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Will and Unplayed Record, Sealed, have many Crackles and Pops

J

JDN1

Active Member
I have an album I bought off of ebay that was advertised as sealed. The seller had 9 so it seems like he got his hands on some new old stock. The record is slightly warped, which is to be expected of a sealed record from 1990.

I suspect it's not factory sealed for a few reasons. I'm just curious, how many crackles and pops are usually expected from an unplayed record of this age, seemingly well stored? Obviously needle and cartridge and setup make a difference, but what's to be expected? The vinyl does look unplayed mint, but I do hear a fair amount of crackles and pops. at lest a few per song. technics 1800 with AT120E cartridge with AT140lc needle.
 
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I have found that sealed records are not exempt from pops and crackles. I have purchased a few and still not been blown away by some. It's just the nature of the beast I'm afraid.
 
According to MFSL web site their vinyl will have some pops and clicks. They say a high quality stylus will eliminate some of these by polishing the grooves.
 
It often depends on your cartridge and stylus. In the 1970s when audiophiles (more like audioFOOLS) kept insisting on lower and lower tracking weights, their problems with pops and clicks got worse. What was happening was that micro dust particles in the grooves which were pushed aside at higher tracking weights, were being "played" by the ultralight trackers. A friend who had an ADC XLM and tracked it at 1/2 gram (never mind the mistracking that plagued his record-playing) was bombarded with a steady stream of noise from the very same records that played quietly on my Decca London Gold at 2 grams.

That said, however, records can vary in that kind of surface noise from one to the next. This week I got a new old-stock, sealed Columbia classical set of two stereo LPs. One was noticeably more clicky and ticky than the other one.
 
G'day mate, that's a very interesting post, thank you. :yes: Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
I have run across quite a few brand new 180 gram remasters with surface noise even after cleaning. I don't remember that being a problem back in the 80's when I bought most of my vinyl, and most of the records I bought back then still play silent.

Kinda sucks when you are paying $15 to $30 a record.
 
I don't buy many new records, but the ones that I have purchased and played without cleaning all had some noise. That pretty much went away after a good cleaning.
 
beatcomber said:
Just because a record is NOS, doesn't mean it was pressed on quality vinyl material.
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I agree with this. Some pressings just aren't made well. I've run into several resealed records over the past year. I knew of one record dealer who had a shrink wrap machine and would repackage some of his records. I called him out on it and he innocently said he only did it to protect the record (while he asked a much higher price). Examine the record carefully. See if saw cuts and close out hole punches are through the shrink or under it. Look along the seam edges and see if there is any wear there. As in any business, there are con artists out there.
 
bobsvinyl said:
I agree with this. Some pressings just aren't made well. I've run into several resealed records over the past year. I knew of one record dealer who had a shrink wrap machine and would repackage some of his records. I called him out on it and he innocently said he only did it to protect the record (while he asked a much higher price). Examine the record carefully. See if saw cuts and close out hole punches are through the shrink or under it. Look along the seam edges and see if there is any wear there. As in any business, there are con artists out there.
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I must admit that the record store I worked at in the '80s did that. Sometimes a new release would come in and we wanted to hear it. After we were done, we'd re-seal it and put it back out at full price. I'm not too proud of that now.
 
Sadly some new LPs are noisy. As suggested, a good cleaning may help. Different carts may also effect it. My Shure M55s are very forgiving. Guess I have been lucky, most of my "new" purchases have been fine. Only my Ellissa Keys LP has some distortion on it.

Eric
 
I don't buy NEW records anymore, had TOO many bad experiences. The ones I get from the thrifts are in Better condition and play without a problem, some do need to be cleaned though. Then they sound great! The difference in price too, .99cent compared to $15-$20 plus shipping in some cases.:thmbsp:

Thanks,
John.:music::D
 
jleon92f said:
I don't buy NEW records anymore, had TOO many bad experiences. The ones I get from the thrifts are in Better condition and play without a problem, some do need to be cleaned though. Then they sound great! The difference in price too, .99cent compared to $15-$20 plus shipping in some cases.:thmbsp:

Thanks,
John.:music::D
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:thmbsp:
 
Before playing any new or NOS records I always clean them with my RCM. I actually follow this procedure before playing every single record.
 
Sad to say, the higher prices for new vinyl releases doesn't always guarantee quality defect free pressings. Even the better labels have had there share of defective vinyl.

What makes it worse, is the "non-returnable" new vinyl policy, that the labels enforce on retailers and distributors. This policy could possibly have a negative affect on the growth of new vinyl sales in the long run.

I know of a few retail stores that actually don't take returns on defective new vinyl. At least Amazon is great on returns.....Now if they can only improve their packing, so the item arrives unscathed in the first place. We'd all be happy!
 
Back when records were all there was, truly quiet and high quality pressings were still the minority. I probably returned 5-10% of all the records I bought due to warps or noise problems.
 
I know I keep beating this dead horse, but sometimes the problem lay with the master lacquer cut/metal plating work, making noise and the pops and clicks "built-in" and not a flaw of the pressing per se. If you have a disc that no amount of cleaning can tame or quiet, that may be the reason.
 
beatcomber said:
Just because a record is NOS, doesn't mean it was pressed on quality vinyl material.
Click to expand...

QFT. I purchased the vinyl release of Silversun Pickup's Carnavas when it came out and it's pretty much unplayable. There is quite a bit of surface noise but the worst part is that it's stamped off-center. You can see the tonearm moving in and out about a quarter of an inch by the end of the record (which of course sounds just lovely :thumbsdn:).
 
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