"Wet" LP Playback?*

I try not to wet myself when playing records. I mean, good mastering is a moving experience, but still...

Kinkiest thread title of the week, hands down.

 

Sorry, this was meant as a reply to the proposition that a once wet played record sounds dull after a short amount of play time when played dry.

 

A wet vac machine is low on my priority of relatively high priced luxuries at the moment. I do use a carbon brush at times but I don't find it that great. I also have brushes for the stylii - one wet and one dry - and the wet one definitely makes a difference, though I gather this can hurt the cartridge. In terms of playing softened dirt out of records (and this is NOT recommended as I said before for your favourite stylus) it can make a previously unplayable bargain very very playable indeed. I suspect that a wet vac machine can do an excellent job - and much, much faster.

 

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I employ a compromise tween’ the two: I fastidiously clean my DiskWasher brush under hot water before each and every LP is played. I aggressively shake off all excess water from the brush before I touch it to the vinyl. If it’s a new LP or second-hand acquired LP, I clean it twice or more before each play, at least for the first go-rounds. I also employ a hepa-filtration system in the room where my audio-kit resides - to clean the air so that I am not wasting my time cleaning the surface, only to have dust fall onto the surface of the LP while I have the cover up as I clean the record: (have you ever noticed how much dust is in the air in your home?)...

This technique disallows an actual surface layer of water on the LP itself, while allows the moistened brush to pick up pretty much every bit of dirt etc, on the surface. I’ve been a record collector for 30+ years, and my ‘oldies’ still sound fantastic. In fact, I’m hands-down the most critical-about-dust vinyl addict that I have ever known of – and I whole-heartedly endorse the ‘moist-clean’ method.



Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com
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Wow. Have you considered saving up for an air lock before entry to your chamber of audio?

 

Lencoclean über alles!

Back in the 80's, during my teenage years, clicks, crackles and pops never did bother me... until late 1986!
After hearing music from a CD for the first time, I finally grew aware of the surface noise my records made.
Thankfully, when my old man bought a Lenco L133 turntable back in 1979, he got a Lencoclean gimmick for free (but never used it).
So I gave it a try, with one exception: I didn't use the original liquid (it was over seven years old), but distilled water instead.
And haven't stopped using it for the next 22 years.
And never will!
Got myself a spare ex-Lencoclean (now Wittner) and a whole lot of brushes, which will last me for the next 20 years... I hope.
I could buy horribly looking second-hand records for 25 cents (equivalent in my local currency), let two/three wet-plays do the job and have a nice if not terrific sounding record.
Today, I can't imagine the times when I played my records dry.
No damage to the record whatsoever, no muffled sound, no skipping, no dust and static induced noise.
You could only hear the cutting engineer's f**k-ups and the (low) quality of (recycled) vinyl that was occasionally used to cut the production costs!
Yes, once played wet, records have to be played wet every time, but that's a small price to pay if you want to prolong both the record's and the stylus' life.
And to remove 75% of those annoying "sound effects" dust and static can make.
Oh, one more thing: the cartridge I originally used back in 1986 (Stanton 681 EEE) is still operational.
I only exchange the stylus every 12 month or so...
Believe it, or not!

 

Welcome to the forums Crepajac

 

Thank You very much!
Glad I can be here...

 

Wet Once Wet Forever

True in my experience. Playing wet albums is a European thing. I tried it years ago. Today those albums only sound their best if played wet again. Perhaps if I super-washed them and rinsed in de-ionized H2O then carefully dried it might help. Hey...I have to live within limits.

 

...and welcome to the forums ronzeman!

 

Naughty naughty.

 

Dunno maybe this has been posted before, if not it will sound crazy.

Some people swear that if you slightly wet the surface of an lp right before playing :

a) the sound will improve

b)there will be less contact noise

c) the grooves and stylus will be subjected to way less wear due to a reduction in friction (water acting as lubricant)

Was this another urban myth like placing the cds in a fridge overnight to improve their sound or is there any physical truth to it ? Afraid to try.

 

It's true.

Now grant it, I don't know how good it is for your needle, but I can't see it harming the disc at all.

If you have an older needle that you're not that attached to, then give it a shot. It truly does work.

 

So why is it not a more generalized or even more heard-of practice ? Won't the style ¨aquaplane¨ resulting in a reduction of contact with the groove ? In this way certain frequencies would be left out of the signal due to not being adequately modulated ? Am I even making sense ?

 

I would think it would ruin most stylus.

 

I had the same gut feeling. Got a physical explanation ?

 

When I was a kid and played my mothers old records on her Zenith console. I came up with the "idea" of what would happen if I wet the old records that skipped badly. And wala! They played fine until the next time. Lol..

 

Old records will play better if played wet, except Wet Wet Wet records, which will sound just as bad.

 

There used to be a device called the "Lenco Clean" that did just that - deposited fluid on an LP as it played. It did make LPs sound better. However, it used proprietary fluid and once you used it on an LP, you pretty much had to keep using it. It would sound degraded if you ever played it dry again. It was all the rage for awhile in the mid 70s.

 

It only works on this record...

 

I heard about this a long time ago. Someone said it was an old DJ trick. A few years ago I tried it again a few times, but then the needle broke off due to rust so I decided it is a bad idea. After doing some research on this forum and other places I realized it is a very bad idea. Apparently it damages the record because the water prevents the groove from heating up as the stylus hits it, and the friction wears the bumps that make the sound. I'm sure someone else can explain it better though.

 

We used to do this back in the early 90's. A primitive version of Audacity. I had a separate TT for this purpose. It's messy but you get great sounding tapes from VG/VG+ LPs. Cartridges fail from the water splashing up and into them. Fun times.

 

Thanx; that's all it takes for me to never use that method ever

 

I would think water and electronics is a bad thing. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

 

Cool idea to play 'm wet, but you're probably creating a new problem: RUST on the needle .