Tips on Buying Quiet Quality sounding LP's

For used lps, inspection by a trained eye is the best tool.

With experience, you can train your eyes to quickly inspect vinyl and determine the condition. Most vintage records that appear to be in good physical condition should be reasonably quiet and play properly, once properly cleaned.

Sometimes the trick is to be able able to distinguish a dirty record from one in good physical condition otherwise via visual inspection. It can be done reliably in most cases, but requires experience to train the eye on what to look for.

Also remember that the majority of lps exhibit some surface noise during playback and that this is normal. Its just part of the medium. lps can be near dead quiet under ideal conditions but seldom are in practice. If you want dead quiet background noise levels, that is a strength of digital, not vinyl.

For me, the greatest pleasure of vinyl these days is to pick up old lps that most no longer want for a pittance, clean them and then enjoy the quality sound often offered. With used lps, price is not an indicator of sound quality in many cases. You can pick up many fantastic sounding vintage titles from the golden age of vinyl for next to nothing at flea markets, yard sales, etc. these days.

Tvad's approach is a practical one. You are essentially relying on an expert to make the determination in advance for you on a title that you are interested in. That will work but will carry a cost premium of some sort which may or may not matter depending on the individual.

Groove damage is common and harder to spot reliably perhaps than other types of defects, like scratches, etc., but it can be done.

I typically buy a dozen or more used lps at a time when I find them, often for $1.00 or less. Its like picking out fruit at the market. If you are good at it, most of the time you can weed out the defective or damaged ones.

Many of these are titles I have never heard or heard of before that I am willing to try in the interest of new discoveries. Having been collecting for years, most titles that I really care about I probably already own. Inexpensive used lps are a very cost effective way to trow new waters musically, I find, especially if you are open minded to music recorded years ago, which is when vinyl was king.

I've probably acquired a couple hundred used lps over the last year this way and I would estimate less than 6 were unlistenable. 80% or more sounded very good or better (once cleaned).

Identifying good sounding lps is both an art and a science and can be very hit or miss though. But the audio rewards can be great, even if a few bad apples make it through inspection.

"So Mapman...what do you look for to determine good physical condition?."

Good question. I'll try to relate:

1) obvious scratches or other physical defects like warping or off center cutting (not so much dirt on the surface, which can be removed via cleaning in most cases). Sometimes, what looks like a scratch is only a linear dirt pattern or other surface deposit, which is less audible and can be removed via cleaning if needed. You have to inspect closely in order to determine if it is a scratch that has physically impacted the grooves or not, or to what extent.

2) visible groove modulation/quality (this can be hard to determine reliably with the naked eye, but generally grooves cut with more visible modulation will deliver better dynamics). I will sometimes buy a low cost record in good shape otherwise just for this even if the artist or material is unknown or not relevant to me at the time.

3) sheen/surface texture (specular reflection). Many better sounding records that are not worn tend to reflect light more specularly (like a mirror) than those that are worn, which reflect light more diffusely. If you can detect minute rainbow color patterns in the closer spaced grooves, then that is often an indicator of good groove quality and high frequency modulation that delivers crisp performance at higher frequencies.

Elizabeth,

I think I know what your saying about the Telefunken label and there may be other "less shiny" makes.

Would you say that given a reference Telefunken in good shape for comparison, one in lesser condition still might still be determined based on how it reflects light in comparison to the reference?

BTW, there are certain labels, like Telefunken and many of the commonly mentioned usual suspects, that I associate with high quality recordings in general. In these cases, I will often relax my recording quality standards for visual inspection that I apply in general more in that there is likely greater potential benefit to start with.

I concur with Dougdeacon. USed classical multi-volume boxed sets are usually golden and very cost effective. I snatch them up whenever I find them for pennies a disc.

One other thing. I will take a chance with an unknown seller on ebay for a hard to find lp I really want up to about $10 or so.

I would not drop more than that on most any lp unless it came certified from a reputable dealer.

Visual inspection works best for shopping a modern used lp bargain basement for cheap vinyl that has a high chance of sounding good. You can be assured to get a lot (I mean a LOT) of good new sound in your system this way (if you are willing to spend time cleaning lps properly as needed first) for the same price as many audiophiles spend on a single arbitrary cable upgrade.

The only thing I'd add to Doug's very nice description is that most people over 40 (a lot of people with large record collections these days) or so cannot hear the very high frequency on records anymore (above 12-14 khz or so I believe) in that we all lose that ability to some extent as our ears age. So the ear increasingly becomes a less reliable tool for determining the absolute quality of a record. if you do not believe me, play a test tone record or CD or do some other equivalent test of ability to hear different frequencies and see (hear) for yourself.

The good news is if you can't hear it, it may not matter if a record is in 100% perfect condition anymore. It will still likely sound very good!

I am 50 and have the same test record I had when I was 19 and it has only been played a few times since.

My system is totally different now than then, but way better in most every regard (I think).

At 19, I recall being able to hear everything up to the 20Khz test tone.

Last I tried about a year ago, I could only detect up to about 14khz or so as I recall. Absolutely nothing above that!

However, I am enjoying music on my system more than ever these days and I know my current system is leaps and bounds beyond what I had then.

So whether a blessing or a curse it is what it is?

There is an IMAX film on the human body that illustrates what happens to most all inside our ears over time in large screen high res format. Its analogous to what was described above regarding what the diamond stylus and dirt does to that plastic record. Is that ironic or what? Maybe there truly is a GOd that helps keep man's affairs, including vinyl listening parameters, in order!