What is the cause of pops/ticks in new LP's?*

I have been buying a lot of new LP's lately and almost all of them are on 180g vinyl with beautiful sleeves, a lot are also two LP sets to handle the longer play times. But it's the same thing over and over. I use my VPI Record cleaning machine, I get comfy, I start thinking wow, nice pressing, then POP! Up out of my seat in a flash and hoping its debris but most of the time I can't remove it with a stuff brush, fingernail, toothpick, or additional record washing. I learn to live with it.
What is causing these imperfections in brand new records? It seems no labels are exempt from this curse, my new Pretenders LP from Mofi has a doozy on it.
Note that I have a closet full of records going back to the early seventies. I know vinyl isn't perfect.

 

New vinyl has little QC. I lucked out with my two last purchases (2 black metal 140 grs. finnish pressings) but other than those it's been a horror fest for the last years. One of the lps was eccentric on side 1, but it wasn't the hole, it was the whole set of grooves grooves so I got a faint ¨thunk¨ per revolution, only noticeable on the dead wax luckily. Other than that (which I hadn't seen in decades of listening to vinyl) everything was OK.

Goodbye new vinyl, hello CD.

 

I was going to make a suggestion (and still will below) but your post seems to be about two different things, so some qualification would be helpful. There's the general pops and ticks that can actually emerge from using your VPI RCM but you seem to then transition to something that can actually be worked on with a "fingernail or toothpick". As Waxfreak said the QC at most any pressing plant today is poor or wildly inconsistent and if you consider the pace at which they are running now it makes matters even worse.

That being said note that your RCM and/or cart can also be contributing to the pops and ticks. What they cannot be contributing to is something so large that you can see and work on it with a fingernail or toothpick. Unless your pickup brush/tube is seriously in need of cleaning/replacing. The RCM can cause static build-up so you should be sure to use something like a Milty Zerostat after it comes off the RCM, and of course a brush before playing. Also check your cart loading, which can exacerbate the problem.

As for the "fingernail and toothpick" debris? Can't say I've come across this too often, especially after a good cleaning. Is it something that was visible before you put it on the RCM?

 

You can troubleshoot your cleaning and rig all you want (which OP should to be sure), but it's not going to fix toilet QC, which is what we're dealing with these days. Played 2 U.S. LPs from the early/mid 80s today, pretty close to dead quiet.

I wish all new vinyl could be like that. Even just 4-5 years ago it didn't seem to be this bad. Now I can't even trust the "good" plants anymore. Every time I open a new record I'm looking out for flaws as much as I'm paying attention to the music. Off-center, non-fill, and general surface noise seem to be very common issues. That and warped records straight from the factory.

Like Waxfreak, CDs are more and more appealing to me lately.

 

Most of the rice krispies you hear on new vinyl is due to non fill. But if it's just a single pop, that's probably foreign matter.

 

Or the dreaded bubble zit... Luckily I've only encountered one, it was on a MOV Ministry title

 

I've recently gotten some vintage lps with the humps in them. Whump, whump when the needle passes over. But they're only VG- anyway, so it's no worse than the other surface noise.

 

Quite often I will find records in thrift shops or just used stuff from record stores that are from the '50's and '60's, sometimes without any inner sleeve, and I'll clean them and they will be virtually dead silent. But new records from noted companies like Analogue Productions are a crap shoot as to whether it will be off center, warped, or have a ridiculous amount of non-fill. It's just insane.

Fortunately, at least 95% of my purchases are used records - new is the very last resort, if there is no other option.

 

As with most things in life today, it's all down to quick turnover & maximum profit. If pressing plants can get away with little or no QC and we happily pay £30-50(!) or equivalent for the so called 'audiophile' product, they will continue to operate this way. While vinyl is 'en vogue', fast bucks will be made. I will stick with my original 70s & 80s pressings and won't be tempted further until quality improves.

 

Another issue for me is modern EQ. Not that we havent had rants about that before,but anyway.
Example, the reissue of The Wall. It Has more bottom end, but it just makes it sound modern, and therefore wrong to me.

 

This is why as a mastering engineer I always hated vinyl and still do. After all the time, expense, etc., spent by artists, record companies, writers, you name it, in the studio trying to create a beautiful sonic experience, the vinyl test pressings would come back from the pressing plants for approval, and they'd sound like garbage... full of ticks and pops. When CDs came out I would marvel at the fadeouts between tracks to perfect silence. Mainly for this reason, I'll take digital over vinyl every time.

 

In recent years I bought 3 new pieces of vinyl. 1 was good, 1 was so bad I threw it in the garbage, another has a couple major thumps.

I quit buying modern Vinyl period.

 

Many times a soft pop ot tic on new vinyl will "polish out" with repeated plays. Some companies (ie. MoFi) notify in the liner notes of not deburring the stampers.
Vinyl is an imperfect medium.

 

I'm understanding of an occasional pop or tick. Whooshing sounds or surface noise that goes on throughout entire sections of the record is completely unacceptable. I do think the problem was worse ten to fifteen years ago, but that may just be my experience.

 

The subject was pops/ticks, not whooshing....that's another topic.

 

In the past year I bought 37 new pieces of vinyl. One has some noticeable background noise, one has a noticeable tick during a quiet passage.

Threads like these remind me why I should never get a high end turntable rig.

 

Looking at the pricing reminds me of this...

 

Yeah I guess it comes down to inadequate QC. I was definitely referring to loud pops that are isolated, so pretty random, and cannot be removed. They appear in even the quietest pressings. Cartridges and RCM's and setup are not the issue. I use my Zerostat when necessary but again it does not affect these loud pops. As a lifetime vinyl lover the small noises don't really bother me as much. But a loud pop on an otherwise primo record is the worst. I have also had great luck with older LP's. I do love my periphery ring. That took away the warped record problem.

 

I think modern vinyl is great especially considering what they're putting out with limited facilities. I think vinyl was at its worst in the 70s and 80s.

 

what is non fill?

 

There have been new record pressing factories popping up due to the resurgence in demand for vinyl records. The older factories are working beyond capacity so quality control suffers. You also have to take into consideration that almost all record pressing plants are using old presses, many from the 70's or earlier, and as with all mechanical things, they are worn.
With the new johnny-come-lately record pressing factories, on top of using old equipment, they don't have the experience. Taking a newer company like Quality Records Pressing, they can't even align the stampers correctly plus other quality issues, so I have learned to avoid anything they press. You have to watch out for the foreign pressings also. Experiencing multiple copies of the mono Beatles LP's, pressed by Optima in Germany, they have some real QC issues and didn't do a good job. If EMI had chosen to use Pallas, I feel that the LP's would have been much better. Another secondary European company to avoid is Record Industry.
I don't care who is doing the pressing, there are often problems. Records are not pressed in a laboratory environment, they are pressed in an industrial factory. Dust can happen and unintentional problems in the vinyl mix can happen. As the records are pressed, like any molded product, flashings can be left behind.
Another thing that I have noticed, dating back to the 70's, better cartridges and stylii will bring out defects in the records which weren't so apparent when played with a conical stylus. For the CD-4 quadraphonic records, a "Shibata" stylus was necessary. Talking about bringing out defects that you never knew were there was shocking and the 50khz top end of the cartridge didn't help either. The Shibata stylus type is like the current "in line" type. Even elliptical stylii will bring out more defects that a conical would cover up. Outside of the old linear tracking turntables, the straight tone arms on many current turntables from Crosley to high-end turntables can cause a sound problem. If you notice, turntables like the top-end Pro-Jects use "S" type tone arms. Companies like SME have audiophile "S" type tone arms, so there is obviously an advantage to this type.

 

I forgot to add that I think pop and ticks are the result of poor handling of the stampers. On the few occasions I've returned a record for pops and clicks the replacement copy had them in what seemed to be all the same places which would leads me to believe the stampers are contaminated with foreign matter..

 

I was there. Story checks out.

 

Many valid points there! I have attempted to place in bold some that I feel are some to take of note.
As far as the S arms go, was that not to control resonance? With modern materials they seem to be disappearing.

 

Isn't it the result of microscopic bits of vinyl and other crud getting wedged in the grooves at the plant? You need to scrub the crap out of new vinyl and use a record cleaner as a priority on new records to get the best out of them. One more reason SACD became my format of choice.