Static? - Record spotless

 

New member
Username: Tyqre

Post Number: 5
Registered: Aug-12
I bought a 45rpm vinyl on ebay and the record looks completely spotless, i mean it looks brand new. Even so, it has a fair ammount of static while playing it? What could be the cause of this?
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 17322
Registered: May-04
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The materials used to make the LP are going to create static electricity when you pull the disc from its sleeve. This is why people buy special insert liners for their LP collection.

However, though there's a good chance some of the noise is being generated by static electricity, much more of the noise is simply there on the disc, down in and layered on the groove walls where it has been "stuck" be the LP manufacturing process. LP's are pressed with heat to soften the "vinyl" materials and, to make for a higher number of discs pressed from each mold, there are release agents which are addded to the process. These bits of dried chemicals remain in the groove and much of the noise of a seemingly clean LP comes from the stylus tracking over these bumps in the groove wall.

The only way to effectively remove this crud is to clean the LP thoroughly before you play it and then to have some sort of maintenance program for each time you play the disc. If you play a dirty disc, the fricition and pressure generated by the stylus as the groove passes beneath it will begin to push the microscopic particles into the groove wall, deforming it and eventually becoming impossible to remove - permanent groove damage.

Read through the archives of this section of the forum for advice on how to properly clean LP's. Also, you are using a thirty year old turntable with a non-universal cartridge. That cartridge is no longer being produced by B&O and very few exist in good condition. The stylus is most likely worn and the rubber suspension components of the cartridge have dried out and left them unable to perform their proper duties. The B&O tables were not precision machines when compared to the better competition of the day and things such as anti-skating were loosey-goosey on the RX-2. The more you play LP's with a worn stylus, the more damage you do to your LP's.

I would be shopping for a replacement cartidge if it were my table unless you want the noise on your new LP's to become permanent.


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Platinum Member
Username: Glasswolf

Columbia, South Carolina America

Post Number: 14771
Registered: Dec-03
1. get a carbon fiber anti-static brush for your LPs.
2. check an MP3 of the track to see if perhaps the recording has a certain noise floor from the master audio engineering. Case in point, I just bought Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on 2K HD CD, purported to be the best mastering of the album released. When I played it, the CD still has a faint hiss in the background from the original recording.
3. Try cleaning the record, just to be sure. Things like a previous owner being a smoker can cause debris build-up that isn't easy to see. a mix of 90% Isopropyl with distilled water with a radio of about 70/30 usually works pretty well, applied with a terry cloth with the record laying on a bath towel.

What turntable, tonearm, cartridge, and phono-stage are you using? If it's a cheap turntable or a warn cart/stylus, that can also cause these issues.
 

New member
Username: Tyqre

Post Number: 6
Registered: Aug-12
thanks for the reply. But it is just this LP, my other LPs don't have any static. I just clean the 45 and see what happens.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Glasswolf

Columbia, South Carolina America

Post Number: 14773
Registered: Dec-03
good plan. if you really want to see if the 45, or any vinyl is dirty, try to buy an LED "HD" lamp. They put off a bluish colored light, and will show any spec of anything on the record at a glance. I have one over my turntable, and while viewing the LPs under a typical high power halogen light, they looked clean. Under the HD lamp? Awful. After being cleaned, the HD lamp revealed a spotless album.

Anyway, do try to find an MP3 or similar version of the song from the same mastering as your 45, and see if the noise appears there as well.. that'll let you know if it's just that record, or the recording itself.

The carbon brush is always a good thing to have, too. It discharges any static the record may carry. I've lifted some of my records in the past that had built so much static, that they lifted the felt record mat right off the table with the LP.
 

New member
Username: Mister_pig

Post Number: 3
Registered: Sep-11
Is this a new or used record? If used, it could have some groove damage from the previous owner, and that cannot be fixed. Or it may have some dirt/dust forced into the grooves by the previous owner not cleaning it or dusting it before playing it.

If it is a new album, some of the pressing qualities have been reported to be sketchy. It may be that you got a bad pressing.

Either way, it is good to have a carbon fiber brush to dust a record before playing, and a stylus cleaner to maintain your cartridge.

Regards
Mister Pig
 

Silver Member
Username: Ornello

Post Number: 102
Registered: Dec-12
LPs suck. Use CDs. They don't have these problems. I gave up records in 1988 for this very reason. Throw your records away. They will drive you nuts.

It's not 'static' but surface noise from poor pressings that you are dealing with.
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