Brand new records

[Pigmy Pony]

It may be that your old records are worn; this can reduce dynamics and general playback quality. It can be that your arm/cart. like the extra height of the 180 g (i.e. they're not ideally set for thinner records with regard to VTA). I've yet to buy a remastered 180g new record which satisfies, so I've stopped buying them.

Wow, that is something I'd never considered! So it's possible that the difference in thickness between my 180g records and the rest (most) of my records which aren't, can affect the sound? My cartridge is Ortofon 2M Black which I heard is a bit critical of VTA.

[Pigmy Pony]

This may be the reason my Fidelity HF43 record player with six disc autochanger sounded a bit shit. Although the discs sliding against each other may have been a contributing factor.

[Barry]

This may be the reason my Fidelity HF43 record player with six disc autochanger sounded a bit shit. Although the discs sliding against each other may have been a contributing factor.

That is why 45rpm 'singles' have a raised, serrated ring near the centre hole to stop that from happening. You weren't playing 33rpm LPs on your autochanger were you?!

[Pigmy Pony]

No, I didn't even own any LP's for the first few months anyway. I did not know about that feature of 45's either. They still used to slide quite often though. The autochanger was crap anyway, often dropping two or three at a time. When I started buying LP's I hardly ever bothered with singles any more.

Going back to the VTA thing though, surely the difference between 180g and 'standard records wouldn't be an issue would it? The idea of changing VTA with each record seems too silly for words. Or am I misunderstanding what VTA is?

Apologies for the stupid questions, but I'm at home on a Saturday night and feeling bored.

[dave2010]

If old records are noisy or appear to have lost their edge they have probably in the past been used with a heavy tracking cartridge with a spherical stylus of a comparatively large radius which will have worn the upper portion of the record groove walls. Using a modern cartridge with a finer profile elliptical stylus which will go deeper into the groove, which provided it's clear of dirt and debris (knosti cleaned ) will probably have a lot of detail and decent sound quality still there to be enjoyed.

I read this and at first thought this was incorrect - going deeper into a groove. It's years since I thought about or worried about stylus shapes, so I needed a refresher course. I found this article - https://www.sound-smith.com/articles...pe-information - which seems better than most, which explains some of the features of different shapes of stylus. The development of the CD-4 quad system requiring cartridges tracking at over 40 kHz led to the Shibata stylus, and then to other carefully honed stylus shapes. Even though the CD-4 system did not survive in the consumer market, the technical developments led to improvements in stylus design. The generally beneficial effects of elliptical or other shaped styli would appear to give improvements at the innner grooves of an LP and at high frequencies.

Another article - is this one - https://www.ortofon.com/media/14912/...tyli_types.pdf - though it doesn't seem very rigorous. There are few accessible articles which deal with stylus shapes from a mathematical point of view - perhaps most relying on the seemingly "obvious" fact that elliptical styli are closer in shape to the cutting stylus used to make the master discs - and hence "must" give better results.

[Macca]

Wow, that is something I'd never considered! So it's possible that the difference in thickness between my 180g records and the rest (most) of my records which aren't, can affect the sound? My cartridge is Ortofon 2M Black which I heard is a bit critical of VTA.

In theory yes but in practice any audible effect is likely to be swamped by a host other factors.

[AJSki2fly]

In theory yes but in practice any audible effect is likely to be swamped by a host other factors.

Sorry Martin, have to disagree there, I made a change to my turntable set up some month ago and noticed that the bass was somewhat lacking and at time the top end sound a bit shrill/edgy. I was wondering if the styli was dirty or damaged and cleaned it but that made little difference. Then I put on a 180gm records and things improved, not perfect my the bass was improved and top end edgyness less prevalent. I had a light bulb moment and check the horizontal angle of the arm with a standard record and a 180gm and it was out. So after half an hour of fiddling with VTA I set it up primarily for standard record. Put one the records on I had noticed th problem with initially and presto all was good. So IMO you can hear the difference, obviously this is affected by the quality and accuracy of the equipment in use.

[Macca]

Sorry Martin, have to disagree there, I made a change to my turntable set up some month ago and noticed that the bass was somewhat lacking and at time the top end sound a bit shrill/edgy. I was wondering if the styli was dirty or damaged and cleaned it but that made little difference. Then I put on a 180gm records and things improved, not perfect my the bass was improved and top end edgyness less prevalent. I had a light bulb moment and check the horizontal angle of the arm with a standard record and a 180gm and it was out. So after half an hour of fiddling with VTA I set it up primarily for standard record. Put one the records on I had noticed th problem with initially and presto all was good. So IMO you can hear the difference, obviously this is affected by the quality and accuracy of the equipment in use.

I agree that's why I said 'is likely'. Obviously the more elements you optimise the more the lesser aspects will show up. Its what makes getting accurate vinyl replay such a nightmare (or really good fun, depending on your point of view ).

[karma67]

it also doesn't help that the 2m black is one of the most fussy cartridges to set up right for vta

[struth]

180gm records won't or shouldn't give any issues to I've never had any