Evidence of groove damage of TT setup?

Many vinyl pressings have distortions due to cutting head overload or bad vinyl formula... for example, a record with loud passage distortions may not have that problem on the same title pressed in a different country... an import from England, Germany, Japan or Holland all sound just a little different and may sound better than a u.s. pressing with the distortion.

>>Fatparrot is entirely correct about much older vinyl, especially rock albums<<

That might be a generalization but many of us were very careful back in the old days. For that reason those same records sound even better today due to the extremely high level of contemporary vinyl playback equipment.

Pawlowski,

Here's a foolproof test to determine whether any particular stretch of groove is damaged, flawed or dirty - or not:

1. With the system powered up but the TT motor off, cue the stylus down just before one of the offending passages.

2. Move the platter slowly (always forward!) by hand. The music will make a low frequency growl.

3. If the vinyl has pressing flaws, was damaged by prior abuse or is grundged up with dirt you'll hear it very clearly.

At this slow speed no stylus will mistrack, so if you hear non-musical artifacts you'll know it's something on the record.

Best,
Doug

Doug; I've never encountered that advice before - and I don't get to say that too often - but, look forward to trying it!!

Audiofeil,

I'm guessing I haven't run across too many of YOUR old LPs in the thrift stores... :-)

Dougdeacon,

I tried your slow rotation test on a record that certainly sounds pretty damaged at 33 rpm, and then again on a known clean and undamaged disc, but the "non-musical artifacts" weren't really obvious to me on the damaged record. Can you describe in more detail what you hear using this method?

David