[Dixielandjazz] Thoughts on LP Needles

[Robert Pulliam]

From: "Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon" <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>

> Of course, all the very well-put concerns Mr Pulliam put forward (and
thanks for them!) apply to those who "listen" to records.  Those of us who
have turntable equipment purely for archiving purposes (the "listening," per
se, only occurs once transferred to CD) needn't be TOO concerned.

-------------------------

Even if you think all you're going to do is transfer the records,  (I
assume) you still don't want to damage the record or stylus unnecessarily,
and want the best possible transfer that your turntable/cartridge/stylus is
capable of.

It doesn't matter if you're playing the record once or 50 times, you still
want a healthy stylus riding on clean vinyl, not running over dirt. If
you're going to transfer a number of records, the stylus will live much
longer if it's only used on cleaned records and further, a damaged stylus
will damage records.

Sure, noise removal software can help, but for one thing it's extremely
tedious to use, is limited in what it can do, and why transfer noise to a
recording instead of sound if you don't have to?

Cleaning won't give *any* record CD-level quietness and there are various
factors like the quality of the pressing itself and dirt that can be
imbedded in the grooves from the factory that you can't do anything about,
but a proper cleaning along with other related adjustments will give the
record the chance to sound as good as it can on your system.