@cleeds Anything that would be audiophile grade, just pulled D2D out of the air at random. It's just that you notice crud more on superior recordings. Chances are good if you have a better than average deck the stylus is probably much smaller than the previous owner was using so it reaches much deeper in the groove where the old crud is and it gets raked up. This isn't every used LP but it does happen time to time.
Second hand vinyl surface damage.
Most analogue enthusiasts enjoy perusing and buying second hand vinyl. I was doing so this week, and picked out four LP`s that I wanted to add to my collection, but only after carefully inspecting their surfaces. Naturally a delicate item such as an LP undergoes `ageing`, a thirty plus year old desirable will not have escaped some surface damage. There are occasionally long and short deeper scratches, and more often clusters of light hairline scratches. If you want it you will have to put up with the result of said surface damage, so what do members consider damage enough to regretfully put the LP back on the shelf?
Showing 4 responses by russashe
If this has already been noted sorry for the repeat. If you are buying an LP that had one or two blockbuster hits check those tracks to see if they look more worn than the rest. If you see this you are probably looking at a record that was purchased new by someone who knew little and cared less about record care and preservation. They probably also used a table/arm/cart combo that caused excessive wear and groove noise every play. This can the worst defect of some used records and one of the hardest to detect visually. So if you find a mostly pristine looking first edition Led Zep but Stairway to Heaven looks noticeably duller or different in any way from the remainder drop it fast. Sorry that this doesn't help online buyers. |
@cleeds Just found this. Author does a decent job of explainig record surfaces and cleaning issues. Worth a look. https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/for-audiophiles/record-cleaning/ |