When was the last time you had a record skip?

[BeBop]

I don't get to use my vinyl collection very often (traveling). And I do tend to take good care of it. And my turntable, arm and cartridge are reasonably well-adjusted (more than we can say for me). So perhaps my experience is unusual. But it's been YEARS since I had a record skip.

And yet, whenever people hear that I still 'play records', they tell me they couldn't do it anymore because of all the hiss, crackle and skipping.

I say "Wha????"

What say you?

[sidewinder]

Just last week with an audiophile Music Matters 45rpm pressing of Blakey's 'Big Beat'.

It was a bit of crud on the surface. Easily removed and problem went away. I was a bit worried for a while though.

[BeBop]

Just last week with an audiophile Music Matters 45rpm pressing of Blakey's 'Big Beat'.

It was a bit of crud on the surface. Easily removed and problem went away. I was a bit worried for a while though.

Would you say that the 12-inch, 45 rpm records skip more than 33 rpm, given the same surface condition?

[sidewinder]

Just last week with an audiophile Music Matters 45rpm pressing of Blakey's 'Big Beat'.

It was a bit of crud on the surface. Easily removed and problem went away. I was a bit worried for a while though.

Would you say that the 12-inch, 45 rpm records skip more than 33 rpm, given the same surface condition?

Hmm, not sure. I don't think I've noticed any extra problems/vulnerability with the 45rpm pressings compared with 33-1/3 but there again I don't have too may 45s.

[ASNL77]

Just last week with an audiophile Music Matters 45rpm pressing of Blakey's 'Big Beat'.

It was a bit of crud on the surface. Easily removed and problem went away. I was a bit worried for a while though.

Would you say that the 12-inch, 45 rpm records skip more than 33 rpm, given the same surface condition?

Hmm, not sure. I don't think I've noticed any extra problems/vulnerability with the 45rpm pressings compared with 33-1/3 but there again I don't have too may 45s.

Nice avatar, Bob!

[clifford_thornton]

I don't get to use my vinyl collection very often (traveling). And I do tend to take good care of it. And my turntable, arm and cartridge are reasonably well-adjusted (more than we can say for me). So perhaps my experience is unusual. But it's been YEARS since I had a record skip.

And yet, whenever people hear that I still 'play records', they tell me they couldn't do it anymore because of all the hiss, crackle and skipping.

I say "Wha????"

What say you?

Some people use the term "skip" to refer to a repeated click.

[BeBop]

Some people use the term "skip" to refer to a repeated click.

I don't even have may records with this 'problem'.

[Clunky]

Skipping is annoying but rare for me as most jazz LPs I get have been well treated.

More common and more annoying (to me) is distortion either from poor pressing or the LP being mistreated by a former owner. I really hate it when the sound or at least some of the sounds distort. I also don't care for sound wobble-( not sure what this should be called) ,it's where the pitch of notes seem to bend as if the tape has been stretched. Luckily none of these problems is too common.

[A Lark Ascending]

I think record 'skipping' - i.e.jumping - is a problem of cheap record players. But that was all I could afford in the 70s so it left a scar! I still recall taping a penny onto the cartridge to keep it in the groove...some of my early records bear the scars!

I had an excellend Rega Planar for 25 years - far from top of the range, but good. When that died last year I got a Pro-ject. The only skipping I experience is where a biscuit crumb has lodged in a groove. Easily dislodged.

But inner groove distortion, clicks caused by scratches and 'wow' caused by off-centre pressing remain a problem which is why I only use the record player to transfer to CD-R.

I suspect these are not issues to high end systems.

It's worth remembering that a 15 year old today, with an Ipod or cheap CD box, experiences none of the irritation that I had at that age. There are records I bought in the early 70 where I still expect to hear the jumps, even though I now have perfect CD copies!

[Big Beat Steve]

I've also found that as my turntables improved over the years a lot of the skips (on records bought long ago) improved or disappeared altogether but I have a few "usual suspects" that tend to skip in particular spots anyway though visual grading would make them seem near-perfect.

But of course a few 50s originals have that skip problem too (just due to plain wear) but in most cases it can be cured by careful pickup adjusting so just repeated clicks in the affected areas remain.

(And then there are a scant few - otherwise treased - more recent LP's that have a pressing defect, i.e. some foreign matter embedded in the raw vinyl which had gone undetected at the time of purchase and also resulted in nasty repeated clicks. Sh... happens.)

On the whole, those clicks, pops and crackles on older or well-played vinyl don't bother me too much, though (as long as the noise really remains in the background). In fact, if you buy lots of CD and LP reissues (as I do) of 78rpm-era recordings or airshots or acetate source material you naturally tend to get to live with some degree of background noise and your brain usually "filters it out" anyway. :D

Edited February 14, 2008 by Big Beat Steve

[sidewinder]

Nice avatar, Bob!

Thanks ! I tried to upload one of a NAP250 amp crashing through some floorboards but the file wouldn't fit.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This is one of the big disadvantages of vinyl, in my view. Pressings in the seventies and eighties were often not good and, as Bev notes, on a cheapo record player, you'd get skipping. I always found it really annoying when I'd take an LP back to the shop and they'd put it on their high end deck and it would play perfectly. "You must need a new stylus," they'd say as they handed me back the LP. But of course, this was simply another instance of the conspiracy between the major companies and the equipment manufacturers, who usually owned the record companies, to manufacture records that could only be played on expensive equipment. So, in high dudgeon, I put up with the skips, refusing to knuckle under to the powerful.

CDs, though not perfect players either, of course, get around this.

So does having a half-decent turntable, which I've now got - a Project. But there are some that still skip; I guess hundreds of plays has worn the groove into its present conformation. I keep meaning to make a list of those LPs, and give some priority to getting them on CD, but somehow never get round to doing it.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

This is one of the big disadvantages of vinyl, in my view. Pressings in the seventies and eighties were often not good and, as Bev notes, on a cheapo record player, you'd get skipping. I always found it really annoying when I'd take an LP back to the shop and they'd put it on their high end deck and it would play perfectly. "You must need a new stylus," they'd say as they handed me back the LP.

I remember that only too well - I must have exchanged every three or four records, often with little improvement. I wonder if one of the reasons why ECMs took off at that time was the fact that they nearly always had much cleaner surfaces. My earliest LP purchases are quite solid, chunky affairs. By the end of the 70s (post Oil Crisis) they had become very flimsy.

I went a bit heavy on the penny with this one, with the result that 'Positively Fourth Street' has about 20 seconds of 'scruncccccchhhh' as the stylus ripped away the surface! (I hate to think what that stylus did to my other records!).

This is something you can't replace on CD as the UK version was different to the US - one of my favourite tracks, 'New Morning, is not on the US. But the CD reissue is the US one.

However....thanks to digital technology I can now listen to the album in 'proper' (!) sequence. I found a cheap copy of the CD, ripped it, took 'New Morning' and another track off the respective albums and assembled the right version.

Lunacy, I know, but!

[BeBop]

Nice avatar, Bob!

Thanks ! I tried to upload one of a NAP250 amp crashing through some floorboards but the file wouldn't fit.

NAP250? Man, I think I had one of those...and I'm not even British.

Right now, my CD is skipping. Now that's irritating.

[Alexander]

I remember there being two types of "skipping" on records. One is the more common case in which the needle jumps out of the groove for a second. The other is where the record gets "stuck" and keeps repeating a phrase over and over again. The first case happens only seldom to me these days. It's usually the result of something on the record itself and it easily fixed (it's probably not the best thing to do, but I find that when this happens, if I run the turntable backwards over the same spot, the skip goes away). The second case hasn't happened to me since I was a kid.

[sidewinder]

NAP250? Man, I think I had one of those...and I'm not even British.

Yep, the NAP250 power amplifier. The design that put Naim on the map and which lasts forever. It will drive just about any speaker known to man !

[sidewinder]

Pressings in the seventies and eighties were often not good

About 1974 seems to be the crunch time as far as UK vinyl is concerned. Those from the 50s and 60s are often spectacularly good. From the early 70s they are usually pretty good too. Avoid budget labels, where they used recycled vinyl.

[porcy62]

Last time? Let me think...