Vinyl Musings

[floppybootstomp]

I currently have 156 vinyl albums at home, I will transfer more from my lockup probably but 156 tis but a fraction of the vinyl that has passed through my hands.

I'm a little miffed to note that the majority of them jump, 39 years of doing a disco has taken it's toll on my albums' well being.

They mostly jumped using the Nagaoka MP11 cartridge tracking at 2 grams. I recalled that when I'd recorded some of these albums to digital form using a Shure 35C cartridge they did not jump.

So today I bought a stock headshell for my Hitachi HT-350 DD turntable from Maplins and fitted a Shure 35C cartridge to it. Recommended tracking weight for this cartridge is 4 - 5 grams so I set it up on me Bib Balance scale thingy at 4.5 grams.

And guess what? So far none of the albums have jumped except one short jump at the beginning of `Low' by David Bowie.

So it would appear most of my vinyl is quite knackered. Still sounds good though.

I wonder how a Denon 103 MC cartridge might fare.

Spoke to one of my three daughters today on the phone and told her about my return to vinyl. She said she thought it was really strange to think that I'd used vinyl at discos for all those years and put forward the view that vinyl was too fragile a medium to use mobile. She's 21 years old, btw.

I told her that my worst fear when setting up for a booking was a sprung floor when intensive dancing could cause the vinyl to jump all over the show. Many memories of that mad part of the evening of holding the turntable plinth up from it's suspension to stop jumping.

CD's, when they arrived, did actually come as a big relief to me doing discos - no jumping! Yay!

DTB has given me his old home made heavy plinth in which sits a GL75. I need to service it. He has also loaned me a Decca Arm - a `Unipivot' I think - which I can buy off him if I like it. Cool beanz.

To fit the arm I need a spacer which Philip (pre65) has kindly made for me and I also need to file out the original arm mounting hole for two reasons:

1) The hole needs to be bigger to take the arm.
2) The new hole needs it's centre offset by 2mm to attain the ideal 213 pivot to spindle length for the Decca arm.

I have carefully measured things and have scribed a line on the base plate to file to.

Before I start filing I will of course remove all mechanical parts that iron filings could interfere with.

This is all actually quite enjoyable with a rather good end target in sight.

It has also occurred to me to start buying vinyl again. Quite odd, that, after abandoning vinyl some years ago and viewing my own vinyl collection as virtually worthless.

In Greenwich there are 2 shops selling vinyl and to my mind they're taking the piss with their prices but I may be wrong. Avergae price for a 2nd hand platter is £8, £12 and £20.

A copy of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffitti which looked to be in superb condition was going for £20.00. A fair price?

I noticed a copy of a Turtles album going for £7.00 which I may well go back and buy. The Turtles were two guys, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan who sang with Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention after they finished making pop music as The Turtles.

`Live at The Filmore '71' and `Just Another Band From LA' feature them so The Turtles album could be interesting. I do love obscure and kitsch stuff like that.

I think boot sales, friends and charity shops are going to be the sources plus of course official new releases which seem to be priced quite fairly.

So that's my vinyl musings.

I will say this, I am absolutely loving the big cardboard sleeves, especially the gatefold ones, they are so much more more desirable than poxy little CD covers.

Hard to put into words but I'm sure all you fellas know what I'm talking about.

[stevieg]

My one and only dj gig was via laptop and datastick - brilliant.
But it's horses for courses - I bought Can - Soundtracks today on vinyl which is way better the SACD on my system

Yes people are extracting the Michael on vinyl prices. My local Oxfam in Leeds student land is way over the top, nothing less than a tenner. Some new vinyl is also stupidly expensive i.e. more than £20. I guess the collapse in cd sales has the majors scrambling for cash.

Clean your records. Most of what you are complaining about is probably tobacco residue.

Also don't forget, how do you skin up on a mp3 file? That's what has the young people of today baffled.

[floppybootstomp]

Also don't forget, how do you skin up on a mp3 file? That's what has the young people of today baffled.

Quite so good sir, quite so.

And thanks for replying.

Sometimes I just get an odd urge to waffle in forums.

Then feel something of an imbecile when not even three men and a dog reply.

Oh well.

Sometimes I forget I'm amongst folk who only deal with extremely high end audio (which doesn't, of course, equate to expensive audio) and me prattling on about my distinctly amateurish setup must cause at least some bemusement and at most annoyance.

So in future I think I'll shut up

Clean my records.

So how do you do that then Ted?

[pre65]

[quote="floppybootstomp"]
So in future I think I'll shut up


No Tony, you just keep it up mate.

[Mike H]

A copy of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffitti which looked to be in superb condition was going for £20.00. A fair price?

Probably!

When the Nagaoka was jumping, was it forwards or backwards?

.

[stevieg]

Clean records? Plenty on t'web on this, mostly obsessive - just not with wire wool, eh?

High end is what makes you high, so enjoy the music not the equipment. All our gear is rubbish compared with Michael Fremer's (look him up for a laugh - it's not that he's wrong, exactly, but he's so extreme).

It's good to have musings on audio/hifi, rather than endless upgrade treadmilling.

I'm off to hear Radio Celia DJ at a pub tonight - which will be way more fun than obsessing over azimuth and VTA, because the music will be fun and interesting, and me and my mate can have friendly arguments about it.

[Dave the bass]

So it would appear most of my vinyl is quite knackered. Still sounds good though.

I wonder how a Denon 103 MC cartridge might fare.

I think the reason there's not many replies Tone is that you haven't asked a question I think Also as you've guessed a lot of fella's here have been through the same so I'll pass on what I've picked up

Re- yer disco discs... if they're knackeredededed then they're knackeredededed, no cartridge can put back the wear on the groove sidewalls or replace the dings and scratches BUT.......... a jolly good clean up can restore some of the dirty records and charity shop fare/eBay indulgences. A DL103 (like other good quality carts) can only play whats actually there in the groove, if there's wear and crud... you're gonna hear it, with a good cartridge possibly even more so.

I haven't got a 'proper' record washer (though I intend to make one, natch..) like this -> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Moth-RCM-PRO-II-V ... 3ca983c929 but I've always looked after my records, even before getting back into HiFi.

I've had good results with a dry carbon fibre brush to remove loose dust and crud like this -> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carbon-Fibre-Anti ... 5190a563ba and if there's any need for a further clean up i use a few squirts of this -> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AM-Record-Cleaner ... 19b8bdc7f9 on this -> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Milty-Pro-Super-E ... 439c9dc0e4 and always wipe the crud off the brush after yer done otherwise you just end up transferring lumps of crap from one disc to another!

Its also worth bearing in mind not all vinyl is created equal. There are some super low noise pressing out there but they'll only remain low noise lovelies if you put them away in nice anti static sleeves. I've got some LP's that have more background noise than others, it's just the quality of the vinyl can vary hugely from pressing plant to pressing plant plus also different labels at different eras had 'high points' and 'low points' wrt to the quality of their vinyl o/p, hence one of the reasons 1st pressing copies of Lp's on some labels like Island/Decca/EMI etc can go for big bucks. Prices can be shocking but at other times if you shop around you can pick up the good stuff, just keep 'em peeled and look after what you've got.

There's a lot to setting up a TT to get the best from it, thankfully alignment protractors and pootars (to print off said protractors) can make the job a lot easier. It's not easy, it's fiddly, it's time consuming but lordy lord... when you get it right it's awethumn. I've never heard vinyl sound so good until I heard what some of the fella's here have done with various DD and Idler driven TT's in various plinths using Unipivots and knitting needles. it's that kind of dedication to the cause that enable you to get the best out of vinyl unless you can afford someone else to build summat tasty for you. I can't, so I build and learn about setting up and aligning properly/accurately.

FWIW not everything on vinyl sounds better than CD (IMHO) butttttttttttt I happen to like vinyl, I can't put my finger on why but I listen for hours and hours and hours and hours to it. There's a lot going against it IE- its scratches easily, quality varies a LOT, expensive isn't always good (see Hot rats thread), channel separation and dynamic range is far inferior to CD/Digital BUT I get a lot of enjoyment from it (as you've no doubt picked up on) and happen to think it's worthwhile perusing the art if the wibble wobble groove. I don't know why but i hear things differently and what i hear (when the TT is set up right) makes me smile and I get lost inside music as other formats don't.

Anyway, stop reading this and get back to filing that top plate

HTH,

DTB

[Mike H]

that Moth thing is like a vacuum cleaner?

FWIW I've got one o' them anti-static brush thingies, have long been in the habit that afore I plonk the needle on and while the platter's spinnin' give it a quick whisk while it's going round. Amazing how much crap comes off sometimes and it's been stored "clean"

Plus I have a little toothbrush lookalike thing to tickle the stylus with as well every time it comes off at the end.

It's like a ritual

.

[Graeme]

Rega actually say in their TT manual that they dont recomend any kind of wet cleaning at all, and that you shouldnt even brush the dust off as the stylus will brush it away for you.

[Dave the bass]

Rega actually say in their TT manual that they dont recomend any kind of wet cleaning at all, and that you shouldnt even brush the dust off as the stylus will brush it away for you.

Pfftttt...

Rega still think you need bearings in tonearms.... pffttt (again!)

DTB

[Graeme]

And that VTA is completely irelevant!

[Mike H]

And which explains why you have to keep shovelling washers under it


OK I exaggerate ~ two. (well, in my case)

.

[floppybootstomp]

Nagaoka jumping backwards or forwards? A good point (I think ) forwards I suppose otherwise it would be permanently stuck in a jump, er, wouldn't it?

DTB, thanks for all those links I'm gonna get me some of that stuff, starting with the £5 brush I think.

Thanks also for the info but I am largely familiar with the quirks of vinyl, having purchased my first platter around 1961 and continuing to use it until around the mid nineties. But I do apreciate your advice, thank you

In fact I recall the first 'real' hi-fi I bought, or what I considered it to be at the time, was a Rotel 10 watt per channel receiver; Pioneer PL12D turntable fitted with a Shure 75EJ cartridge and a pair of Wharfedale Denton loudspeakers.

I can remember thinking it sounded superb at the time and the very first record I played on it was Led Zeppelin's 'Presence' which on reflection was probably not a very good choice at all, I consider 'Presence' to be about the only lacklustre album Zep ever made.

I later added a pair of Koss Pro4A headphones to the setup which sounded great but were way too expensive really and eventually the damn things just fell apart.

But on those headphones I first heard the Sex Pistols 'Never Mind The Bollocks' and was totally blown away. Happy Daze

I bought the Turtles album yesterday, the one I mentioned in the first post and I love it. It's so bad it's great It's on The Philips label. Last night was playing all me Only Ones albums, that were good.

At the same time as I purchased The Turtles Greatest Hits I bought The Yes Album for 4 quid. Mistake. It's warped slightly at the beginning and middle track side one, an accoustic guitar number 'The Clap' sounds as if something has been spilt on it, gives a swish swish noise. Bugger. Oh well, guess buying used vinyl is something of a lottery. It doesn't jump though.

I'm going to wait until the arm spacer arrives before starting work on the GL75 then I will dissasemble ready for filing and servicing.

Groovy

[Dave the bass]

I'm going to wait until the arm spacer arrives before starting work on the GL75 then I will dissasemble ready for filing and servicing.

Groovy

Its in the post to you as we speak, you should get it tomorrow. Phil gave me the letter to post on Satdee.

Have you found the 'how to service the motor and bearings threads' on Lenco Heaven yet?

Well worth reading up on. Easy to do too.

DTB

[colin.hepburn]

[quote="floppybootstomp"]I currently have 156 vinyl albums at home, I will transfer more from my lockup probably but 156 tis but a fraction of the vinyl that has passed through my hands.

I'm a little miffed to note that the majority of them jump, 39 years of doing a disco has taken it's toll on my albums' well being.

Ha Yes I never used my Vinyl Album when I was doing Disco I just played the 45s and tape Bounce dance floors remember them well too those were the day A