The current most (needless) lp accessory marketed to vinyl lovers

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Joystable, Oct 3, 2015.

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  1. Joystable

    Joystable Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    N.C.
    I find the GEM Dandy (Merrill) acrylic "The Poly Cover" to fit this description.

    Yes it is cool, but is it really a necessity? I don't think so. There are many (free) ways to accomplish the same need.

    An old lp
    A piece of cardboard
    A piece of paper

    ..you get the drift, right? By the way, acrylic is a material that attracts/holds static charges. Just saying....
     
    vinyl13 likes this.
  2. vinyl13

    vinyl13 Forum Resident

    Location:
    IN, USA
    Many of these accessories are not needed but being obsessed over cleaning and storing records is part of the hobbie. :winkgrin:
     
  3. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    $50 for an LP shaped piece of plastic to cover your platter? Ridiculous. How about using a 50-cent junk album?
     
    The Pinhead likes this.
  4. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

    Location:
    hell
    Terrible idea - as that junk album will leach things onto the platter which in turn will leach up into your good records. Spend the 50.00$ already!! Haha I'm so kidding that is very funny - I wonder what they were thinking - Hmm we need something round, flat with a hole in the center (kind of like a record) to cover the platter with to protect from dust - hmm nothing is really coming to mind so let's have one fabricated.

    I wonder how many prototypes they went through before they got it right...
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2015
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  5. sublemon

    sublemon Forum Resident

    well, in fairness, some tts, like merrill's own, do not really lend themselves to having a typical dustcover. My personal solution (for a much different deck but with a relatively similar footprint) was to have a light cloth cover sewn up that I drape over the whole thing. I kinda disagree with the assertion on merrill's site that "dust on the tonearm will not affect it." I think you want to keep dost off the whole thing if possible.
     
    Engelsstaub likes this.
  6. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I think the "LP demagnetizer" has to be considered for this prize because science.
     
  7. JBStephens

    JBStephens I don't "like", "share", "tweet", or CARE. In Memoriam

    Location:
    South Mountain, NC
    I think a tape degausser would work just fine for demagging an album.
     
  8. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    I just adjust VTF by thousandths of a gram periodically to account for all the dust on my tonearm.
     
  9. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    I have to admit I'm secretly vaguely considering this item now. Yes, old LPs and bits of converted trash can do the job just as well, but my turntable is fancy and pretty and deserves something nice.
     
  10. tim185

    tim185 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    Dust on the tone arm? What's that all about?
     
  11. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I don't think there's any such thing as magnetized plastic, so I think you could use a tape degausser or a Rainbow Brite Starlite horsey doll for an identical final effect.
     
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  12. Colin M

    Colin M Forum Resident

    Extra vinyl / heavy pressings.
     
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  13. sublemon

    sublemon Forum Resident

    specifically i was thinking that dust can works it's way into the joint/crevices of a tonearm or other mechanical parts. Probably not a big deal though some arms might be a bit more susceptible to this, depending on the construction/tolerances etc.
     
  14. atbolding

    atbolding Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    I find the Rainbow Brite Starlite horsey doll provides better pacing with a less excessively hifi sound.
     
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  15. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    For sure, dust generally has no place among one's audio gear. I guess Mitchell added the "no need to worry about dust on a tonearm" bit for anybody on the fence about buying a platter-only dustcover. I stopped using my dust cover all together, and the dusty tonearm is kind of a bigger problem then the dusty platter as the latter is easy to dust. It's actually kind of a challenge to dust a unipivot tonearm!
     
  16. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    I think for what people invest in their vinyl front end one should just get the My Little Pony and be done with it. I did the math and figured it pays for itself by the third year.
     
  17. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    Demagnetizing LPs and CDs for sonic improvement works quite well with a cheap $15 Tape Head demagnetizer, I've been doing it for quite a while. If someone tried to sell me on this by only being able to perform the task with a $2,000 machine I'd laugh, but learning about those devices lead me to break out my old tape head demagnetizer and give it a go. The results were nothing less than amazing, it truly improves the sonics beyond what I'd imagined.

    I go around the record or disc about 1/4" above the surface slowly moving in and out from the center several times before spiraling out from the center and moving the device away. I do this on both sides and play, try it for yourselves, cheap solution and it works! On CDs you'll notice a bigger change in the sound on discs where the label side has full ink coverage. It's the ink that's the main culprit in magnetizing the CDs as it's the carbon black coloring of the vinyl that does it to records. For records be sure to perform this action away from your turntable, you don't want the demagnetizer anywhere near your cartridge.

    And please, a request to anyone who just cannot believe this works, let's not start an argument about it. I provided the information here for anyone who wants to give it a try for themselves, enjoy the music however you wish!
     
  18. tim185

    tim185 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    Improve surface noise at all?
     
  19. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    Not that I ever noticed, just opens up the sonics big time, "lifting a veil", so to speak.
     
  20. JBStephens

    JBStephens I don't "like", "share", "tweet", or CARE. In Memoriam

    Location:
    South Mountain, NC
    Rather like degaussing a TV picture tube. Some might not believe that albums can be magnetic. I didn't, so I decided to test the theory. I substitued a tape head for the cartridge, cranked it up to about 90 RPM and recorded the output of the head. Sure enough, on the recording was a very low-level whump....whump....whump...whump...whump. So there was, in fact, magnetism on the vinyl.
     
  21. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Not really. Electric forces are created by and act on, both moving and stationary charges. Magnetic forces are created by and act on only moving charges. You can't magnetize a vinyl record - it would violate the laws of physics; can't be done. The surface of any vinyl record can store static electricity, to varying degrees on different parts of the surface.

    A tape demagnetizer generates a strong magnetic field that is meant to realign the particles embedded in the tape surface, but it doesn't do a darn thing to static charges. A head degausser doesn't do much of anything. Erase and record heads are self-demagnetized by the bias oscillator, which provides an AC field in the gap that is thousands of times higher than what a de-magnetizer can induce. A degausser has no effect on static charges on the surface of vinyl. More likely, some care and attention dissipated the static charge (e.g., draining it to ground).
     
  22. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    However you'd like to characterize physics involved it does have a very nice effect on the sound. I've read lots about demagnetizing records and CDs and it's always stated that it's the carbon in the vinyl that builds up the magnetism and for the CD the ink on the label side, plus magnetism that builds up in the disc while played. But again call it what you wish, the cheap degausser has a positive effect. It would be nice to do a direct comparison between it and the pricey Furutech devices, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

    One thing I hadn't mentioned in my previous post is that you very much feel the forces involved while going around the record or disc (especially the CD), the process doesn't feel passive at all.
     
  23. John Moschella

    John Moschella Senior Member

    Location:
    Christiansburg, VA
    I'm all in with the Stabler avatar, great!!
     
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  24. John Moschella

    John Moschella Senior Member

    Location:
    Christiansburg, VA
    You are not violating any physical laws by postulating that a LP can be magnetized. Depends on what materials are in the record. While it is true that magnetic forces are created by moving charges, there is also an entire field of magnetostatics, that includes materials where mu>1. Common materials like iron can be magnetized.

    I assume you are referring to static electric charge, and, of course, you are right. But the concept behind LP de-magnetization, is that ferrous impurities in the vinyl have become magnetized via some mechanism. I'm not saying its true, just stating that its possible
     
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