Your Vinyl Collection Is Slowly Destroying Itself
Vinyl is a comeback, although of course, he has always had his hardcore fans. It is now joined by a renewed interest in CDs and even tapes, often by people born after these formats were common, but the vinyl still holds its own unique niche.
Now, all physical circles are sensitive to the ravages of time and wear, but vinyl recordings in particular have significant degradation problems, even when you use them as designed.
Each game carries the grooves
A vinyl disc works by physically sliding a stylus (“the needle”) through a cut gap. Grove is a physical representation of the original wave shape, and it is the tracing of this wave form by the stylus which allows a direct analog reproduction of the original sound.
The fact is that each time two objects are in contact with each other, there are friction. Where there are frictions, there is wear. This means that, even in perfect circumstances, the act of playing a record slightly damages it. The first time you play a new Factory vinyl record is the best it will ever sound – and everything is down from there.
It was one of the largest improvements that CDs have made to the table because, although strictly–Speaking You “touch” the surface of the CD with laser photons, there is no physical wear on the disc to read the information on this subject. In addition, as the data is digital rather than the analog, there is no progressive degradation. The audio CD seems as good as the day the disc has been in a hurry, or it does not work properly. Like the binary code, there is no intermediate land here.
Assuming that your player is properly configured, there is nothing more than you really can do on this subject, apart from limiting the number of times you play the disc, but it is rather the point!
Dust and dirt does additional damage
This noise that bursts and whistling so characteristic of vinyl disc music is a bug, not a functionality. A properly maintained record does not rush, does not crack and is not part like a bowl of cereals. These audio artefacts are caused by the presence of dirt and dust in the grooves of the disc. They modify the shape of the wave and corrupt sound at random.
However, because occasional auditors were not going to invest the time and buy the equipment necessary to properly maintain their records, people just agreed that it is what vinyl music looks like.
However, these are not a terrible consonance music, it is also a damage problem. Slipping the stylus through dirty grooves is like using sandpaper inside the groove. This therefore accelerates the deterioration of your file. What aggravates even more is that vinyl tends to build a negative electrical load, which means that it will literally pull the air dust and its surface. Amusing!
To fight against this, you can invest in a vinyl vacuum cleaner, which can go cheap and happy to “I need to call my bank director”, or you could buy a vinyl washer, or a fantastic ultrasonic vinyl record cleaner.
Now, to be fair, CDs also have problems with dirt and dust that can interfere with reading. Sometimes you have to remove them, wipe them several times with a cloth and put them back before playing properly.
Inappropriate storage chain records
It turns out that a large flexible plastic disc should be stored in a very particular way if you want it to keep its shape. Transforming your record into a roller coaster for your arm of your is no favor for music. The basic rule is that people should store your files vertically in their sleeves. Many people tend to stack them horizontally, which deforms them as the weight increases.
The direct sunlight, heat and humidity make it happen more easily, so you should have these recordings vertically in a cool and dry place. You can try your luck with a vinyl dam machine, but I would not put any money on the successful final result.
Bad or cheap equipment aggravates
Because recording is in contact with the device that reads recording, it means that a shabby player, or the one who has not been configured, can ruin your recordings. The most sadly famous of them is probably Tamco Soundwagon (alias the vinyl killer) which is known to destroy the records. However, any cheap-market turns, or the one where the arm of tone, the follow-up force or the cartridge is not correct can become a vinyl killer in a short time.
I will not mention the brands by name, but if you dig a little on the right forums, you will see that certain brands of cheap record players are known to damage records.
The stylus is a silent killer
The stylus wears out like the disc, and if the stylus is worn or chipped, it’s like sliding a chisel on your disc and gouler the contents of the groove. Which is technically what the stylus would do anyway, but much faster than designed. So inspect and replace your cartridge at regular intervals!
Environmental slow death
Even if you never play them and just store them in an optimal environment, your vinyl records will decompose anyway. Now all physical media has a shelf life. On paper, vinyl recordings and CDs, assuming that the two are stored correctly, should last a lifetime. Not accounting for all other sources of wear.
However, UV will degrade an exposed vinyl, additives that make the record flexible can evaporate over time, which makes it more fragile and temperature fluctuations make it all happen earlier than it should.
Although vinyl recordings and CDs that are well taken care of should last longer than you need, in my personal experience, it is much more difficult to take care of the vinyl than CDs. As an anecdotal exampled of the real world, none of my parents’ vinyls from the late 80s and early 90s is what I would call “listening”, but almost all their CDs from this period sounding very well.
So, if you buy new vinyl pressures today and enter the hobby, you must establish good storage and maintenance habits from the start to keep them as well as possible, as long as possible.
