Has vinyl always had surface noise on new records ?

Back in the 70s and 80s, it was pretty standard operating procedure that EVERY time a new album came out, the question "so how is it?" was always immediately followed by "and how's the pressing?"

I even knew people that only bought cassettes in the 70s because they couldn't stand the surface noise and distortion of records. I went the opposite route myself, choosing to go for Japanese import LPs whenever possible. But I remember it being a major issue long before compact discs were invented.

 

Signal to Noise ratio is improved as the quality of the turntable/tonearm/cartridge gets better.

 

PREACH IT BROTHER! AMEN.

 

I agree with cjay's post. Surface noise didn't bother me back in the day, but after listening to CD's for almost 20 years and then getting back into vinyl (becuase of this forum), my attitude has changed. Surface does tend to bother me from time to time. I have started to learn to live with it. I do not have the greatest set up in the world and really do need to upgrade. That being said, I love the way vinyl sounds, especially the original Parlophone Beatles LPs.

Today I stopped by the Fest for Beatles Fans in New Jersey briefly to see if there was any vinyl worth picking up. There was one dealer who had an original UK mono Sgt. Pepper for sale. His original asking price was quite high in my opinion but I was able to talk him down and picked it up for a reasonable price. When I first looked at the record, I thought it was trashed, but after further inspection, I noticed that it didn't really have any hairlines. The record was just very filthy. It had white splotches all over it. I had a feeling that all this record needed was a thorough cleaning. It probably wasn't played in over 30 years. When I got home, I sampled the LP and it sounded pretty noisy. At that moment, I decided to give it a good cleaning with my VPI RCM and Audio Intelligent cleaning solution. After I was done the LP looked great. Like night and day. All of the splotches and finger print marks were gone. When I played it, the LP sounded as if it was almost brand new, a little underneath NM. There were a few minor clicks here and there. She's Leaving Home had a tiny bit of surface noise, but nothing major. It seems like She's Leaving Home is a problem track on any original Pepper pressing (UK and US). Even the fade out of a Day In The Life sounded quiet!

I love the way the original UK mono Pepper sounds. To me, this is the best sounding mono pressing of a Beatles LP. No CD has replicated that warm analog sound. I can live with the occasional imperfection. It just so happened, that I lucked into a final upgrade..

 

I should have mentioned ...

That my high end hearing is quite impaired now ,due in large part to playing everything at high volumes when I was younger . Hence,I really boost the high end and it brings out every little nuance of noise . If I played everything flat it would probably not be so much an issue ...
That was stupid to imply that a high end system would bring out more noise,what I meant to say was I hear too much of the highs . Indeed a cheap system would make anything sound like hell and ruin the vinyl in the process . The other issue . I track at no more than 1 gram . I am using a B&0 4002 turntable . A huge regret ... Anybody looking for one ?

 

I agree. Surface noise has always been at issue, at least ihmo. I'm one of those people that it DOES bother and it bothered me in the 1970's. But I dealt with it because vinyl was the thing and I really didn't want to go the tape route (reel-to-reel or cassette).

When CD's came along I was immediately drawn to their lack of surface noise, frequency extension, and durability (last play sounding like the first). No, they aint perfect, but to me their merits outweigh their shortcomings, moreso than vinyl. That surface noise, inner-groove distortion, cleaning maintenance, etc. of vinyl tips the scales for me. I don't hate vinyl by any means, but it's just not my preferred medium.

 

Nice score And if you play that sucker with your mono button on or through a double 'Y' adaptor your gonna cut down even more surface noise.

 

No problem. I was not really taking issue with points that you brought up in your original post with the exception of the dealer who had suggested to you that a higher end analog system would accentuate or have you hearing more surface noise. When I hear of dealers foisting this kind of drivel on consumers it drives me crazy as it is absolute bulls**t.

As you point out, if you are boosting highs with tone controls, that may be contributing to what you are hearing.

And finally, as I think you are alluding to, undertracking and the resulting mistracking is the cause of a lot of serious groove damage and surface noise. Most cartridges track and perform best at the upper limits of their recommended tracking force. I'll take a record that has been played and tracked well on a good setup at 2.7 gram tracking force (towards the upper limit for tracking force with a Denon 103R for example) any day over one that's been played on less than stellar or poorly set up equipment at 1 gram when recommended tracking force is 1.5 or 1.75 grams.