Never touch the record's playing surface with your bare hands or fingers as your body oil will transfer onto the record attracting even more dust thereby affecting sound quality. Keep fingers off the record How do you handle a vinyl record?.If you want to reduce static pops when playing a record then get an anti-static gun. Read more on why you shouldn't wet play records. This makes the record sound even worse as the crud dries and embeds itself throughout the record. Doing so only causes the stylus to spread the abrasive sludge deeper into the grooves possibly doing irreversible damage. Never spritz water or wet play a vinyl record in an attempt to quiet the crackle and pops. Never wet play a vinyl record Does wet playing a record help reduce noise?.Never stack vinyl records as shown in this photo as it can lead to warped discs and ring wear on the album jackets. Because of their size and weight, regular bookshelves don't work well to store vinyl records so consider a heavy duty record storage shelf or storage boxes instead. Records must always be stored upright like books on a shelf. This is one sure fire way to cause warping, possible cracking of the vinyl record because of the weight, and will inevitably produce scuff marks and ring wear on the album cover marring the artwork. Never stack records on top of each other whether in their jackets or not. Do NOT stack vinyl records How do records get warped?.Using this fluid damped lever instead of your hand results in a smooth twitch-free needle drop, and lift from the record. On most turntables, the cueing lever is located near the base of the tonearm.
For manual turntables, you can add an arm lifter which will prevent the needle from going into the label area. Most audiophile grade turntables are not automatic which means they do not have an end of play lift mechanism. Better still is to play an entire album side straight through from beginning to end. When you are done listening, wait for the music to fade out or finish completely before flipping the cueing lever back up to pick up the needle.
Here's how to properly cue up a song on a vinyl record: Raise the cueing lever near the base of the tonearm to lift the arm, swing the arm above the record and aim the needle so that when the cueing lever is lowered, the needle will land in the silent area of the grooves before the start of a track, and not in the areas with music.
Over time you'll start to hear ticks and pops as the vinyl is gradually getting gouged in those areas. Never drop or abruptly pick up the needle on a vinyl record especially as it's fading out. Your hand is never truly steady so it's easy to slip up, and gouge the grooves of a record or even break the needle on your cartridge. Use the cueing lever on your turntable to raise and lower the needle. Stop using your shaky hand to cue up a record How do you skip songs on a vinyl record?ĭo you pick up the tonearm and swing it across the disc and plop it down as your speakers rattle from the loud thud? Break that habit now.Read on to find out why WD-40 is not to be used on records and a whole lot more. Below are ten common mistakes that can ruin records and/or impede their sound quality. Vinyl records are treasures to enjoy, but one must treat them with care as they are very fragile and easily damaged. In our previous article, How To Clean Vinyl Records, you learned all about cleaning your records by hand with regular household cleaners or a record cleaning machine however, that is only the start. Think you know all there is to know about vinyl records? A real vinyl record collector would never commit any of these TEN sins to their records.