cartridge at present is a Benz Glider LO. On the other system I'm using the internal phono stage of my TAD 150 signature. The table is a Pink Triangle Original, Audioquest PT6 arm, and a Grado Sonota cartridge. Should I be concerned here? I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate.

Finally, the emphasis on setup is well taken, and while I assumed I got it right, but I suspect if I'm honest I probably haven't taken as much care as I should. I'll probably give it anither go on both tables.

HDM - thanks for the clarification - that makes sense.

Update: Well, the seller replaced my defective LP, and the new one is better, in that it doesn't have the label adhesive on the vinyl. The problem is side 1 is off-center exactly like the first one. I'm going to keep this one as it costs me too much to send it back and I expect they're all that way. This is a Lambchop LP - "Damaged", and you get a free download of the CD from the record company, so I'll get/burn a CD and see how much different side 1 sounds. As for the Johnny Cash LP, the seller reminded me that I bought a second, that was advertided as such, and he didn't have any more of them. I had forgotten about that and agreed that it's unfair to expect replacement. In addition, the defect in the LP is minor, on one track only, and I'll tolerate it.

all and all, At least I feel I got a fair deal.

Groovey - actually this is all the same vendor (ie seller). I bought a batch of LP's all brand new, sealed. They were just that. One of the LP's (Lambchop) is the one that has given me the biggest problem. The problem is with the manufacturer, not the seller. Side one is pressed out of round on both copies I received - causing an oscilation noticable on sustained notes. The first copy I received also had smears of what I believe was adhesive from the label. Another LP I bought was advertised as a 2nd, having a damaged cover. The cover was actually not bad. One track has some noise inherent to the pressing. The seller didn't have another copy so I kept this one.