Crackles on vinyl

[MrZippy123]

Hi,

What causes crackles and pops on brand new vinyl. I have bought a lot recently as I have just invested in a new turntable and some of it (especially the 180 gram ones oddly) is horribly infested with crackles and pops. But the surface looks totally unmarked! Is it just static? Or is it a manufacturing fault? Rhino Records reissues are usually perfect, so I am sure it is not my cartridge set-up at fault.

[buildersmate]

Dust and static.
That's why most of us gave up on vinyl in the early 80s and converted to digital.
What goes around seems to have come around, to fool those of us who are not old enough to remember the old days.

[Hymie]

Over the summer, I attended a friends BBQ – he is a serious audiophile. His set up cost well over £10K, which includes CD player, record deck, pre-amp, twin valve power amps with bespoke speakers.

The system produces a superb smooth sound, well into the low frequencies.

At one point in the evening, unknown to me, a neighbour brought a selection of vinyl albums and started playing a selection of tracks. It took careful listening to hear the surface noise from the vinyl. I thought that the records had been lovingly cared for, to minimize noise from scratches etc. But no, the neighbour had purchased the records from a charity shop and examination of the record surface revealed the type of damage one might expect to see on a typical record.

Given the above, despite what you say – I would suspect your record deck to be at fault.
My advice would be to take a selection of the records to your local audiophile emporium and ask if you can hear them played on their equipment.

Even though there might not be a sale in it for them – they will normally be more than happy to help you identify a problem with your set-up. You never know, you might end up replacing your record deck.

[tamborine]

Vinyls should be stored flat in their sleeves. Velvet covered wood-block is good for removing debris from vinyls but little can be done for an overused damaged vinyl.