[BC] Turntables (WAS:Achieving good S/N)

[Robert Orban]

At 02:08 PM 1/1/2006, you wrote:
>From: "Dennis Cope" <dcope at intercom.net>
>Subject: RE: [BC] Turntables (WAS:Achieving good S/N)
>To: "Broadcast Radio Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <FHEKLNBJMBMGGGEECFCJAECLEEAA.dcope at intercom.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="US-ASCII"
>
>When I am recording archival recordings, I have been using a Garrard Zero
>100 (Ok it's a rim drive), but it's the best I have.
>I use headphones and a silent environment.  Depending on the condition of
>the vinyl, I sometimes wash the disk (warm water and a mild soap).
>You should see some of the dirt that comes off the record.
>Sometimes I even play them wet.
>For the 78's I have to use an even older Garrard (with the proper stylus of
>course).
>
>Is this good, bad or is their something else I can do to improve the
>process..?
>
>I can not afford or justify the laser TT.

If you are doing a lot of vinyl archiving, you could do a lot better than 
the Garrard. I would recommend a belt-drive table and a reasonably high-end 
arm. The main goals are to avoid rumble and resonances, both from the arm 
and the turntable platter.

I have played records wet and it sometimes works wonders. However, this is 
controversial because some folks say that it can introduce micro-fractures 
in the vinyl. If you play a record wet, it should be when you archive it 
because it may be the best play you will ever be able to get from it.

Regarding cleaning, the least expensive Nitty Gritty is about $200. It is 
very important to get all residue off of the record after washing it, and 
nothing can touch a vacuum record cleaner for this application. If you wash 
with soap and water, my main concern would be how clean you could rinse it. 
At very least, you should be using distilled water for the rinse.

There are a bunch of interesting links on the web regarding this. This is 
an excellent one:

http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm#record

Bob Orban