From Che Sent Sat, Oct 24th 1998, 23:26
From Che Sent Sat, Oct 24th 1998, 23:26
At 01:19 PM 10/21/98 -0400, xx wrote: >> a question from the relative vinyl newbie that i am (child of the cd era): how >> many times can i expect to play through a record, given relatively good care, >> before i'll start to hear any actual degradation in the sound? > >depends largely on your turntable, your speakers, your ears, etc...a really >good turntable with a nice cartridge will cause less degradation than a cheap >consumer one. and degradation is more noticeable with higher quality speakers. >some records that i've had since '95 or '96 and played fairly often (like >afx's "hab" for one) are noticeably duller than new ones...but that's analog >media for you... If you have one of those laser pickup turtables, there is no wear, but those are very hard to come by. Adjustment of the tonearm angle & weight are important too. The DJ practice of taping pennies to the cartridge is a no no. It also depends on how often you play it. Vinyl has "memory", in other words, the friction of the needle heats it up, so if you play it again in less than 24 hours, it will stretch out, which I believe destroys the smaller high frequency ridges in the groove. Temperature is also a factor. The lifespan of a record in shrinkwrap in the backseat of a car in Arizona in summer is very short indeed. Keep them in a cool dry basement & never play them & they'll probably last for hundreds of years. My policy is, play once to get rid of the tiny bubbles in the vinyl, wait, play it again to record it to harddisk for noise removal, then sell the damn thing when its value peaks. Those that are familiar w/ my views on vinyl will be shocked to know I have about 12 linear feet of the stuff in my basement. Che