Vinyl grooves and the friction heat

[Alex_UK]

Great stuff Chris! (But I do think you should get out more! ) I guess a similar comparison could be Tyres vs. Roads - yes, tyres are much softer, and wear relatively quickly, but the road wears away eventually, purely based on the amount traffic it encounters.

[magiccarpetride]

If you play a disk on a record player with a worn spherical stylus/needle/what is tracking weight you loose detail within a few plays and gain noise. Use a turntable/good arm/quality shape stylus and you can play a disk 10s of times before audible harm is done.
Whats this got to do with heat? Groove wear is caused by poor complementary shape of stylus to groove. The greater the interfacing match of stylus to groove the lower the load/stress/wear.

For the purposes of this discussion, I'd like to postulate two types of wear and damage to the vinyl:

1. Damage resulting in audible pops and crackling noise
2. Damage resulting in distorting the pristine signal, embedded in the groove, the way it was shipped from the pressing plant

The damage #1 is much more clearly audible than the damage #2. But both exist, and are undeniable.

My original question was related to the damage #2: how serious can it get during the first ever playback?

[The Grand Wazoo]

Recycled vinyl = bits of 'not vinyl' embedded in the record = bits of 'not music' embedded in the music

[Barry]

It's not that the hard diamond will wear away the softer vinyl, nor is it that the 'friction' between the stylus and vinyl will cause the vinyl to soften. None of this will occur if the load applied over the contact 'footprint' on the groove wall is low enough. Unfortunately, as Percy Wilson and others have shown, using playing weights greater than 0.5g will stress the vinyl beyond the elastic limit, that is, the groove wall will not return to its original shape after the stylus has passed.

Don't blame me if I have now given you all sleepless nights!

Regards