Yes, as with all physical things. The questions is what one considers "worn out". Every play wears on it, but its hard to know exactly how many since its gradual and different parts wear more and less. Loud or High Frequency inner grooves are the first place I listen for when buying used, thats the easiest part to hear groove wear on and its not too uncommon if you listen carefully to albums that were typically played a lot.
Trust me, I collect a lot of Original Motown US Pressings, and they can ware out like crazy. People in the 60’s had those record players with arms that tracked 12 grams. Sometimes they sound terrible haha. Usually they are good though
Motown had a thing for cutting their singles really loud, and the styrene ones didn't always hold up well to that. Many cartridges weren't very compliant at the time and would hack the grooves away pretty quickly. If you find them in good shape, they're a blast to listen to. They absolutely rock.
Stacking records may cause ring wear to the jackets, but the records themselves will be fine, as long as they are stacked neatly. In fact, vinyl records are stacked horizontally when they're first made at the pressing plant. And vinyl records were designed for a tracking force of up to 6 grams for stereo or up to 10 grams for mono, so it's not a huge concern, as long as it is adjusted properly for the cartridge you're using, and your stylus is in good condition. Dust is by far the biggest cause of record wear, as it acts as an abrasive, causing accelerated wear to both your records and your stylus. So the most important thing is, keep your records clean!
Ahhh yes, 'stackers'. The reason I have double albums where I have Side 1 and Side 4...Side 2 and Side 3. Thanks a lot for that on a regular non-stacking TT......
@1:32 "Yes" Agreed. I purchase only used records (I have given up on new records, due to sub-par sound quality), and sometimes the used records have inner groove distortion. So how do I know it is not due to how the record was pressed? The only song on the side that has the distortion is the big hit song for that album. So some previous owner played the crap out of that song, and probably did so with a badly misaligned cartridge, and perhaps far too much tracking force. If the other songs on the side have sub-par sound quality, then at least I know that the hit song would also have had sub-par sound quality. But when the other songs on the side have fantastic sound quality, then that means that a previous owner ruined a fantastic sounding hit song. That makes it all the worse.
Agree 100%!!! I too only but old, original used vinyl now....(unless it's a new release obviously). That old vinyl just plain sounds better, and is noticeably LOUDER! I have to turn the volume down from the newer ones. It's crazy. You would think the new vinyl, especially the 180-200 gram vinyl would sound unbelievable, but nope, the older vinyl blows it away. A quick wash in the Spin Clean and it sounds amazing
@@chiefbrody75 Heavy vinyl is a marketing gimmick. I have never heard a heavy pressing that sounds right. I will never purchase them again. And add to that, in order to truly dial in a heavy pressing correctly, you would have to adjust your tonearm's vertical tracking alignment.
@@chiefbrody75 Many tonearms can be retrofitted with adjustable VTA(all Rega's). And if you have an expensive MC cart, there are programs now where you can use a laptop and a digital microscope to get that magical 91-92 degree angle they need for best playback. Fremer has a video on it......he was coached how to do it by a Euro scientist who was also an audiophile(now deceased).
@@TheReal1953 Yeah......as much as I want the best sound quality possible, I don't think Im going to go to that extreme....some of the 180-200 gram vinyl sounds better than others. I'll live with it I guess...lol
Better quality equipment calibrated correctly causes negligible wear long term. You get what you pay for with cheap equipment. Careful handling of records also goes a long way.
From my 50yrs of collecting records, what I have found to cause most wear is worn styluses and repeat playing of the same track or album side on turntables that have an auto repeat function. Vinyl will get hot after each play, subsequently will get hotter on repeat play, and as such should have a few hours rest before being played again. this info came to me from a close friend of mine who was a production engineer at WEA records in Australia until the 1990's. He claimed that WEA had tested records that were repeat played over a period of a number of days on repeat play turntables and they found that the grooves became somewhat distorted and lost sound after the tests. It is feasible.
You can damage the grooves with high tracking force ( 2 grams +) and incorrect anti-skate adjustment. Last make a record preservative that stops record ware for approx. 200 plays.
I've played 12 inch singles so much with heavey tracking that the high end did seem to lessen on them but I've never seen a record truly worn to not playing legibly
People today have no idea how important their cartridge/stylus/tracking is - it's a touchscreen world we live in. I buy, repair, and sell used players, and more often than not these days, people photograph their units with the tonearm in every position EXCEPT on the tonearm rest where it belongs. Usually down on the platter somewhere. Used to be people knew this was a no-no.
Yeah I had that penny on the headshell goin on as well, lol!! So where did you get that needle tracking thing? I have a purple U-Turn Audio turntable as well. I’m still using the AT cartridge it came with.
I really enjoy my U-Turn @jmad627. The gauge can be found at Amazon. I think the one I bought is out of stock but this one is the same thing - amzn.to/3tB5tRP
I played records regularly in my youth, without thinking too much about the consequences. These days I consider vinyl playback to be more of a luxury, and I only get to play a couple of sides on the weekend if I'm lucky. I also take better care of my records now than I ever did. And in reality, we're talking about an analog format that never promised "perfect sound forever" to begin with, so I think we all know where this is going. As long as my records outlast _me_ , then that's all I really care about.
This was always a concern back in the day, whether it was warranted or not. There were only two reason I ever got into tape in the first place;one, to record off of 'cool' radio stations and two, to protect my records that I played a lot. In actual fact, if you're fussy, getting a great recording off a record can be tedious stuff. And when you do it, you just listened to the record while recording it, so you really don't want to play it again for awhile....lol. So what you're really doing is banking for the future. Then I bought a Tascam CD recorder so I could make preservation CD's of all my old albums to send to friends & family......just before the time CD's were starting to go out of favor and everyone was stealing music off the Internet. Then I found out that in addition to fussing with the record for a great recording, you have to hit RECORD on the Tascam every time a new track is played or it just becomes one continuous song on the CD. But....if I made a mistake on the CD-R(easy to do) it had to get tossed. So I bought CD-RW's for 'masters'. But wait, it's not over yet! Those had to be played on yet another CD player with the output back into the Tascam to make a final CD-R that I could send to friends & family. And guess what....I was back to hitting the RECORD button for every track again, plus I've now heard the same album at least twice in a short amount of time. Oh and if you want to digitally title your CD album and tracks, you need a keyboard back into the Tascam...oh yeah, are we having fun yet?? Back to tape....more joy!
This made me laugh! I had an old Tascam 4 track I would record on back when I fiddled around with home recording. I use a Tascam digital recorder for my podcasts and and voice over work. Love their products. I think I even have a set of Tascam headphones - yep, just checked, the TH-200X. Not that any of that is relevant to the discussion but you mentioned your Tascam CD recorder. One of their products I never tried!
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords I have to laugh because I bought this unit a long time ago and watched CD's become extinct afterword.....friends & family turned to streaming. My son doesn't even own any kind of CD player or for that matter, a DVD player as well. When he visits, I'll play something on the stereo and he'll immediately try to find and download it on iTunes. Then when in my car, he Bluetooth's it from his phone. I give up.....
Speaking from someone who's been buying and playing records pretty much all their life and I'm almost 60 now I'll tell you . 99% of records that are actually worn out were played with a damaged or worn out stylus. Needles (stylus) were ALWAYS expensive and no one ever took the time to notice or care how long they've been using it to replace it with a new one. Yes they're were the old cartridges that required heavier tracking force to play properly but if the stylus was brand new, it wouldn't destroy it on the first play. Although the heavier the tracking force, the more you shorten the records life. With regards to today's garbage retro record players, in most cases even though the stylus is new it's POORLY MANUFACTURED. The tips are not glued on properly, they can and will destroy a record on the first play. Extensive testing used to done many years ago on cartridges with a tracking force of up to 4 grams and played over 3000 times . A properly made stylus will not kill the record. There is no such thing as quality control anymore so just be very careful and your records will definitely outlive you.
And.....your old TT's, even the good ones with a decent stylus were using elliptical needles. Today, if you use Shabata or better yet, Micro-line styli, you can retrieve music information from your grooves that has been previously untouched by the old elliptical styli. New life from old records. Won't help you though on those last couple of songs where a heavy cart played with no anti-skating.
The simple answer is absolutely YES. It has been said that if you want to avoid the wear out of vinyl you get a CD. Anyone who thinks that a friction based method of sound reproduction is wear free is delusional. Worn out is when you play it and it sounds like a fire is quietly burning in the background. Maybe that's the "warmer" sound everyone talks about. I have a good turntable but I only use it for music that I can not find in any other form. It has a properly weighted optimally adjusted tone arm with a good Sumiko cartridge, but it is also capable of wearing out a record if I played it over and over and over again.
You can get some great turntables just under the $300. Check out the Fluance RT81 or the U-Turn turntables. You can get a U-Turn Orbit with a couple upgrades and still stay below the $300.
Many records from the 70s and 80s waere made of polystyrene instead of polyvinyl chloride. Polystyrene records are rapidly ruined by the aggressively shaped styli on modern cartridges. Important to know this, and how to tell the difference between styrene and vinyl records if you’re worried about groove wear. That old conical tracking at 8 grams may do far less damage than the fancy new $800 rig, depending on what you’ve got on the platter.
Not onboard with that. The newer Micro-line styli emulate more the cutting stylus than anything else before. The better your stylus fits into the grooves and bottom undulations, the more music it will retrieve. But tantamount with that is getting the grooves CLEAN beforehand. Nothing to fear here with new styli shapes other than don't use them if you can't clean your records properly. They DO have to be setup properly.......
You didn’t see how badly my sister murdered a copy of aftermath! She made a grey swirl into it! It was played everyday from when she was about six up to 11!
Considering that a stylus is not sharp (besides the pointy bit, which is not important here), there is only one brief moment of the stylus touching the same part of the groove. Just once everytime you play the song, so I suspect thet no noticeable wear will be caused by this brief contact. The stylus has compliance and very little inertia. I was actualy hoping to see a real scientific experiment showing how many times you will have to actually play a record before wear is objectively noticeable.
I got a question Sony record player PS LX 310 bt. I dont think the arm is adjustable you think i got a good one it cost me 160 now it goes for 250 new ?
It's unfortunate that you couldn't be a little more scientific about this, like *on average* how many plays could you expect under *all* the ideal conditions (proper stylus & turntable settings/stylus replacement/stylus & record cleaning/proper sleeving and storage/etc.), because that would be good info for my son, who has been *religious* from day one in the care of his equipment and records. But he does play one particular rare (going now for $1000+) record a LOT.
I wish there has been a scientific study on this @Dale Cornibe. To date there has not and I have looked for one. I'm all about the science (actually have a science education book being published in October). I'm with you in that it would be a good study.
Not true. It's the best physical media fidelity-wise. Better equipment does make a difference, but yo don't have to spend thousands. Even a midgrade used turntable or record changer with a $4--$50 cartridge can be spectacular.
Greetings again, I bought a Uturn Orbit plus with a Ortofon Red Stylus a couple of months ago, I notice that there is an unbalanced sound with the speakers: right channel sounds weaker than the other; left channel has more bass and volume, I suspect maybe the anti skating wasn't properly set up at the factory, I made the anti skate test with 2 different calibration records, according to one it is not working and according to the other it works. Don't know what to think; if you have a uturn orbit too have you experience a similar thing? also I wonder, am I wearing my records out playing them with that issue? Thanks.
Hi! Have you checked with the folks at Uturn? They have excellent customer service. I'd contacted them a couple times in the past and they were great. What you're experiencing could very well be the anti-skate. Are you using the built in preamp? Also a chance there's something wrong there as well - or perhaps the wiring connected to the cartridge? Are all 4 connections tight? I don't think you've ruined your records at this point but I would check with Uturn to see if they can help.
I'll contact them; it is built in preamp, I just connect a pair of active speakers to the turntable. The wires in the cartridge feel ok, I also check the alignment with a protractor and the tracking force, both are perfect; my number 1 possibility is an anti skating problem, it is strange that all the turntables I've purchased failed the antiskate test, not too long ago I returned a Fluance RT81 for the same reason. @@TheJoyofVinylRecords
in the past I did it with records with a grooveless side, and with this uturn orbit I did it with two different anti skate test records; according to one it doesn't work and according to the other it does; don't know what to think in that case @@TheJoyofVinylRecords
Many people still swear by the original 50's and 60's pressings, most of these albums are played on turntables and cartridges that were not set up properly, with very high tracking force (coins placed on top of the headshell), unaligned cartridges, worn styluses, no anti skate, without being cleaned, and many audiophiles still say that they sound better than today's BRAND NEW reissues, so maybe it's not that easy to wear out your vinyl records, thanks for the video.
common sense. needle to record wear. same with tape to head wear. thats why it never got better than cd despite the ludites cries. surfacewear. play a cd 1000 times and no change. try that with vinyl or tape. case closed.
Yes, as with all physical things. The questions is what one considers "worn out". Every play wears on it, but its hard to know exactly how many since its gradual and different parts wear more and less. Loud or High Frequency inner grooves are the first place I listen for when buying used, thats the easiest part to hear groove wear on and its not too uncommon if you listen carefully to albums that were typically played a lot.
Trust me, I collect a lot of Original Motown US Pressings, and they can ware out like crazy. People in the 60’s had those record players with arms that tracked 12 grams. Sometimes they sound terrible haha. Usually they are good though
@Joep Gottemaker - yes, exactly. A heavy arm will most definitely attribute to record wear.
Motown had a thing for cutting their singles really loud, and the styrene ones didn't always hold up well to that. Many cartridges weren't very compliant at the time and would hack the grooves away pretty quickly. If you find them in good shape, they're a blast to listen to. They absolutely rock.
Stacking records may cause ring wear to the jackets, but the records themselves will be fine, as long as they are stacked neatly. In fact, vinyl records are stacked horizontally when they're first made at the pressing plant. And vinyl records were designed for a tracking force of up to 6 grams for stereo or up to 10 grams for mono, so it's not a huge concern, as long as it is adjusted properly for the cartridge you're using, and your stylus is in good condition. Dust is by far the biggest cause of record wear, as it acts as an abrasive, causing accelerated wear to both your records and your stylus. So the most important thing is, keep your records clean!
Well said @VWestlife!
Ahhh yes, 'stackers'. The reason I have double albums where I have Side 1 and Side 4...Side 2 and Side 3. Thanks a lot for that on a regular non-stacking TT......
@1:32 "Yes"
Agreed.
I purchase only used records (I have given up on new records, due to sub-par sound quality), and sometimes the used records have inner groove distortion. So how do I know it is not due to how the record was pressed?
The only song on the side that has the distortion is the big hit song for that album.
So some previous owner played the crap out of that song, and probably did so with a badly misaligned cartridge, and perhaps far too much tracking force.
If the other songs on the side have sub-par sound quality, then at least I know that the hit song would also have had sub-par sound quality.
But when the other songs on the side have fantastic sound quality, then that means that a previous owner ruined a fantastic sounding hit song. That makes it all the worse.
Agree 100%!!! I too only but old, original used vinyl now....(unless it's a new release obviously). That old vinyl just plain sounds better, and is noticeably LOUDER! I have to turn the volume down from the newer ones. It's crazy. You would think the new vinyl, especially the 180-200 gram vinyl would sound unbelievable, but nope, the older vinyl blows it away. A quick wash in the Spin Clean and it sounds amazing
@@chiefbrody75 Heavy vinyl is a marketing gimmick.
I have never heard a heavy pressing that sounds right. I will never purchase them again.
And add to that, in order to truly dial in a heavy pressing correctly, you would have to adjust your tonearm's vertical tracking alignment.
@@NoEgg4u Hmm. Never even thought about the tracking for the heavier stuff. Makes sense tho
@@chiefbrody75 Many tonearms can be retrofitted with adjustable VTA(all Rega's). And if you have an expensive MC cart, there are programs now where you can use a laptop and a digital microscope to get that magical 91-92 degree angle they need for best playback. Fremer has a video on it......he was coached how to do it by a Euro scientist who was also an audiophile(now deceased).
@@TheReal1953 Yeah......as much as I want the best sound quality possible, I don't think Im going to go to that extreme....some of the 180-200 gram vinyl sounds better than others. I'll live with it I guess...lol
Better quality equipment calibrated correctly causes negligible wear long term. You get what you pay for with cheap equipment. Careful handling of records also goes a long way.
From my 50yrs of collecting records, what I have found to cause most wear is worn styluses and repeat playing of the same track or album side on turntables that have an auto repeat function. Vinyl will get hot after each play, subsequently will get hotter on repeat play, and as such should have a few hours rest before being played again. this info came to me from a close friend of mine who was a production engineer at WEA records in Australia until the 1990's. He claimed that WEA had tested records that were repeat played over a period of a number of days on repeat play turntables and they found that the grooves became somewhat distorted and lost sound after the tests. It is feasible.
That all makes perfect sense - especially if playing the same track repeatedly!
You can damage the grooves with high tracking force ( 2 grams +) and incorrect anti-skate adjustment. Last make a record preservative that stops record ware for approx. 200 plays.
I've played 12 inch singles so much with heavey tracking that the high end did seem to lessen on them but I've never seen a record truly worn to not playing legibly
4:14 - That's crazy looking. Would like to know how that even happened.
I'd bet it was blunt force @PrankZabba
Nice video 😀👍 Btw that BÖC album is absolutely fantastic 👍 All the best from Norway 🇳🇴🇺🇲
All the best to my friends in Norway! Thank you for the kind words (and the BÖC shout out!).
People today have no idea how important their cartridge/stylus/tracking is - it's a touchscreen world we live in. I buy, repair, and sell used players, and more often than not these days, people photograph their units with the tonearm in every position EXCEPT on the tonearm rest where it belongs. Usually down on the platter somewhere. Used to be people knew this was a no-no.
Odds are you will damage a record with a dull stylus sooner than ever getting close to wearing it out.
Agreed @John Brentford
Yeah I had that penny on the headshell goin on as well, lol!!
So where did you get that needle tracking thing?
I have a purple U-Turn Audio turntable as well. I’m still using the AT cartridge it came with.
I really enjoy my U-Turn @jmad627. The gauge can be found at Amazon. I think the one I bought is out of stock but this one is the same thing - amzn.to/3tB5tRP
I played records regularly in my youth, without thinking too much about the consequences. These days I consider vinyl playback to be more of a luxury, and I only get to play a couple of sides on the weekend if I'm lucky. I also take better care of my records now than I ever did. And in reality, we're talking about an analog format that never promised "perfect sound forever" to begin with, so I think we all know where this is going. As long as my records outlast _me_ , then that's all I really care about.
I love how you put that @sinnsonido. I feel the same way. Just want them to outlast me.
The reality is that if you have more than 500 records and don't listen to the same few over and over again, they WILL outlast you, do the math....lol!
This was always a concern back in the day, whether it was warranted or not. There were only two reason I ever got into tape in the first place;one, to record off of 'cool' radio stations and two, to protect my records that I played a lot. In actual fact, if you're fussy, getting a great recording off a record can be tedious stuff. And when you do it, you just listened to the record while recording it, so you really don't want to play it again for awhile....lol. So what you're really doing is banking for the future.
Then I bought a Tascam CD recorder so I could make preservation CD's of all my old albums to send to friends & family......just before the time CD's were starting to go out of favor and everyone was stealing music off the Internet. Then I found out that in addition to fussing with the record for a great recording, you have to hit RECORD on the Tascam every time a new track is played or it just becomes one continuous song on the CD.
But....if I made a mistake on the CD-R(easy to do) it had to get tossed. So I bought CD-RW's for 'masters'. But wait, it's not over yet! Those had to be played on yet another CD player with the output back into the Tascam to make a final CD-R that I could send to friends & family. And guess what....I was back to hitting the RECORD button for every track again, plus I've now heard the same album at least twice in a short amount of time. Oh and if you want to digitally title your CD album and tracks, you need a keyboard back into the Tascam...oh yeah, are we having fun yet?? Back to tape....more joy!
This made me laugh!
I had an old Tascam 4 track I would record on back when I fiddled around with home recording. I use a Tascam digital recorder for my podcasts and and voice over work. Love their products. I think I even have a set of Tascam headphones - yep, just checked, the TH-200X. Not that any of that is relevant to the discussion but you mentioned your Tascam CD recorder. One of their products I never tried!
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords I have to laugh because I bought this unit a long time ago and watched CD's become extinct afterword.....friends & family turned to streaming. My son doesn't even own any kind of CD player or for that matter, a DVD player as well. When he visits, I'll play something on the stereo and he'll immediately try to find and download it on iTunes. Then when in my car, he Bluetooth's it from his phone. I give up.....
Yeah, tracking force and stylus quality/health is most likely the two main issues.
Speaking from someone who's been buying and playing records pretty much all their life and I'm almost 60 now I'll tell you . 99% of records that are actually worn out were played with a damaged or worn out stylus. Needles (stylus) were ALWAYS expensive and no one ever took the time to notice or care how long they've been using it to replace it with a new one. Yes they're were the old cartridges that required heavier tracking force to play properly but if the stylus was brand new, it wouldn't destroy it on the first play. Although the heavier the tracking force, the more you shorten the records life. With regards to today's garbage retro record players, in most cases even though the stylus is new it's POORLY MANUFACTURED. The tips are not glued on properly, they can and will destroy a record on the first play. Extensive testing used to done many years ago on cartridges with a tracking force of up to 4 grams and played over 3000 times . A properly made stylus will not kill the record. There is no such thing as quality control anymore so just be very careful and your records will definitely outlive you.
And.....your old TT's, even the good ones with a decent stylus were using elliptical needles. Today, if you use Shabata or better yet, Micro-line styli, you can retrieve music information from your grooves that has been previously untouched by the old elliptical styli. New life from old records. Won't help you though on those last couple of songs where a heavy cart played with no anti-skating.
The simple answer is absolutely YES. It has been said that if you want to avoid the wear out of vinyl you get a CD. Anyone who thinks that a friction based method of sound reproduction is wear free is delusional. Worn out is when you play it and it sounds like a fire is quietly burning in the background. Maybe that's the "warmer" sound everyone talks about. I have a good turntable but I only use it for music that I can not find in any other form. It has a properly weighted optimally adjusted tone arm with a good Sumiko cartridge, but it is also capable of wearing out a record if I played it over and over and over again.
is there a turntable you would recommend that is under $300? im looking to get a new one but i dont know what one i should get.
You can get some great turntables just under the $300. Check out the Fluance RT81 or the U-Turn turntables. You can get a U-Turn Orbit with a couple upgrades and still stay below the $300.
Many records from the 70s and 80s waere made of polystyrene instead of polyvinyl chloride.
Polystyrene records are rapidly ruined by the aggressively shaped styli on modern cartridges.
Important to know this, and how to tell the difference between styrene and vinyl records if you’re worried about groove wear.
That old conical tracking at 8 grams may do far less damage than the fancy new $800 rig, depending on what you’ve got on the platter.
Though not completely correct, a conical stylus is "better" because even though it tracks heavier it doesn't go that deep into the grooves
Yeah, Styrene is a whole different bag of unhappiness. Much harder than vinyl, they don't like a worn or non-truncated stylus tip. Not one bit.
Not onboard with that. The newer Micro-line styli emulate more the cutting stylus than anything else before. The better your stylus fits into the grooves and bottom undulations, the more music it will retrieve. But tantamount with that is getting the grooves CLEAN beforehand. Nothing to fear here with new styli shapes other than don't use them if you can't clean your records properly. They DO have to be setup properly.......
You didn’t see how badly my sister murdered a copy of aftermath! She made a grey swirl into it! It was played everyday from when she was about six up to 11!
Great album too!
I have a ton of 45 rpm that are worn out. They were from a jukebox
Are these old 45s?
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords yes. But records definitely DO wear out especially if they are in a jukebox
Considering that a stylus is not sharp (besides the pointy bit, which is not important here), there is only one brief moment of the stylus touching the same part of the groove. Just once everytime you play the song, so I suspect thet no noticeable wear will be caused by this brief contact. The stylus has compliance and very little inertia. I was actualy hoping to see a real scientific experiment showing how many times you will have to actually play a record before wear is objectively noticeable.
I got a question Sony record player PS LX 310 bt. I dont think the arm is adjustable you think i got a good one it cost me 160 now it goes for 250 new ?
Hi Steven - it's a respectable entry level turntable. For $160 you got a deal. Cheers! 🍺
It's unfortunate that you couldn't be a little more scientific about this, like *on average* how many plays could you expect under *all* the ideal conditions (proper stylus & turntable settings/stylus replacement/stylus & record cleaning/proper sleeving and storage/etc.), because that would be good info for my son, who has been *religious* from day one in the care of his equipment and records. But he does play one particular rare (going now for $1000+) record a LOT.
I wish there has been a scientific study on this @Dale Cornibe. To date there has not and I have looked for one. I'm all about the science (actually have a science education book being published in October). I'm with you in that it would be a good study.
Thing is vinyl is really not high quality no matter what anyone says or what equipment is used, and I love my records .
Not true. It's the best physical media fidelity-wise. Better equipment does make a difference, but yo don't have to spend thousands. Even a midgrade used turntable or record changer with a $4--$50 cartridge can be spectacular.
Greetings again, I bought a Uturn Orbit plus with a Ortofon Red Stylus a couple of months ago, I notice that there is an unbalanced sound with the speakers: right channel sounds weaker than the other; left channel has more bass and volume, I suspect maybe the anti skating wasn't properly set up at the factory, I made the anti skate test with 2 different calibration records, according to one it is not working and according to the other it works. Don't know what to think; if you have a uturn orbit too have you experience a similar thing? also I wonder, am I wearing my records out playing them with that issue? Thanks.
Hi! Have you checked with the folks at Uturn? They have excellent customer service. I'd contacted them a couple times in the past and they were great. What you're experiencing could very well be the anti-skate. Are you using the built in preamp? Also a chance there's something wrong there as well - or perhaps the wiring connected to the cartridge? Are all 4 connections tight?
I don't think you've ruined your records at this point but I would check with Uturn to see if they can help.
I'll contact them; it is built in preamp, I just connect a pair of active speakers to the turntable. The wires in the cartridge feel ok, I also check the alignment with a protractor and the tracking force, both are perfect; my number 1 possibility is an anti skating problem, it is strange that all the turntables I've purchased failed the antiskate test, not too long ago I returned a Fluance RT81 for the same reason. @@TheJoyofVinylRecords
@@tantalo45 Out of curiosity - how are you testing anti-skate?
in the past I did it with records with a grooveless side, and with this uturn orbit I did it with two different anti skate test records; according to one it doesn't work and according to the other it does; don't know what to think in that case @@TheJoyofVinylRecords
@@tantalo45 That's odd. I was just curious. I do the same thing you did - using a record with a grooveless side.
Many people still swear by the original 50's and 60's pressings, most of these albums are played on turntables and cartridges that were not set up properly, with very high tracking force (coins placed on top of the headshell), unaligned cartridges, worn styluses, no anti skate, without being cleaned, and many audiophiles still say that they sound better than today's BRAND NEW reissues, so maybe it's not that easy to wear out your vinyl records, thanks for the video.
Excellent point @laurel Hardy . Some of my records are original 50s pressings and I know they had to have been played on some of the worse setups.
common sense. needle to record wear. same with tape to head wear. thats why it never got better than cd despite the ludites cries. surfacewear. play a cd 1000 times and no change. try that with vinyl or tape. case closed.
Black vinyl is more durable than non-black which is devoid of carbon.
I only buy black vinyl records.