4 ms·

I think it's both. Many players were not that gentle at the time (and, actually still is nowadays). Edit: I remembered that my dad frequently added a small coi

by wut42 5y ago

I think it's both. Many players were not that gentle at the time (and, actually still is nowadays). Edit: I remembered that my dad frequently added a small coin on the top of the needle to avoid skips. So people weren't gentle with the vinyls and the needles either. It could also be that vinyl and RIAA encoding was made mostly for the range of the human ears, and such a high frequency would just wear way faster than the "normal" ones, but I'm speculating there. IIRC, the high frequencies are "higher" in the groove.

d_tr 5y ago
Larger amplitudes and frequencies should give steeper slopes on the groove and therefore larger forces and friction, makes perfect sense. Isn't this why more heavily used vinyls sound a bit muffled?
- lostgame 5y ago
  Well; that or, of course - general wear and tear or even dust in the grooves. Vinyl is very sensitive.
  - d_tr 5y ago
    Sure!
    - TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
      In spite of the legend, the needle doesn't get hot enough to melt the groove. But repeated pressure does deform it slightly. And the HF detail in the groove is already so tiny that it doesn't take much to wear/deform it away. Vinyl really is the most ridiculous medium for music. I get the appeal of a large collectible object wrapped in stunning sleeve art, but in terms of audio quality it's the equivalent of a cheap plastic LOMO lens.
numpad0 5y ago
I have heard a different explanation for coin trick, that you could add weights to match the heaviest cartridge/shell setup in your collection, so that any of it when installed exerts desired tracking force without having to balance the arm each time. I wonder whether having end mass at the shell helped or if both were cases of such first world problems.
- wut42 5y ago
  This could be the reason for some people, but my father never cared much about the cart, and had no others. Like many others who used that trick. It was probably a mix of bad cart and bad turntable who made them use the coin trick (or sugar trick, another variation).

by wut42 5y ago

d_tr 5y ago

Larger amplitudes and frequencies should give steeper slopes on the groove and therefore larger forces and friction, makes perfect sense. Isn't this why more heavily used vinyls sound a bit muffled?

lostgame 5y ago
Well; that or, of course - general wear and tear or even dust in the grooves. Vinyl is very sensitive.
- d_tr 5y ago
  Sure!
  - TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
    In spite of the legend, the needle doesn't get hot enough to melt the groove. But repeated pressure does deform it slightly. And the HF detail in the groove is already so tiny that it doesn't take much to wear/deform it away. Vinyl really is the most ridiculous medium for music. I get the appeal of a large collectible object wrapped in stunning sleeve art, but in terms of audio quality it's the equivalent of a cheap plastic LOMO lens.

numpad0 5y ago

I have heard a different explanation for coin trick, that you could add weights to match the heaviest cartridge/shell setup in your collection, so that any of it when installed exerts desired tracking force without having to balance the arm each time. I wonder whether having end mass at the shell helped or if both were cases of such first world problems.

wut42 5y ago
This could be the reason for some people, but my father never cared much about the cart, and had no others. Like many others who used that trick. It was probably a mix of bad cart and bad turntable who made them use the coin trick (or sugar trick, another variation).