What causes the crackles on records?

[admin_exported]

Hi all

Getting back into vinyl after many years with a new turntable (new to me anyway). Been buying some secondhand records and some new ones and the difference in sound is striking. I wondered what causes the background 'crackles' on older records when one cannot see any obvious scratches on the surface. Static? But then why are the new records so much better? Dust ground into the grooves? tried cleaning with isopropanol and an artists brush but that makes no discernable difference.

Listening to an original copy of Momentary Lapse of Reason right now. Great album but crackle crackle crackle!! Bought myself a repressed Sgt Peppers today and that sounds superb (no crackles).....

 

[chebby]

Try and find a local record shop or hifi shop that offers Keith Monks cleaning to do the worst of your disks.

I am fortunate that my second-hand record shop has a twin platter Keith Monks machine. (Although it is £1 a side.) I never buy an LP from them without having it done. I get all my ebay LPs done there too before playing them.

I have records going back to the late 1950s and early 1960s that don't have any such noise on them at all because of such cleaning.

And buy some anti-static record sleeves and a carbon fibre brush for loose dust.

 

[seasiders rock]

also the quality of vinyl used for pressing plays apart, late 70,s a lot of recycled plastic was being used...

 

[SteveR750]

jgw911:
Hi all

Getting back into vinyl after many years with a new turntable (new to me anyway). Been buying some secondhand records and some new ones and the difference in sound is striking. I wondered what causes the background 'crackles' on older records when one cannot see any obvious scratches on the surface. Static? But then why are the new records so much better? Dust ground into the grooves? tried cleaning with isopropanol and an artists brush but that makes no discernable difference.

Listening to an original copy of Momentary Lapse of Reason right now. Great album but crackle crackle crackle!! Bought myself a repressed Sgt Peppers today and that sounds superb (no crackles).....

Its mostly micro dust particles that have stuck to the surfaces of the grooves, but also a worn stylus can damage the vinyl from mis-tracking which you will hear as distortion on loud sections of the recording. I also know from experience that washing with fairy liquid and ap water makes the problem a lot worse, as aparently this causes a lot of the loose particles to dissolve and subsequently dry as small blobs of "mud" that stick to the surface of the record, making it almost unplayable. I am assured that sticking "dirty" records through a Keith |Monks cleaner shold return them back to as good as new condition, though of course damaged grooves are irrepairable.

 

[survivor]

Another factor with second hand records is the quality of the stylus which has been running through the records grooves, worn ones will damage the vinyl.

Word of warning regarding new pressings which can vary in quality quite significantly. Glad your Sgt Peppers is a good one but I`ve bought a few fairly recently which have been awful with what appears to be poor quality plastic/pressings.

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

Out of all the re-issues from Warner on the "back to black" tour they have been short of anything but okay. You would think after 8 you would get one clean copy, nope not one. I found simply vinyl so far has been the best for replay. I have cleaned mine on the nitty gritty and dont find much of a difference either but on the clean records the detail is so fine you can hear it tracking from one song to the next. Maybe to much clarity at times

 

[survivor]

Oops! Just seen SteveR750`s post!

 

[Tonya]

I may be wrong here as I have never been involved in the pressing stage of records, but I was always lead to believe that after a record has been exposed for more than a few minutes in the atmosphere, it gathers dust, just as you would expect.
Then when the stylus is "ploughing" the groove, some of this dust is in fact pushed into the soft vinyl, a situation made easier by the heat generated by the friction of the stylus tip.
The dust then binds with the vinyl so that no amount of cleaning products will remove it.
Hence the use of perspex plinth covers in ye olden days of transcription turntables.

Again I'm not sure of the exact science here, but it seems pretty plausable to me!

 

[Anonymous]

the worst album i was given as a freebie by kelloggs rice crispies,
it was full of crackles&pop a tasty album though

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. Sounds like I need to find a shop with a Keith Monks cleaning machine, but I've not heard of any around this side of the country (Bristol/Cheltenham). Anyone know of any?

Already have a carbon-fibre brush.

 

[survivor]

Tonya:

I may be wrong here as I have never been involved in the pressing stage of records, but I was always lead to believe that after a record has been exposed for more than a few minutes in the atmosphere, it gathers dust, just as you would expect.
Then when the stylus is "ploughing" the groove, some of this dust is in fact pushed into the soft vinyl, a situation made easier by the heat generated by the friction of the stylus tip.
The dust then binds with the vinyl so that no amount of cleaning products will remove it.
Hence the use of perspex plinth covers in ye olden days of transcription turntables.

Again I'm not sure of the exact science here, but it seems pretty plausable to me!

Yeah the stylus does push dust into the record but I thought that would be retrievable with a good cleaner? Scary thought that it would actually bind with the vinyl for all time. One way around all this is to get a laser player which reads below the surface, however they`re expensive and it wouldn`t be quite the same without a stylus.

 

[Anonymous]

well...i'm just listening to a 1960 elgar violin concerto and it sounds like two cats fighting in a bin...bloody awful

 

[Anonymous]

Bismarckian:well...i'm just listening to a 1960 elgar violin concerto and it sounds like two cats fighting in a bin...bloody awful

Allowing two cats to fight in a bin merely for comparison purposes is unnecessarily cruel. The RSPCA have been informed.