I've noticed it too, and I came to the same conclusion, but I'm not totally convinced.
Does putting the stylus down really cause damage that makes a click on an LP? Perhaps it sliding from the flat portion of the leading area to "hitting" the groove side when it drops in? The obvious thing to do is some repeated tests on some rarely-played LPs and see whether the clicks increase.
Yep!
"We've done four already, but now we're steady, and then they went: one, two, three, four"
If it worries you then send me the offending LP's and I will return them with an equal amount of pops and clicks over the entire LP....
2p worth of my opinion: crackle-pop type surface noise generally is the outcome of friction between groove surface and stylus. Resulting 'micro-mistracking' produces the noise as the stylus leaves contact momentarily with one or both walls.
Not much to do with dirt, generally. We all know it can happen on clean and new records, at least back in the day. That's not to say that dirt/wear cant also cause such noise, but its not the cause of the general and widespread effect at hand.
Why the outer tracks? Especially the lead in and first track? IMHO surface tribology is different in the outer tracks - whether that is due to pressing or cutting I don't know.
It could be time to heat the cutter, I suppose.
I doubt it's directly linked to linear playback speed, because doesn't correlate with 45rpm. Besides, friction doesn't directly correlate with linear speed, it's mostly independent but slightly positively correlated.
Friction isn't a constant force, it follows a flicker law. Above a certain threshold, stylus randomly mistracks momentarily. If one wants rid of crackle-pop noise one needs to reduce friction. This is readily verifiable, but destructively, by using friction reducing agents.
Just my 2p worth after years pondering the same question.
LD
Not much to do with dirt, generally. We all know it can happen on clean and new records, at least back in the day. That's not to say that dirt/wear cant also cause such noise, but its not the cause of the general and widespread effect at hand.
Why the outer tracks? Especially the lead in and first track? IMHO surface tribology is different in the outer tracks - whether that is due to pressing or cutting I don't know.
It could be time to heat the cutter, I suppose.
I doubt it's directly linked to linear playback speed, because doesn't correlate with 45rpm. Besides, friction doesn't directly correlate with linear speed, it's mostly independent but slightly positively correlated.
Friction isn't a constant force, it follows a flicker law. Above a certain threshold, stylus randomly mistracks momentarily. If one wants rid of crackle-pop noise one needs to reduce friction. This is readily verifiable, but destructively, by using friction reducing agents.
Just my 2p worth after years pondering the same question.
LD
My observation as well. I believe, at least in my case, is that I use vacuum record cleaner, which is less effective at the edge of the LP. They can not make the slit too far out, as it would leak air in and ruin cleaning. Hence the outer edge is neglected. Just a theory...
The 'general' phenomenum isn't dirt/dirty fingers etc IME.
I have classical box sets from back in the day that are well handled and hardly played where all records show the problem. Some labels are worse than others IME.
Records seem to show this trait, or not, from new IME.
Sometimes cleaning helps, but that can also alter surface tribology (Pardee). Hence reinforcement of the dirt theory, which is another of vinyl's unslayable dragons. That is to say that cleaning can incidentally alter friction coefficient, for better or worse. Sometimes cleaning makes things worse, sometimes no difference, sometimes better.
Discipline and measurement is called for! My thesis is the effect follows friction coefficient.
LD
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I've done some "severe" wet-vacuum cleaning (Alconox mix and fine-bristled toothbrush followed by homemade PBC nozzle going to a shopvac), as well as the "glue method (Titebond original, see big thread on AudioKarma), and clicks persist in the outer groove, and get fewer and fade away over the first couple minutes of play (in records so bad you can hear and/or with quieter passages - this also shows up in clicks detected by declicking software). I'm fairly convinced the clicks are actual permanent groove damage, not any foreign matter left over.
I agree the noise, and its pattern appears permanent and repeatable. But I doubt it is 'damage', because if one applies a friction reducing agent it disappears at least temporarily.
LD
> Is the lead-in groove part of the recording or is it a necessary add-on cut in by the lathe operator/engineer?
Any normal record you have: lead-in and lead-out are done as part of the main cut by shoving the traverse speed to a high value for a second or so.
(*) Very old recordings have "wobble" leadouts to trip some specific old changer. These were in fact cut in a separate process; one reason the practice faded.
Any normal record you have: lead-in and lead-out are done as part of the main cut by shoving the traverse speed to a high value for a second or so.
(*) Very old recordings have "wobble" leadouts to trip some specific old changer. These were in fact cut in a separate process; one reason the practice faded.
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