The life of a record is only 40 to 50 plays?

I played my records daily on my AR (my first system) without any damage. All it took was one or two, maybe a few plays on a BSR stacker (by my sister) to take away that top 2% or 5% out of the music. The wonderfulness was gone. I marveled at the clarity and musicality from my new records, looked forward every evening after work to put on some Poco, Zeppelin, Moody Blues. That top 2% makes the difference that we may classify as "audiophile". When that's gone there's nothing extra special (at least to me) about the listening experience.

 

Plus it is kind of vague in regards to - is that 40 to 50 plays on a good turntable, average, or something junky?

 

That's irrelevant to the statistic, but considering that it's from the height of the home hi-fi craze (just before VCRs, video games, and computers became the hot new trends in consumer electronics), it's probably more towards "good turntables" than if a similar statistic was established a decade later, or even today.

 

Kind of relevant but have you seen this video yet:

 

We are more than familiar of this video with vwestlife i let @vwestlife tell you all about that.

 

Really, because its not even a month old.

 

I watched that video and found it unconvincing on a number of levels, while I've found vwestlife's to be convincing. Of course, as I type this I'm listening to an album using a Shure sc35c at 4.5g that I've listened to at least 40 times, probably more like 60, quite a few of those plays with the sc35c, and it sounds as new.

FWIW, the ATLP60 isn't my cup of tea but it uses a tried and true cartridge that absolutely is a winner in terms of bang/buck and overall tone, and for $100 is likely a big part of the reason that we all enjoy a vinyl resurgence that still goes strong in 2018.

 

Playing a record over and over again is not representative of real-world use, nor is playing it 100 times, when most people would never even play it half as many times. And many American 45s were made from styrene, which wears out much more quickly than vinyl. The author of that video claims the 45 he used was pressed on vinyl, but even if that's the case, there are other issues at hand which may contribute to the result.

The stylus heats up during playback -- allegedly to several hundred degrees, enough to soften the vinyl, and it's often claimed that you should not play the same record again until the vinyl has a chance to re-harden. How long that takes is a matter of debate; I've heard anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours. "Bohemian Rhapsody" isn't long enough to meet even that 10-minute threshold if you play it repeatedly. Playing a few times in a row might not hurt anything, but 100 times in a row is certainly enough to reveal the damage that may be caused by the stylus heating up and the vinyl softening.

Also, playing the same record over and over again is going to wear your stylus to the specific groove characteristics of that one record, rather than the randomized wear it would receive in normal use from playing many different records. This may also contribute to abnormally high groove damage. And without cleaning the record and stylus between each play, any dust that accumulates is going to get ground down into the grooves, further contributing to the wear.

I have 45s that came out of a jukebox and were undoubtedly played 100+ times in their life with a heavy-tracking stylus, which don't sound that worn. But the difference is that if you tried to play the same record 100 times in a row, you'd get kicked out of the diner.

 

Thanks for this very detailed explanation. I learn every time something new.

 

Logically only the first part about letting vinyl harden seems to be relevant here.

Wearing out a stylus to a specific groove seems nonsensical if you think about it. A different song or album wont be any different, its just grooves. You could make this case if it were a constant frequency of lets say 10khz because then it would actually be similar all the time, but songs are not. I also dont think not cleaning is since no one cleans their records after every play, so we would see the same type of surface noise appear if that were the case.

 

True that playing a record over and over isn't good for the record, it's not heat that damages the groove, nor that the groove must cool down. (has anyone ever felt a warm record after play?) Vinyl deforms slightly during play, so it needs time to rebound. The safe time interval is said to be 24 hours, or one play per 24 hours. Styrene is a harder material, so it has almost no give. A heavy tracking stylus tries cut a straight path through a crooked groove, and does... the styrene gets hacked and scored. The result will be heavy, rasping distortion, and/or hissing background noise.

 

I dont believe anything about vinyl heating up to high degrees.

I just started collecting 7" 45s to DJ with. I have been abusing new 45s under probably 2.5-3 gram loads using M44-7s on 1200s.
Of course the styrene discs burn quickly from scratching, but the vinyl records show no wear at all. And Im talking scratching in the same spot for a while. Just like regular scratch DJs.
Of course if you sit there and scratch the same spot for a half hour, that will show some wear. But who knows how many back and forth passes that is on the same spot.
SO unless the grooves in the scratched spot melt to the shape of the stylus after the first couple of scratches, and the rest of the scratches dont effect it, I have a hard time believing the heating/resting grooves theory for once-in-a-while passes/plays.

 

I've played songs 5 to 10 times in a row with no audible difference

 

Well of course not, a person suffering from hearing disabilities couldnt tell they got one since its a gradual change.

 

Well any good Laboratcry will confirm that!

 

Some releases sucked t the point where 40 to 50 plays is roughly 39 to 49 more times than anyone would want to hear it.
For example, I was at thrift today and found some Carole Bayer Sager LP's in perfect shape. Thought I would look them up on youtube just for, why not?

Holy crap, no wonder the LPs were perfect! No one is gong to torture themselves by spinning it more than once.

On the other hand, some of the rare times there is good music at thrift, it is beat to hell. Like the AC/DC highway to hell. Looks good but sounds scratchy. Yeah, it probably got spun a good 50 times.

 

Thought some might enjoy this.

Dinsdale?