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When Playing a record with alot of surface noise?

John Hukill

John Hukill

Active Member
When playing a record with alot of surface noise,but with no skipping,would it be better to track with lower tracking weight or heavier weight?Right now I'm playing a record that has alot surface noise,and I have the tracking force set just below 1.0,it seems to sound a little better.I normally have it set between 2.0 and 2.5.

The turntable is a Micro Seiki DD-40 with a MX-505 tonearm and a Shure M3d Cartridge.

Thanks for any advice and insight...:thmbsp:
 
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noisy grooves

I heard someone refer to a noisy record as in need of the 25 cent solution.
The method used was to put 5 nickles on the headshell and use an old really strong cartridge to run the record once to knock off all the old scrunge that would not come up by cleaning.
My choice for cart. is an old shure M7 which has a really sturdy stylus.
Then the 5 nickles and I have even twisted the cart a few degrees to one side the do the same thing the other way. I only play the record once.
I had an old beggars banquet I found that was not listenable due to the dirt. I used the 25 cent method and now can at least listen reasonably well.

Paul
 
You will have to play around with it, as every cart is a little different. You might want to check out the cleaning albums with wood glue thread this could help your album with surface noise.
 
spartanmanor said:
You will have to play around with it, as every cart is a little different. You might want to check out the cleaning albums with wood glue thread this could help your album with surface noise.
Click to expand...

SaSi said:
I think it's time to break out the wood glue...

Just my 2 nickels...
Click to expand...

I have a spin clean and also a Nitty Gritty 1.5 record cleaning machine.
If those two do not work,I thinks time to find a better copy...:D

The first album I played did pretty good at a low tracking weight.
I tried a second album that was worse looking than the first one,and it was all over the place no matter what I set the tracking force at!Probably groove damage...:thmbsp:
 
pdm4606 said:
I heard someone refer to a noisy record as in need of the 25 cent solution.
The method used was to put 5 nickles on the headshell and use an old really strong cartridge to run the record once to knock off all the old scrunge that would not come up by cleaning.
My choice for cart. is an old shure M7 which has a really sturdy stylus.
Then the 5 nickles and I have even twisted the cart a few degrees to one side the do the same thing the other way. I only play the record once.
I had an old beggars banquet I found that was not listenable due to the dirt. I used the 25 cent method and now can at least listen reasonably well.

Paul
Click to expand...

This sounds insane. Do not do this. Is it a joke, I wonder.
 
When playing a record with a lot of surface noise the best thing to do is to "record" it and "gift" it to our elite Table aficionados as a reminder that the TT is a still creature of "friction" and "resistance"! lol

cnh2
 
Different stylus may help as well. As the different shapes and sizes may get around more of the damage. Otherwise a better copy may need to be found.
 
I agree that a different stylus, particularly one with a different shape, may help. No guarantees, though.

With surface noise, is it clicks and pops or just low-level noise? Some vinyl just has a high noise floor, not much can be done about it, due to the recording itself; a different disk won't fix that, unfortunately.

If you're going to record the disk, one old trick is to wet-play it. Lots of people say it's not good for it, or it's a one-time deal which ruins the disk forever after that, and some say it makes your cartridge rust. Whatever. I've done it from time to time without ill effects that I could tell, but I don't do it much. Most disks that far gone are too far gone for me to want to keep listening to anyway; but if I'm desperate, I'll do it.

I presume of course that you've already cleaned the disc before all of this. I scrub my thrift store gems in the kitchen sink with dish soap and paint pads and it works very well for me. YMMV.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
I agree that a different stylus, particularly one with a different shape, may help. No guarantees, though.

With surface noise, is it clicks and pops or just low-level noise? Some vinyl just has a high noise floor, not much can be done about it, due to the recording itself; a different disk won't fix that, unfortunately.

If you're going to record the disk, one old trick is to wet-play it. Lots of people say it's not good for it, or it's a one-time deal which ruins the disk forever after that, and some say it makes your cartridge rust. Whatever. I've done it from time to time without ill effects that I could tell, but I don't do it much. Most disks that far gone are too far gone for me to want to keep listening to anyway; but if I'm desperate, I'll do it.

I presume of course that you've already cleaned the disc before all of this. I scrub my thrift store gems in the kitchen sink with dish soap and paint pads and it works very well for me. YMMV.
Click to expand...

Yea,I clean the crap out of them.I think it's just vinyl that has been abused.
One of those albums you get that looks like hell on the surface,no real deep scratches,just a ton of lite ones that hindrance the sound...

I wonder if those tons of lite scratches hurt the stylus?
 
I too have a Japanese record, worth $35 if good, that has a lot of surface noise...but looks brand spanking new. Can't quite figure that one out.

I'll have to wash it good one of these days and see if that helps. If not, I guess the former owner had one bad stylis, or something.

Sounds like it was buried in the ground or something.
 
John Hukill said:
When playing a record with alot of surface noise,but with no skipping,would it be better to track with lower tracking weight or heavier weight?Right now I'm playing a record that has alot surface noise,and I have the tracking force set just below 1.0,it seems to sound a little better.I normally have it set between 2.0 and 2.5.

The turntable is a Micro Seiki DD-40 with a MX-505 tonearm and a Shure M3d Cartridge.

Thanks for any advice and insight...:thmbsp:
Click to expand...

Nice TT! I don't know anything about the Shure, but if the noise floor improves by lowering VTF, then VTA may be your problem. Assuming Shure recommends tracking higher than 1 gram VTF with that stylus.
A improved stylus profile (shibata, line contact, etc) would likely help too, it sure did on my rigs.
 
Get yourself an SAE Impulse Noise Reducer. I have two (models 5000 and 5000A), and they do a good of suppressing pops and clicks.
 
jimreeves said:
Nice TT! I don't know anything about the Shure, but if the noise floor improves by lowering VTF, then VTA may be your problem. Assuming Shure recommends tracking higher than 1 gram VTF with that stylus.
A improved stylus profile (shibata, line contact, etc) would likely help too, it sure did on my rigs.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir...A guy I know sold me the TT a while back.It was missing the counterweight,the elevator lift and the dustcover.I was able to replace the elevator lift from a nice guy that's a AK member.The counter weight was a different story,I couldn't find one anywhere.I did have a couple of offers but more than I can afford.Another poster here on AK gave me the correct weight and dimensions for the counterweight.A guy that I work with,his dad made me a perfect duplicate...His dad works in a machine shop!

I have a grand total of $85 in it,that includes a new stylus for a Signet cart that came with it...:D
 
Possible that the record was owned by someone who did the 25 cent trick?
I don't know near what most the other AK members here do about TT but I have found that my cartridges that have the LT stylus seem to be much quieter than my other ones, and they sound very detailed as well, maybe its just the way they ride in the groove I don't know.
 
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