jamaican lps

[kolesh]

i'm having trouble playing an lp on my record player. on the vinyl there are small indentations (about the size of a pen tip) that cause the record to skip. if i weight the needle down (with a small coin) would this fix the problem? also, is this alright for the vinyl?

[Bellyman]

Welcome to the beautiful world of reggae music
Putting weight on the needle is a help, but too much of it will press it too deep onto the vinyl which doesn't matter to the material but inferioates the sounds.

If you have a record player which has options for arm-weight and anti-skating, try first playing around with these until you maybe find a combination that allows listening to the record.

[kolesh]

thanks for the tip bellyman... i'll have to check my equipment.

in general, i'm relatively new to vinyl and really new to jamaican pressings. i've been told that these marks are common but in most cases do not affect the sound quality...is this the case with your experiences? if so, what lp player has the best results with these pressings?

as well, sorry if i am repeating a discussion that was addressed earlier.

[jb welda]

perhaps you should read up on the physics of stylus meets the vinyl before you go putting pennies, fishing weights or automobile parts on your turntable arm to play defective records. especially if you value your stylus and/or records. by "records" i mean your other records you hope to play after you ruin your stylus playing games to make a defective record play.

if the record wont play you can add a little weight by using the apparatus built into your tonearm. if you dont know how to do that then you probably dont know how to set up your tonearm and stylus to begin with and that is probably or quite likely the problem or at least an attributing factor.

more than likely the record is just crap and should be discarded. its sad but true oftentimes with JA vinyl.

hope that helps.

one love
jah bill

[jb welda]

ok leggo i will play:

figure out the surface area of the stylus. its very small. then figure out the pounds per square inch you add when you put say a 10 gram coin on the tonearm, directly above the stylus. it will work out to something like 1000 lbs per sq inch. then look at the spec sheet for your cartridge and look at the maximum load your stylus will operate under. anything greater than that, especially much greater than that, will bend and distort the stylus thereby ruining it, not to mention what its doing to the record in question. also read up on the elasticity of "vinyl" used in records and what happens when heat is applied (as by dragging a properly weighted, not to mention a way over-weighted, stylus through the grooves). it is a real eye opener and if you really care about your records it will make you think twice about playing one more than once during a 24 hour period much less "haul and pull up selector" business so common in reggae music "playing out" style.

so yes it will cause the stylus to go deeper into the groove. but it will also do irreparable damage to the stylus, especially if it is a decent stylus (eg: not a "DJ" stylus designed to be abused but not really capable of producing much more than mud for output, truth be told, in audiophile terms) and that damaged stylus will then tear up any record it is subsequently dragged through the grooves of.

by the way its not the "tip", the diamond, part of the stylus you will damage most likely; it is the angle of the dangle so to speak but it sounds like you know what i mean from your reply. i was just warning about indiscriminately adding weight to your tonearm above and beyond even what one can add via the built in balancing mechanism on the tone arm itself.

i spent a bit of time studying such things at one point so im fairly comfortable in warning against this. but...lots do it anyway and thats why so many used records sound, well, used.

one love
jah bill

[AnorakTrev]

The " angle of the dangle " would be the angle of the cantilever !!!! Which in turn would alter the VTA of the stylus .

[jb welda]

respect leggo, not sure about that bacteria thing but i know in relation to another hobby of mine, building model cars from scratch or kits, there were rumours of such things a few years back but it largely turned out to be a april fools joke! the problem with dating the shelf life of a record is that of course theyve not been around 100 years on modern vinyl, so all estimates are based on aging algorithms or some artificial aging process and one cannot hang their hats on that 100%. one thing we *can* pretty much hang our hats on though is that WE wont be here in a 100 years...or at least im hoping i wont be.

to the point of a record dying a little each time that is played, while on some microscopic level that is probably true, on a more practical level if your stylus is kept clean and undamaged, and records are allowed to return to their relatively elastic state (at a microscopic level) after playing, there theoretically shouldnt be any damage done by playing the record. but to achieve the prerequisites for that require a lot more than most including myself find possible or practical. and certainly playing ja records is going to make it near impossible.

as for setting up VTA and all that, i do it with a gauge i got with a Dual tt years ago and i use an ordinary level and styrofoam pads under the tt base to level the platter. it and the cart setup takes a half hour or so but then youre golden.

youre absolutely correct about the conical vs elliptical styli too, the conical ones are very hard on records.

one love
jah bill

[Jonti]

If you keep the records stacked vertically and separate every dozen or so with cardboard stiffeners (or alternatives), surely they shouldn't warp at all? Or is it just an inevitability if they've been in storage for a certain amount of time?