[sdiy] Nifty Slider/Fader alert

[Glen]

At 08:12 PM 6/5/04 , R. D. Davis wrote:


>> POPPING and CRACKLING that peaked out MUCH LOUDER than the music I was
>> trying to hear underneath it!
>
>What else would one expect when records are removed from packaging that
>resultes in static?  If you'd cleaned them with an anti-static cleaner
>and used rice-paper sleaves to keep them in...

Okay, once again I have a vinyl lover who simply assumes that I MUST have
done something wrong if I had several records that had serious popping and
cracking. What makes you so damn sure that I didn't use anti-static
cleaners? I did try different record cleaning products, and yes they
claimed to eliminate static. What makes you so sure about the sleeves I put
the records in? I did try some different sleeves, and never noticed an
appreciable difference. I can't recall using rice paper in particular, and
I don't even remember seeing it available for purchase. If rice paper
sleeves were so important to the proper play of a record, why didn't I see
them for sale? Why is it only now that I even hear that I should have used
them? I find it odd that I used to work in the largest music store in the
state, which sold a lot of nice hi-fi gear, including some of the exotic
names, and none of my sales friends ever mentioned rice paper sleeves. If
they were such a requisite for proper playing of a record, I definitely
should have heard about them before now.

Guess what? A CD doesn't require rice paper sleeves to prevent loud popping
noises during play. It also doesn't require anti-static treatments. It also
doesn't require cleaning, unless you accidently smear something on it, in
which case it's a hell of a lot easier to clean, and a lot more forgiving,
even if played slightly dirty.

Why do you insist on insinuating that I MUST be some barbarian, and that I
destroyed my records, if several of them popped and cracked like a roaring
fireplace? What makes me really steamed, is this attitude from you and
Ralph that makes far too many assumptions about the habits of people who
complain that several of their vinyl records popped and cracked too much.
You spout off remarks about my personal habits (you must have destroyed
your records), (it must be operator error), (you didn't use anti-static
treatments), which you have no way of knowing if they are even remotely
true. Yet, you say these things in a somewhat degrading, and marginalizing
tone, as if they are true. 



>Also, you weren't wearing any polyester clothing when handling the
>records in a dry environment were you?

I don't wear much synthetic fabric, and my house sat over a small stream,
at the edge of a forest, during that time period. There weren't too many
low-humidity days, and before you blame air conditioning, I should mention
that I went for several years without air conditioning. I could have
handled some of my records totally nude, while standing in a torrential
downpour, and they would still have crackled.

Oh that's the problem, Glen! You made the mistake of standing! Didn't
anyone tell you that you had to lay on your stomach, wrapped in an
totally-enclosed embossed copper foil suit, laying on military-grade
tactically-moistened earth, underneath the shelter of a silver-plated and
lacquered carbon-fiber tetrahedral enclosure, to ward off the evil static
demons? What a pig you are, Glen! It's no wonder your records crackled!



>Playing records wet ruins them.

When all else fails, you get kind of desperate. At least you get a few good
listens out of them, which is better than the alternative.



>Was the turntable grounded?  Did you align the cartridge properly?  A
>very slight amount of misalignment will made a big difference in the
>sound.

Yes, yes, and I know. Why MUST it be my fault, that vinyl was prone to
popping and cracking?




>Hmmm... I'm using an old Thorens TD-160 with a Shure V15 III
>cartridge, far from an expensive turntable and cartridge combination,
>and clean my records with Discwasher (drying and letting them dry
>thoroughly!).  Popping sounds from static are quite rare.  Also, I can
>play warped records with no tracking problems.

I've had a Grado turntable, and a Technics turntable. (I can't remember the
models.) I've had cartridges from Grado, Audio Technica, Shure, and
Ortofon. With all the turntable and cartridge combinations, there was never
a combination that played all my records quietly. Just admit it:  A lot of
vinyl records had bad pop and snap issues.



>> As flawed as cheap CD players are, even the CHEAPEST CD player doesn't
>> create a disturbance as noticeable as this.
>
>But one will plays discs that won't last as long as vinyl
>LPs... remember these words "CD-Rot".

Anything on CD that I want to keep for the rest of my life can be copied
and archived onto other CD's, hard drives, and in the future possibly some
other digital media as well. These copies are practically perfect clones of
the original, and certainly offer plenty of value as a lifelong archive.



>> You can keep your turntables and vinyl records. I'll gladly suffer through
>> the "horrors" of pop-and-click-free listening with my humble CD player. It
>> may have limitations, but at least I can depend on actually hearing the
>> music when I purchase an album on CD.
>
>Until CD-Rot sets in.   :-) :-) :-)

Tommy-Rot!


later...  much later hopefully,
Glen Berry
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