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From: rdp@teddy.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio,net.music
Subject: Re: Sound quality of CDs
Message-ID: <1267@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 14:34:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: teddy.1267
Posted: Thu Sep  5 14:34:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Sep-85 05:23:42 EDT
References: <446@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA> <180@batman.UUCP> <337@harvard.ARPA>
Reply-To: rdp@teddy.UUCP (Richard D. Pierce)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.audio:5763 net.music:9127
Summary: 

In article <337@harvard.ARPA> sasaki@harvard.UUCP (Marty sasaki) writes:
>If you take care of your LPs, and play them on a reasonably good, well
>adjusted player, you should be able to get more than 100 plays on the LP
>before noticeable sound degradation takes place. This is especially
>true on mid-fi systems. The problem is that most people don't take
>good care of their LPs, and don't take the time to set up their
>players.
>
>Don't get me wrong, dubbing to tape is probably the best compromise
>for most people. Cassettes are easy to handle, don't require careful
>cleaning, and sound decently good. I prefer to take care of my LPs and
>get the higher fidelity that they give me over dubbed cassettes.
>
>Fanatical Golden Ears, please don't flame. I know that with your
>systems you can hear the difference after a single play. :-)
>-- 

Actually, the really frantically fanatical golden ears can hear
a difference even before a single play! :-)

Actually, several researches have shown that, given a properly set
up reasonably high quality tone arm/cartridge/turntable combination
exhibiting minimal friction, correct mass and compliance matches, proper
(not necessarily minimal) and good handling and cleaning techniques, the
lifetime of LP's can be considered indefinite.  The real killers seem
to be UV radiation (makes the vinyl brittle) smog products (same things and
it slowly glogs the grooves) and so forth. These effects, however, are
ussually hidden by people's ineptness. This includes trying to track
a cartridge at to light a tracking force, stylus wear, bad cleaning
habits (which sometimes are worse than no cleaning habits) etc. etc..

Dick Pierce