Thanks very much for all of you advice gents. I would like to convey some updates with regard to cleaning, record quality and general flavor that I appreciate from records. The biggest chunk of my commentary is in the realm of cleaning. There are a few questions herein, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
I managed to find a discwasher pad, and use this before each play. I have also found that a large/soft paint brush works quite well in soapy water. I rinse the records with tap water initially, then Reverse Osmosis water. I then leave them against the kitchen counter backsplash to dry. I also purchased a soft horse hair brush for my vacuum cleaner. All of these things seem to work fairly well, but I am not certain the vacuum cleaner has much impact. I have tried a few records, and there are some strange and inconsistent artifacts.
I have noticed there are some very loud POPPING sounds, on some records in some tracks. In other records, there is barely any noise. All of these records were purchased at the local Salvation Army store. More specifically I notice the following...
Amy Grant recording - a visibly tattered vinyl surface, and somewhat noisy. The recording quality is decent, but the very large frequency of mechanical noise makes this vinyl not usable.
Michael W. Smith, The Big Picture - A VERY clean vinyl surface with VERY little noise after cleaning. Unfortunately the recording quality is quite poor and therefore this record is not listenable.
Dallas Holm, Praise (previously mentioned) - A visibly clean vinyl surface with infrequent, but LOUD pops after cleaning. And, strangely, the pops on the 1st track are 95% in the right channel. I thought I had a system problem in my right channel before trying the other LPs. This recording remains my favorite, and the overall quality is excellent.
Eventually I will get into some decent and very high quality classical music on vinyl, but that really isn't my goal. I want to find decent recordings of the music that I deeply enjoy. There is a plethora of older contemporary Christian music that I enjoyed until I found these CD recordings of a very poor quality.
Okay, my first question....
*** Is there variability recoding the LOUD pops on recordings and is it possible these recordings. Do some recordings have them embedded in the vinyl?
And, my second question....
*** Where do you gents purchase records online? I found this place
http://www.nifty-music.com/niftymusic/default.aspI think it will be a while before purchase another needle. I believe the current needle has the potential to perform very nicely. My next purchase will probably be a phono preamp with some switching. This way I'll be able to hook up a truly great amplifier into my basement system.
Overall, I continue to be very pleased with the sound of vinyl
. I do think it has potential - especially with those slightly older recordings from my younger years. My only true complaint is that 1 side of a record is only about 20 minutes. And, my record player doesn't automatically restart.
Leave in a new dish rack to air dry.
Great tip!
Go to the drug store, and buy two of the brushes that are used to clean under finger nails.
Hmmmm, this makes me curious. I bet that may common brushes have bristles that a are too large to fit into the groove.
Thanks again for all of your help and insight gents.
Great Tip!!
