Making Sure Your LPs
Last Forever
Although it's a minority medium today, the vinyl LP is more
than fifty years old, and over that half-century, countless millions of discs were
pressed. Some years ago, just before the CD burst onto the scene, one audio industry
executive estimated that there were some 50 billion LPs still in active use worldwide.
It's hard to know how he came up with such a figure. It's
one thing to keep track of how many discs are made, but quite another to figure out how
many are still on people's shelves. But it's obvious that there are a great many that
listeners have kept and still play, if only occasionally.
Most of them are irreplaceable, and most people are
unlikely to replace their whole collections in digital form even if they could. So if you
want to continue enjoying the music of earlier years without wrecking it, here are a few
steps you can take to preserve your vinyl.
Generally speaking, its not a good idea to put substances
on the record's surfaces and leave them there. I remember one notorious product that was
touted years ago as an anti-static spray but which had the consistency of hair spray and
acted as a very effective dust magnet. More benign are liquids that can be applied and
then removed along with the dirt. The best known is Discwasher, and it can still be found
occasionally. Failing that, distilled water works just about as well.
Even so, such treatments should only be used as a last
resort on severely soiled records. Otherwise, LPs can be preserved simply by a regimen of
proper storing and playing.
- Store records in their sleeves with plastic inner liners.
- Store vertically on a shelf that holds them snugly but not
so tight they will warp.
- Before every play, brush thoroughly with a
high-quality record brush, but no liquid unless absolutely necessary. The Discwasher
brush, used dry, is excellent for this purpose.
- Make sure your tonearm is adjusted to the optimal stylus
force recommended by the cartridge manufacturer. If it's a single value, use that; if it's
a range, use the upper end of the range. If possible, use a stylus pressure gauge rather
than the arm's own calibration. Check every few months to make sure that the adjustment
hasn't crept up or down over time.
- Make sure your stylus isn't worn. As styli are likely to
become scarcer as time goes by, maybe now is the time to think of replacing yours, or at
least buying a spare.
- File your records immediately after playing them. If you can
see any dust, brush them again before putting them away.
If you follow these procedures, there's no reason your LPs
shouldn't continue to sound superb indefinitely.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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