Worn Out Records?

Some of my records just deteriorated further and further over time, the more played ones more than others. Changing the stylus (needle!) did not improve them (I regularly changed my stylus, nominally every couple of thousand hours’ play). One of the limitations of vinyl that made me ready to abandon it once digital caught up in sound quality. Received wisdom since suggests that ingrained dust/dirt may have been a significant contributory factor as well as, or mor so than, wear, as all I did was use an antistatic gun and a combined brush/vervet pad each play, and if visibly dusty use that moistened - the answer, apparently, is regukar use of a washing machine (or if bad a goo that sets and peels).

I have to believe the Rega Aphelion is touching parts the Shure N44E never did.  No other explanation makes sense to me.

Superline on demo is also a wonder — “carillon bells” is the only way I can try to describe the effect on every note — to perfect fidelity.  Maybe better-than.  

Nick

I have to agree what an amazing thing it can be putting on a vinyl record after a good clean that is 50 or 60 years old and hearing that big rich analogue sound coming out of the speakers.  

A very good record player fitted with a very good cartridge going into a very good phono stage can seem to transform those old records but it is just digging things out of the groove that have always been there.

Whenever possible I will buy the best and earliest records I can because those all analogue recordings from the pre digital era can sound sublime but if I cannot afford them then there are modern all analogue remastsers that can be as good and even better than the originals if they are done properly.

The Music Matters Blue Note reissues are incredibly good as are the Analogue Productions, Classic Records, ORG and Mofi ones, they can  seem quite expensive at between £30 -£50 but I look at it this way if you spent £50 on a bottle of wine or whiskey that you really enjoyed and then you could drink it again and again and again would that £50 seem expensive?

At the finacial level I'm at (original late 70's LP12 v Liv Zen into Chord 2Qute) digital music reproduction cannot compete and I'm pretty sure if I upgraded to Hugo 2 or Qutest and a bang up to date streamer with Linear PSU's it still wouldn't compete and so I shall stick with my near 40 year old record player, my 20 year old amp and what my niece calls  

'those big wagon wheel things'.

Bob the Builder posted:

.

The Music Matters Blue Note reissues are incredibly good as are the Analogue Productions, Classic Records, ORG and Mofi ones, they can  seem quite expensive at between £30 -£50 but I look at it this way if you spent £50 on a bottle of wine or whiskey that you really enjoyed and then you could drink it again and again and again would that £50 seem expensive?

To put prices in context, I remember a standard price for LPs back somewhere around 1970 give or take a year was 37/5 (37s 5d) = £1.87, which is equivalent to approx £24 today. That was in the heyday of vinyl, so those reissues into a much smaller market now don’t seem out of proportion.