[analognut]

I recently had Sota install their top of the line platter on my Star, and also had an upgraded bearing installed.

I am delighted with the improved sound. On most records I can hear no wow in the music. Yaaaay!

But I've noticed there are some LPs which sound like they have wow in them. The problem is that I'm not talking about the ones which are obviously stamped off-center. I have a few which appear to be centered, but yet there is hearable wow in the music.

Anyone know what's going on here? Or are my ears deceiving me? I've played the 3150Hz test track from a test record, and the wow on my table is extremely low, basically unhearable on the test record.

[Wayner]

Sometimes the noise is from a warp or even from the master plate that the record was pressed on. The "wow" you hear is from the stylus contact area changing. I'd say if you can't see any warp and your tonearm appears to just float on the grooves nicely, it's in the recording.

Wayner 

[analognut]

Hi Wayner-

10/4 must be in the recording, but why & how? Were the record companies so careless that they pressed some of their production masters off-center, even though my copy from that master may be centered properly?

I've got one LP: Melissa Manchester/ Greatest Hits in which the last song of side 1 and the 1st song of side 2 have really bad wow, and the rest of the material sounds fine! I wonder if the record label was so careless they compiled those 2 tracks from off-center masters? Just don't make no sense to me! 

After being stored vertically for around 25 years most of the warps in my vinyl straightened out, and what didn't is sucked down to the vacuum platter. In short, every side I play is perfectly flat.

[Wayner]

I have bought 3 copies of Peter Gabriel's Plays Live and the same noise (at the beginning) is on all 3 copies. That tells me that there was some kind of flaw at that particular press, with the plating. I also have another LP (can't remember which one right now) that the cutting engineer decided the volume was too low and did a sudden increase. It wasn't subtle, he did it like right now.

The thing that really gets me is the off-center pressing. Can't the press operator tell that "something wrong"? Of course it usually is a favorite album of mine, like The Cars, Heartbeat City. Side 2 is off-center, so I get to watch my tonearm go back and forth.

Wayner 

[royphil345]

Just print a free strobe disc and find out for sure...

http://www.extremephono.com/free_turntable_strobe_disk.htm

You'll get the most accurate look at what's going on (if anything) if you put the strobe disc on top of a record while it's playing.

[analognut]

royphil345:
A 3150Hz test tone on a test record will reveal wow in your table that the strobe has a hard time showing. But I use both anyway. I always have a strobe under my reflex clamp and speed is stable. So it appears some LPs which are stamped on-center have the wow built-in for your listening enjoyment. 

[royphil345]

royphil345:
A 3150Hz test tone on a test record will reveal wow in your table that the strobe has a hard time showing. But I use both anyway. I always have a strobe under my reflex clamp and speed is stable. So it appears some LPs which are stamped on-center have the wow built-in for your listening enjoyment. 

That's good. I didn't know the test tone was more revealing... have no experience with test records.  I'm glad it wasn't the work you had done. I guess I have noticed a bit of wow on a couple albums that looked like the hole was centered now that you mention it... Fortunately, not a problem with most of my LPs.