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Vinyl Problem

post #1 of 19
1/9/10 at 2:11am
Thread Starter 
I just dusted off my parents old kenwood TT, got a new needle, and some sweet new vinyl to play on it. Sounds amazing, Thriller is pretty much the best thing i've heard in my hifi experience so far and I've never heard Homogenic like this before. It's going through a Pro-ject Phono Box II into my Heed CanAmp and then AKG K701's. So here is my problem, everything sounds great except one album, Air - Pocket Symphony. There is static and noise in one channel on both sides of both disks, at first, it was the left channel, all the way through the album, but now, oddly enough, the exact same static and noise is on the right channel. It's definitely the album, i've repeatedly put on other albums and going back and its the same thing over and over, both sides, both disks. What on earth could cause this?
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post #2 of 19
1/9/10 at 11:19am
The most obvious thing is that the LP is just trashed. It happens. Even some brand new LP's can be bad.

But one other possibility is that it has a big static electricity charge built up on it. The only way I know to solve that is with the famous Zero-stat anti-static gun, but there may be other ways.
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post #3 of 19
1/9/10 at 12:23pm
Thread Starter 
Ooo it very well could be the static... Are there any other methods of discharging???
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post #4 of 19
1/9/10 at 12:27pm
You could try a bit of steam, plenty far enough from the record to assure you won't get it hot enough to warp it, but enough to add enough humidity to reduce the charge.
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post #5 of 19
1/9/10 at 1:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMuffinMan_01 View Post
Ooo it very well could be the static... Are there any other methods of discharging???
Static is a wintertime thing. Shocking, isn't it?
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post #6 of 19
1/9/10 at 2:25pm
I have a Zerostat gun that works pretty well. I've even used it on myself after opening packages with styrofoam peanuts. The peanuts just fall off when I shoot my had with the gun. I believe there are some brushes that are supposed to eliminate static. I've never used one on an LP, but when I was doing black & white photography, I used antistatic brushes on negatives to remove dust. A brush may not be any cheaper than a Zerostat though.
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post #7 of 19
1/9/10 at 2:55pm
I seem to think that I don't have the static problems I had in years past. My system is better grounded than in the old days. My tonearm, phono preamp, and CineMag step up transformers are all grounded together.
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post #8 of 19
1/9/10 at 5:12pm
Static on records wouldn't be helped by grounding the turntable. By then it's too late.
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post #9 of 19
1/9/10 at 5:33pm
Wow. Just wow.
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post #10 of 19
1/9/10 at 6:30pm
it's also worth investing in antistatic sleeves, the padded Goldring-style or else Nagaoka type will also protect your records better in the long run.
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post #11 of 19
1/9/10 at 8:02pm
I must say that I doubt that static buildup on the record has anything to do with the OP's issues.

He states that a bunch of other records (including one known to be well recorded in specific) sound great. assuming they are all stored similarly and played similarly why should this be the 1 magical record to attract enough static to cause an audible issue?

He states that the issues he is experiencing are channel specific. Shouldn't static electricity cover the disc evenly? kind of weird that static goes to one groove. soooo many things can screw up 1 wall of the groove.

Static is a problem because it attracts dust.

My first bet is this: If this is a used record its quite possible a previous owner damaged the grove with a severely misaligned or damaged stylus.

My second bet would be that somewhere along the mastering/cutting process some noise got into the recording.

As a third (less likely guess) It is also possible that *YOUR* alignment is off, although you would most likely notice it in other records too. Probably not the answer, but it never hurts to check.

To explain the channel switching issue: better men than I have swapped channels inadvertently while looking for a problem elsewhere.

I should add that I would advocate that the OP gets a zerostat anyways. They are quite nice for keeping dust off your records even though Im pretty comfy saying it wont do anything to resolve this issue he is having.
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post #12 of 19
1/10/10 at 11:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikongod View Post
I must say that I doubt that static buildup on the record has anything to do with the OP's issues.

He states that a bunch of other records (including one known to be well recorded in specific) sound great. assuming they are all stored similarly and played similarly why should this be the 1 magical record to attract enough static to cause an audible issue?

He states that the issues he is experiencing are channel specific. Shouldn't static electricity cover the disc evenly? kind of weird that static goes to one groove. soooo many things can screw up 1 wall of the groove.

Static is a problem because it attracts dust.

My first bet is this: If this is a used record its quite possible a previous owner damaged the grove with a severely misaligned or damaged stylus.
It is an odd problem as you say that a noise issue is present intermittently on different channels of the one LP and not on other LPs.

I was thinking static could be the answer as this Air LP is almost new so probably hasn't been played as much and could therefore be attraching static more noticeably than the Bjork from '97 and the MJ from '81.

Another vague possibility is that the Air is more compressed or has frequencies on it which arn't on the other two and that is causing audible distortion. This can happen on certain pressings especially with electronic music with certain carts like Moving Coils.

The next obvious test is to change the set-up of your cartridge to see if you can make it play the Air better by increasing the tracking force / adjusting the antiskating / VTA etc, whatever the Kenwood arm allows.

Also try playing these records on another turntable set up to see if the problem is replicated.
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post #13 of 19
1/10/10 at 11:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMuffinMan_01 View Post
Air - Pocket Symphony. There is static and noise in one channel on both sides of both disks, at first, it was the left channel, all the way through the album, but now, oddly enough, the exact same static and noise is on the right channel. It's definitely the album, i've repeatedly put on other albums and going back and its the same thing over and over, both sides, both disks. What on earth could cause this?
I have the same album - my pressing is on white vinyl and I have the same general issues with regards to poor sound quality. I ended up getting another copy of the same album which was slightly better with regard to sound. It still had the noise but it wasn't as bad. However it seems to be a poor pressed vinyl release in general. Certainly the noise is missing from the cd version. Kinda frustrating as the album itself is really good. My copy of PJ Harvey's White Chalk also has a similar high noise floor but not as bad.

I use a rega super elys moving magnet with rb300, playing with settings I couldn't really get an reduction in the noise.

I just chalk it up unfortunately to variability of pressings nowdays.
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post #14 of 19
1/10/10 at 12:15pm
Indeed, that would make it very likely it's a bad run of LP's.
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post #15 of 19
1/10/10 at 12:23pm
also i am pretty sure my pressing is the USA one (here in Australia we generally get USA pressings) so probably the same one you would get in Canada.
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