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LP condition obsession, am I the only one who does not care?

My records have all of the interactive/visceral elements you describe. The only difference is that mine are in (much) better condition.
 
jrtrent said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "going to the record store and playing regardless of the record condition," but it sounds like you're talking about putting up with used albums that are far from mint. Now the OP may well do that, I know I do, but my take on the original post was that this was about enjoying records you had damaged yourself, and hearing the defects in an album is actually a pleasant reminder of good times with friends, or whatever event or accident took place when this particular piece of vinyl became less than pristine.

The original post, in part, said:

"I have LP records that go back to the late 60s when myself, my sister and my brother began purchasing them. One album, circa 1970 I had just found at a record store and was so excited I did not bungee it fully down on my Honda CL350 Scrambler in a hurry and I tore out to my friend's house to play it on his dad's system (a huge console) and the album came off, flew across the road, tumbled end to end several times and then got ran over. Well, it still plays to this day but it is not minty, it has surface noise and the almighty forbid but the cover is a little scuffed shall I say.

What brings this up is that I have many, many records from the day and they are not mint or even close because they got used and transported to parties and played over and over and even got run over. . . I do not care if it pops and cracks, as long as it does not skip it is good to go. I quite enjoy the pops and cracks because I often remember the cause of the defect fondly."

Edit: The OP has just weighed in, and while he seems to be back-tracking a bit from his original post, which he says was "meant to be a little over the top," I still take what I quoted from him above at face value and can say I relate fully. I've got some damaged albums that I have no intention of replacing because the defects are part of the value to me.
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I agree.

Both parties tended to hyperbolize (a little over the top) in order to make their point. Sometimes we do this.

3-Crow just shared with me offline, that there's "more than one dimension" to the listening experience.


Nuff said.

Q
 
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Yeah, I care about condition of my LPs, both owned and when purchasing.
But, I also care a great deal for my time and my monetary funds...

I really can not afford to be OCD over condition or even care, of my records. I barely get time enough to listen to ONE album a week, if I was overly concerned with cleaning regiments etc. I'd get NO time to actually enjoy the discs.

Now, give me more time and more funds... I could get 26-shades of nuts over my records.. and probably, happily so.

Ben
 
I've seen no one in this thread who seems to be overly concerned or OCD about their records. Just some who don't take any care, and some who take varying degrees of care.
 
polypetalous said:
Yeah, I care about condition of my LPs, both owned and when purchasing.
But, I also care a great deal for my time and my monetary funds...

I really can not afford to be OCD over condition or even care, of my records. I barely get time enough to listen to ONE album a week, if I was overly concerned with cleaning regiments etc. I'd get NO time to actually enjoy the discs.

Now, give me more time and more funds... I could get 26-shades of nuts over my records.. and probably, happily so.
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Going nuts over record care is certainly one more way people can engage in the hobby!

About 36 years ago I read and followed the suggestions made by Linn about record care. Basically, you just take the record out of its sleeve, being careful not to get your skin oil (or chicken grease!) on the playing surface, play the record, then put it back in its sleeve. Linn said that light surface dust on a record can be ignored, and any that collects on the stylus shank during play can be quickly and easily brushed away. I'm in the habit of giving my stylus a couple swipes with a dry brush provided by Sumiko at the end of each side whether I see dust or not. Records I bought new and treated this way continue to play great after decades of use.

Used records are another matter because I don't know what's been done to them before I bought them. After gumming up my stylus a couple times with who knows what was in the grooves of some used records I bought, I decided to get a Nitty Gritty record cleaner. Once cleaned, I treat the used records the same as the ones I bought new. For any record, if I fumble it a bit when getting it in or out of its sleeve and get my fingers on the playing surface, or for albums I've loaned out to friends, I give it another clean with the Nitty Gritty; otherwise, playing records is simply putting it on the turntable, playing it, and putting it away.

My condolences on only being able to play one album per week! I'm fortunate to have time to enjoy multiple albums just about every day.
 
Some of mine are pristine. Many are not. I love them all. I have a basic cleaning system - from England, mate. I use it often. In another thread, I mentioned giving away many of my legacy LPs in 1995, including most of my brother's, who is now gone. I regret losing them, but I've replaced 90% of them. Use the good stuff, now. Have you ever been to an estate sale and seen new things, still in the box? Go ahead - live. Play them. Take care of them. Gonna be quite a sale when I'm gone. :bigok:
 
I have found that if I pick up a used record with too much surface noise, scratches, etc I will just donate it to the thrift store (or return it if I bought it at a record shop). The older I get the less patience I have for poor quality LP’s. But......I also don’t go crazy with cleaning them. I clean them, put them in a quality sleeve, and move on. I certainly don’t worry about various concoctions of cleaning fluids and all that.

In contrast to my youth when I blew the cigarette ashes off the record before tossing it on the turntable? Yea, I guess I’ve taken it up a level.
 
If I purchase a new record or a used record sold to me as VG(+) and I play it for the first time, well, I do not put on gloves, but I do listen to it carefully. And the result is that I do not enjoy it as an experience in the same way as when I grab an old friend out of the crates and play it mostly as background while I work in my adjacent basement shop. I just do not hear the clicks or pops. And I often enjoy that incidental/casual experience more, when I get to a favorite cut or a particular section I may go and sit at the turntable and listen in a more involved way, not to be critical of the source, but just to appreciate the music. And certainly in that case, excessive source noise can be distracting to the more involved listening experience. But I ain't throwing them away!
 
Here's my cleaning system. It's the cut off ends of two electric meters, with o rings super glued into grooves I cut. I also super glued sealing washers to both sides. I used a 1/4 20 flange bolt and a wing nut to clamp the label and keep it dry. When I get a really dirty album, I put these on it, run a sink full of warm water, a few drops of lemon fresh joy, a splash of rubbing alcohol, and wash it down with a microfiber cloth. a cold rinse followed by drying with microfiber. works like a dream
UXbxtX6.jpg
 
lokerola said:
I have found that if I pick up a used record with too much surface noise, scratches, etc I will just donate it to the thrift store (or return it if I bought it at a record shop). The older I get the less patience I have for poor quality LP’s. But......I also don’t go crazy with cleaning them. I clean them, put them in a quality sleeve, and move on. I certainly don’t worry about various concoctions of cleaning fluids and all that.

In contrast to my youth when I blew the cigarette ashes off the record before tossing it on the turntable? Yea, I guess I’ve taken it up a level.
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Ya might want to digitize before donating. You can eliminate noise and pops and the product can be placed in iTunes for convenient play. I used to do that but now I just download from Apple Music the tunes which I have on LP that snap, crackle, and pop.
 
I have only just started to care about the quality of my records, and that is only for the ones that are rare or newly bought. Pre covid, I did some deep underground vinyl italo house and disco DJ sets and those records needed to not pop or hiss, though no one cared about my super beat up but really hard to find (and poorly made) Chicago Trax records cause the songs are so good the background noise doesn't matter. So, as my small effort to take better care of my records, I just recently invested in a brush (the back of my shirt worked so well for years) :) But, after years of tossing my records around and hauling crates to clubs where they get beer spilled on them or, worse, cigarette burns, it seems silly to care about them now. So, I only take care enough to not destroy my stylus, and only take effort not to damage the new or rare ones in a way that would cause hiss, pop, or scratch. But as far as gloves, that is very silly to me. If you know how to handle them, you can put your full hand on your best records, move them back and forth on the turntable (if you've got the correct stylus), and not cause any damage. But, ya, I've probably got 5,000 records that have been dragged through hell, and 500 to 1,000 that I care enough about to be careful with. But I listen to them all with equal enjoyment. I would say, if the vinyl is well produced and in good condition, work to keep it that way. But if it was poorly made in the first place, or damaged already, no need to stress about care. Vinyl is very durable. Grand Master flash claims he has only gone through about 30 copies of Incredible Bongo Band despite nearly 50 years of grinding the needle down deep into the groves and scratching and drawing with crayon on that record.
 
As I grow older, coupled with a pandemic, I am trying to obsess less and enjoy more.
I care for my records as I always have (50 years). Records in good condition get a Discwasher pass before playing.
And I am enjoying my systems as they are.

Plus, I am trying not to panic when I read something on AK, that I should have doped a speaker, changed a cap, checked a voltage, etc.
Working out great!
 
3-Crows said:
If I purchase a new record or a used record sold to me as VG(+) and I play it for the first time, well, I do not put on gloves, but I do listen to it carefully. And the result is that I do not enjoy it as an experience in the same way as when I grab an old friend out of the crates and play it mostly as background while I work in my adjacent basement shop. I just do not hear the clicks or pops. And I often enjoy that incidental/casual experience more, when I get to a favorite cut or a particular section I may go and sit at the turntable and listen in a more involved way, not to be critical of the source, but just to appreciate the music. And certainly in that case, excessive source noise can be distracting to the more involved listening experience. But I ain't throwing them away!
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Congratulations on taking such a strong stance against all those who recommended that you throw them away. Oh, wait...no one made such a recommendation.

Do as you like, enjoy in any way you choose. And don't disparage others for doing the same.
 
jrtrent said:
Going nuts over record care is certainly one more way people can engage in the hobby!

About 36 years ago I read and followed the suggestions made by Linn about record care. Basically, you just take the record out of its sleeve, being careful not to get your skin oil (or chicken grease!) on the playing surface, play the record, then put it back in its sleeve. Linn said that light surface dust on a record can be ignored, and any that collects on the stylus shank during play can be quickly and easily brushed away. I'm in the habit of giving my stylus a couple swipes with a dry brush provided by Sumiko at the end of each side whether I see dust or not. Records I bought new and treated this way continue to play great after decades of use.

Used records are another matter because I don't know what's been done to them before I bought them. After gumming up my stylus a couple times with who knows what was in the grooves of some used records I bought, I decided to get a Nitty Gritty record cleaner. Once cleaned, I treat the used records the same as the ones I bought new. For any record, if I fumble it a bit when getting it in or out of its sleeve and get my fingers on the playing surface, or for albums I've loaned out to friends, I give it another clean with the Nitty Gritty; otherwise, playing records is simply putting it on the turntable, playing it, and putting it away.

My condolences on only being able to play one album per week! I'm fortunate to have time to enjoy multiple albums just about every day.
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Yeah, I hate losing the 5 seconds it takes to use a Discwasher on an album before I play it...and the 5 minutes it takes to deep clean it ONE TIME. Not to mention all that time lost handling it by its edges rather than grabbing the grooved portion. And oh my sweet Lord...the time lost occasionally cleaning the stylus.
 
spark1 said:
Congratulations on taking such a strong stance against all those who recommended that you throw them away. Oh, wait...no one made such a recommendation.

Do as you like, enjoy in any way you choose. And don't disparage others for doing the same.
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This thread was not meant to be a serious and offensive thread. The statement was in regards many videos, websites and lore that I have read over the years even pre www, not any specific person, to include yourself, on this fine forum. I just bought a nice ultrasonic unit. I bought it to clean SCUBA equipment, UW photo gear and motorcycle parts but I think I can also rig it to clean records, of course, not at the same time as a motorcycle carburetor! Cleaning will not remove scratches and as I said, if the record plays through, I can listen through and past. Most of my records are in good shape and I are my siblings bought them in the day, quite a few are not VG but play nicely and nicely is subjective. I kind of draw the line at skips and that level of defect. The white glove teasing, and it is kidding, is in reference to us older folks who used LPs as a primary medium and transported the records in all manner and sometimes not so carefully much less the abuse they often got at parties. This discussion is certainly not worth getting folks in a fuss, peace, it is all good, let's stay light hearted and good natured and friends.
 
JoeESP9 said:
You do realize what you're suggesting is illegal? It's likely no one will ever come after you for it. However, that doesn't change the illegality.
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With all due respect, I don't imagine that many here are too concerned with that. In the age of cassette tape I dubbed many albums and even then I realized that there were legal issues with doing so... but I didn't care and don't remember knowing of a single person who didn't tape for that reason...
 
Although it's fairly certain many posters here do exactly what you suggested, we (yes I'm one also) don't usually publicly admit to it.:)
 
JoeESP9 said:
Although it's fairly certain many posters here do exactly what you suggested, we (yes I'm one also) don't usually publicly admit to it.:)
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My taping days are long over so that even if I were likely to face some heat for it, I have no doubt that the statute of limitations would guarantee my freedom...
 
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