Vinyl and LPs - Analogue Music Goodness

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One LP suddenly sounds distorted (self.vinyl)

submitted 2 weeks ago by Deadlytosty to c/vinyl@lemmy.world

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Heey all!

Since a couple of months 1 of my LPs has suddenly started sounding really distorted. I checked everything afterwards, changed the needle, recalibrated, checked speed and skate, but it didnt change anything. The weird thing is that most (>95%) of the other LPs sounds perfectly normal and good. The ones that dont are second hand and might have been off since the start, I am not sure.

I am a bit at a loss, and as it is one of my favorite LPs I would love to get some thougts of you guys.

Could it be a cleaning issue, and if so any tips on cleaning? Or do you think it might be wiring or sound related? Just curious if you have any ideas. Many thanks in advance!

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[–] sramder@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you’re not cleaning it you definitely should be, at least a big microfiber brush and some spray to start… I got my kit from “Big Fudge” on Amazon, but there are many similar. You want to wipe in an outward spiral from the center pushing any dust and stuff to the outside edge.

I have not tried it on records yet, but ultrasonic cleaning is supposed to be the gold standard. You can get a gizmo that clamps over the label to keep it from getting wet, or even special cleaners designed to rotate albums through the bath.

An audio sample, even a cell phone video would probably help… the troubleshooting you’ve already done points pretty strongly towards an issue with the LP in question.

[–] Deadlytosty 1 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the response! We have a brush which we use frequently, but no spray or other cleaning helps. I will have a look at that. Ultra-sonic sounds and looks a bit too expensive for how we use it, so lets first see if we can fix it with the kit you recommend or something similar.

I will attach a recording when I am at home.

[–] gid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Could it be the speakers? it could be subtle damage to the speaker cone that only becomes audible at certain frequencies or a combination of frequencies and amplitudes.

[–] Deadlytosty 1 points 2 weeks ago

The same song played via YoutubeMusic plays normal, so I expect it is not the speakers. The music and album is fairly new (2023) so I expect they have relatively the same quality. But thanks for the input.