2. analog
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New vinyl's noisy little secret

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the current crop of vinyl formulations just have higher noise levels than LPs made years ago. A case in point--I stumbled upon an old, original copy of Henry Mancini's 1962 soundtrack to the movie "Hatari" in my collection a few days ago (I had never even played it), and was astonished at its deathly quiet playback. Simply no surface noise. What gives? OK, you may make fun of this black-label RCA pressing (LSP-2559) for its content musically (though it's actually pretty fun), but it sure reminded me what we are missing with new releases--super high quality vinyl with very low surface noise. Even the occasional mechanical clicks from scratches seemed subdued. Most of my (expensive!) new vinyl comes replete with very onerous surface noise. Is it just impossible to make this old-generation type of vinyl currently?
kipdent

Showing 2 responses by dan_ed

dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
I don't know. The releases I'm getting from Music Matters play very nicely. I do, however, clean new vinyl always. Premiere, steam, AIVS.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Larry,

My experiences and memories (those still with me) tell me that I spent a good amount of time taking LPs back to swap for a non-defective copy. That was pretty normal for the shops I remember, and I think it also targeted me as a potential future customer from those that also sold nice gear. I guess it just seems about the same on average to me. If anything, I'm more worried that I am getting less picky. :-)
My cleaning techniques are much better now.
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