How to Judge an LP

I won't go into detail, since Twl has it covered, but I have found many, many LPs in thrift shops. Some play perfectly and some are trashed. I am often surprised to find that the one that looks the best on visual inspection is noiser than the one with all the scuffs and dust. I also frequently find new, sealed LPs in the bins with the old. What you find might depend on your musical interests. I have found classical LPs to be in generally in better condition than rock. Broadway shows are the worst of all--at least in my area.

One thing that I've found is that if you clean your LPs by hand (Disk Doctor) they will sometime have a fair amount of background noise on the first play, but will quiet down after another play or two.

Pbb, I find it highly unlikely that I am not aware of exactly how prevalent these defects are, and exactly how objectionable they are. I have owned more used records than most people have ever even seen. I have played used records for most of my life. I buy and sell and trade used records, and have done so for 30 years. I am acutely aware of the entire used record market, and probably forgot more than most people will ever know about records, their conditions, rarity, value, and usage. During my lifetime, I have probably bought, sold or traded, over 250,000 records. I have had personal record collections of over 20,000 records at a single time, and the majority were bought used. I am not the biggest record collecter around, but I certainly have more than enough experience to know about the "prevalence" of vinyl defects in used records.

I am also aware that there are some who cannot, or will not use records or analog gear. Fine. That's more records for me. I know just what to do with them.

Lugnut:
I haven't even said a disparaging word, and I am tempted
to take your offer. I'm in Washington State.

Jeff,

I'm just outside Boise. Send me an email if you like. I'll not require you to eat your words. ;>)

I can certainly understand PBBs hesitation about purchasing used LPs. Just the idea of a rock slamming around a soft plastic groove trying to replicate wavelengths that approach light itself is enough to make some go running from the room. But my practical experience is quite otherwise. I believe that one reason is that modern stylus shapes ride in a different portion of the groove due to their small overall shapes with greater width. The Kenner Plug 'N Play along with it's BSR kissin' cousins rode very high in the groove and caused damage in a different area than the modern rig mines. Sure there are scratches, warps, gunk and all the rest, but I find most of the used records that I buy, and my collection is over 2500, to be anywhere from acceptable to quite good. There is a higher level of transient noise on LPs than CD; that's just a given. I find that, when the record player is correctly set-up, most of this noise takes place in a different plane than the music and is easier for my perceptual gating mechanisms to tune out. With much digital media the distortion is within the fabric of the music and though lower in absolute terms may be harder to take, at least for some.