Living with popping and crackling

Oy veh! 4yanx beat me to it.

If you don't believe it Todd, I'll lend you the two Classic Records and one Speakers Corner I dared to play a few times without cleaning them first. These were ripped-open-the-plastic-myself brand spankin' new. The first couple of plays were pretty quiet but the ole snap, crackle and pop got a little worse each time. Maybe 6 plays each at most. I figured no harm, I'll wash them when I get my RCM.

No dice. The mold release chemicals or whatever else the manufacturer left ON that vinyl is now IN that vinyl, ground in by the stylus. Multiple cleanings on my Loricraft stopped the damage from getting any worse, but nothing will undo it. $100 worth of records are toast.

Be warned or be sorry. Better yet, read the thread I referenced above. I may be crazy, but 95 or so other crazies posted various versions of the same idea (4yanx was about the craziest of them all BTW!)

Crazy like a , well, like a crazy person! :-)

come on now. I never said I didn't believe it, I'm an analog newbie myself.

Surface noise is a fact of life for vinyl. In the last decade before consumer digital media became available many kinds of hardware were developed to address the issue: dynamic noise filters (Carver Autocorrellator) pop and click eliminators (actually digital devices), and DBX noise reduction (similar to Dolby processing for tape recorders, and the only really successful approach). Distortion, dynamic range, and most other deficiencies were overcome by the best equipment, but surface noise just became more and more objectionable as other faults were corrected.

Some audiophiles can "listen through" the noise. Some say spending $30,000 or more on phono playback equipment will solve the problem. (After spending such money, who would admit a mistake!) Others simply deny surface noise exists. Unless you are one of these folk, concentrate on a good digital system.

Oy, revisited.