Snaking tracks on new vinyl

[Deleted member 108165]

As a relative vinyl newbie I am in need of some advice. I took delivery yesterday of a brand new album and the side 1 tracks seem to make the tonearm perform a wandering snake-like motion whilst following the groove. Difficult to actually measure when playing the LP but a rough indication using a ruler is approx 1mm sway back and forth spread continuously across the entire side. Stylus seems to track the motion with ease and does not appear to affect playback.

Would you consider this to be a bad pressing or within spec? As a note side 2 plays straight as a die.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[Al ears]

As a relative vinyl newbie I am in need of some advice. I took delivery yesterday of a brand new album and the side 1 tracks seem to make the tonearm perform a wandering snake-like motion whilst following the groove. Difficult to actually measure when playing the LP but a rough indication using a ruler is approx 1mm sway back and forth spread continuously across the entire side. Stylus seems to track the motion with ease and does not appear to affect playback.

Would you consider this to be a bad pressing or within spec? As a note side 2 plays straight as a die.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Hum, can't say I've experienced this before but it doesn't sound right. Strange it does not do it on side 2 as well as i would have thought that if it was a bad pressing somehow the result would be mirrored.

Any chance you can get LP replaced as 'defective'?

 

[Deleted member 108165]

Hum, can't say I've experienced this before but it doesn't sound right. Strange it does not do it on side 2 as well as i would have thought that if it was a bad pressing somehow the result would be mirrored.

Any chance you can get LP replaced as 'defective'?

Cheers Al *good*. I've seen the rise and fall scenario on a few warped lp's in the past but never seen this snaking effect *shok*. Side 2 is as said - tracks straight as a die. Got it from an Amazon merchant so I'll get in touch with them.

 

[thescarletpronster]

I've had this on a (small) number of records over the years. I assume it happens simply because the plate for that side was slightly off-centre when the record was pressed. 1mm sounds it would be hardly noticeable to the eye, and if as you say it doesn't affect the sound, I personally wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

I've had this on a (small) number of records over the years. I assume it happens simply because the plate for that side was slightly off-centre when the record was pressed. 1mm sounds it would be hardly noticeable to the eye, and if as you say it doesn't affect the sound, I personally wouldn't worry about it.

As stated it's rather difficult to get a definite measurement with the vinyl playing as the ruler won't stay on the record *crazy*. In daylight I can see the 1mm sway from my chair which is about 2m away. Last night was worse with the cue light on in a darkened room casting a shadow of the cartidge on the wall behind the deck *shok*

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

I'm currently playing a Gang Of Four album, and it's doing it too. I think it's quite common, and if it's really bad, it will sound like it's slowing and speeding up slightly, so unless it's doing that, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Waxy]

...perform a wandering snake-like motion....following the groove...sway back and forth...

Sound like a typical Friday night vinyl session to me. *drinks*

I have seen this on a few records over the years. Nowt to worry about if you can't hear it.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

Cheers for the all the advice fellas. I'm just checking with some other purchasers of the same album to see if it could just be a bad batch, if so then I really would like to have one that played a little straighter as it wasn't cheap at £32.

 

[MajorFubar]

This was once very common and as stated can create a wow-ing effect on the audio. Two common causes, (1) record is holed off centre (so both sides snake), (2) stamper for one side was mispressed, so the effect will usually only be on one side. Can't believe anyone with more than about five records has never seen this to some degree, but then again I come from a background where records were the everyday common format and it's difficult to grasp sometimes that many people have never owned records before and they're noticing these things for the very first time.