Question about background noise

The silence between tracks on records is highly variable. It can be anything from near dead silent to white noise or even sometimes a whooshing kind of sound. It can be different even between tracks on the same side of a pressing. Its nothing to do with cleaning or equipment, its just normal variations in the cutting process. Not sure if that covers it, hard to tell from your post if you're even talking about this or phono stage noise so if you want more it will help to know about what exactly.

millercarbon

The silence between tracks on records is highly variable ... Its nothing to do with cleaning or equipment, its just normal variations in the cutting process.

Many things can contribute to noise on an LP, including dirt and a worn or improperly aligned stylus. To claim that it's the result of  "normal variations in the cutting process" is absurd.

@simao,

You did not mention any changes other than your introducing (new to you) components. Assuming you’ve listened to these lps previously, but are only now hearing this issue.....I’d say it’s the increased resolution of your newer components that are allowing you to discover the faults on your lps?

The noise, or lack of noise, between cuts on an LP reveals any other source of noise other than the music, at the particular gain setting of the phono stage. Could be on the vinyl, could be the signal to noise ratio of your particular phono stage at that particular gain setting, could be due to any extraneous sources of noise in your system, like EMI and RFI. One thing I know: if I hear no inter-cut noise at my listening position, I am happy. If I hear "something", I try to think it through to determine what might be happening. Usually in those cases, I decide it’s nothing I can easily fix.

One phenomenon that could be operative in the OP's case is "bleed through".  This apparently can happen with masters made from tape or right on the LP, where the upcoming groove is heard through the groove being played.  I don't quite get the mechanism of the latter, but I do hear "pre-groove echo" on the odd occasion.  That is musical though.  I suppose it's even possible that electronic noise laid down in the studio is heard in between cuts.

@lewm ,

I thought of "bleed through" but the way the OP described his experience seemed to take that out of the equation.

cleeds- PMS?

cleeds writes:

Many things can contribute to noise on an LP, including dirt and a worn or improperly aligned stylus.

Q: Do any of these ever result in the "hollow sound" described?

A: No. 

And yet anyone who has listened to a lot of LPs, even really nicely cleaned ones on beautifully set up rigs, knows they aren't all dead quiet and in fact some do have some pretty odd sounding backgrounds. Which are not dirt, are not alignment, are not anything but in the pressing. Which at the very least means it is not absurd to consider.

My guess is you will find this one a little harder to take OTR.
(Off The Record. What did you think it meant?)

I think the increased fidelity of the Simaudio might be more revealing than the Lehmann I was using before. It's also a case of the particular LP, too. Some of my rock lps have little to no background hollowness; it's the acoustic recordings and the folk or jazz ones with a huge range of dynamics that have this srtifact

Who's response was deleted?

Play more records and listen for the same artifact. 

There is no such thing as an entirely silent background with vinyl only variations in not so quiet. This is mostly due to the quality of the vinyl with contributions from stylus shape and frequency response. If you want black back grounds stick with digital. High Res preferred. Some vinyl will sound better in spite of the noise. Since when have you ever been to a silent concert?

I sort of disagree; you can have a very black background during vinyl reproduction, when all the stars align properly.  This is not to say there is NO noise.  This is to say that the signal to noise ratio of the system from front to back can be such that you hear silence at the listening position.  I admit this condition is not attained with every LP, only a few of the best.
Digital is indeed very quiet, but the trouble with digital is that as the signal voltage drops, you lose resolution, so Redbook CDs lack downward dynamic range; some of the extreme low level info is lost.  (Probably this problem is ameliorated with hi-rez downloads, but I haven't dabbled in that medium.)

I have a few original recordings from Julie London, Ketty Lester et al and you can easily hear tape hiss stopping and starting between tracks and takes. This would often be removed when remastered.

slaw"Who's response was deleted?"

It was an inquiry and tender expression  from millercarbon of caring and concern for the menstrual flow complication user "cleeds" suffers here with his regular, repeated, consistent expressions that reflect this problem but the politically correct elite who believe in Free Speech for themselves but not for others deleted the query about the PMS syndrome.

@mijostyn -- It's not a matter of wanting silence; it's just curiosity about what was causing the noise/hollowness on some LP's but not on others.

Lewm6 to me a black background is No Noise. I have some discs that are extremely quiet but not black. Good digital systems run the digital at max gain then adjust the volume on the analog side so that you always have full resolution. My system does that so that CDs copied to the hard drive are always run full tilt. The computer usually sounds better than a CD player. As to whether or not high res sounds better depends greatly on the master. If the dynamic compression used is the same as on the CD then it is hard to hear a difference. But, with out much compression....WOW. Drums in particular. Stuff like Stravinsky's Firebird jump out of the speakers. It is not that expensive to get into either. If you have a USB input on your DAC you are in business. Apple Mini, Hard drive and Pure Music. Done

Simao excuse me for not answering your question. Any sound you hear is coming from the vinyl. There are varying qualities of vinyl. Many record companies recycle the vinyl and it always picks up impurities along the way but Virgin vinyl is more expensive. If you want to hear virgin vinyl pick up any Analog Productions record. Another source of noise in the vinyl besides contaminated vinyl is the lathe used to cut the master. I have several Rhino 180 gm audiophile quality discs that have rumble on them. I thought my turntable was going bad. Not. The lathe was bad. Stay away from Rhino records. I have several records with hum on them from the lathe's electronics.  I think I know the noise you are talking about and it is just bad vinyl. For fun check the maker on the records you hear the noise on and see if they are coming from one source like the rumbley Rhino records. Let us know so we can avoid them.