Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells!

[Johnny Vinyl]

Sweet!

It's actually sounding a bit better now. Not sure if it was the newness of the vinyl or the fact I used some GruvGlide. I'm still going to get the 180g version though.

John

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

A little over a month since my last post in this thread, and I've played the Classic Records 180g version several times now. I can again confirm that it's sounding better still. Which kind of begs the question: "Does vinyl need a break-in period?"

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Let me back up for a second...I did change amplifiers. I went from a Yamaha AVR to a vintage Pioneer IA....no doubt that had an effect, it had to. My question still stands though..."Does vinyl REALLY need a break-in period?".

 

[Jay_S]

Don't things go (slowly) in the other direction?

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Don't things go (slowly) in the other direction?

Not getting your post!

 

[naturephoto1]

Not getting your post!

John,

I think that Jay is suggesting that the vinyl degrades (gets worse slowly) as it is used/played.

Rich

 

[Jay_S]

Break-in implies that the record sounds better with repeated playings. Although I can imagine how this could happen in certain cases, I think that things generally get worse.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

John,

I think that Jay is suggesting that the vinyl degrades (gets worse slowly) as it is used/played.

Rich

Not sure that's the case after less than a dozen or so plays, or I would hope not. Over time and with excessive playing I will surely agree.

I brought up the question as when I first played it, it was noisy and that has disappeared. How does that happen when only regular maintenance of the surface and stylus was performed? I'll attribute some of the improvements to the Pioneer IA for sure, but regardless of how impressed I am with it, it cannot improve upon the surface anomalies.

 

[vinylphilemag]

I brought up the question as when I first played it, it was noisy and that has disappeared. How does that happen when only regular maintenance of the surface and stylus was performed? I'll attribute some of the improvements to the Pioneer IA for sure, but regardless of how impressed I am with it, it cannot improve upon the surface anomalies.

It's conceivable that during the first few plays your stylus cleared out some of the groove crud some (many? all?) new records are affliceted with. If that is the case, I can see how the surface would be quieter after a few plays.

As for vinyl degradation: I don't believe that it's a problem, assuming one's stylus is in good shape and care is taken to track at the correct weight, etc. The exception to that would be wear from over playing. I try not to play the same record more than once per day to avoid just that.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

It's conceivable that during the first few plays your stylus cleared out some of the groove crud some (many? all?) new records are affliceted with. If that is the case, I can see how the surface would be quieter after a few plays.

As for vinyl degradation: I don't believe that it's a problem, assuming one's stylus is in good shape and care is taken to track at the correct weight, etc. The exception to that would be wear from over playing. I try not to play the same record more than once per day to avoid just that.

Hi Rich!

Nice to see you! Perhaps the bolded is what my impressions should be attributed to. I may have used the wrong terminology by saying "break-in", but I quite frankly didn't know what other words to use.

Bottom line is that it sounds substantially better than when I first played it. I'll address my impressions of the amp in another topic.

 

[mep]

LPs don't have a break-in associated with them. In rhe early days of Mo-Fi they use to cliam they didn't de-horn, de-burr, de-something their LPs and after you played them they would quiet down and behave which I never experienced. Anyway, if your LP suddenly sounds better, I would say you like your old Pioneer amp better than you like your old Yamaha amp.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

LPs don't have a break-in associated with them. In rhe early days of Mo-Fi they use to cliam they didn't de-horn, de-burr, de-something their LPs and after you played them they would quiet down and behave which I never experienced. Anyway, if your LP suddenly sounds better, I would say you like your old Pioneer amp better than you like your old Yamaha amp.

Thanks mep, but I think you missed some of what I said. Although I find the Pioneer to have attributed to a better overall sound, it cannot be credited with the LP sounding quieter, that just does not compute. In fact, the reverse should be the result. I used "break-in" as a term, and I recognize that was a mistake (I said so in a previous post), but I do know that the Tubular Bells sounds much quieter now than it did when I first played it. I even mentioned this in a post prior to my posts today, so I know this is fact with my copy. I just don't understand why this could be so. Rich's reply about the stylus possibly clearing out some groove crud has some merit IMO and may be exactly what has happened.

 

[mep]

Could be that and/or the Pioneer has a better phono section built in.

 

[cjfrbw]

Some guys wash their records even when new because of the separating medium used at manufacture that is not washed off the record surface before sale. So the idea of the needle cleaning out stuff and making the sound better after a couple of plays makes sense, but is probably unprovable.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I guess it's all pretty much unprovable. Just found the whole thing kinda odd. As to the Pioneer itself and it's built-in phonostage, I'd definitely say it has been a significant improvement. I'm very pleased that I bought it when the opportunity arose.

Thanks for all of your comments guys!

 

[RBFC]

Resurrecting this thread with an update:

Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound is offering 24-bit stereo and 24-bit 5.1 surround FLAC files of Tubular Bells:

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Society_of_Sound/Society_of_Sound/Music/Tubular_Bells.html

Lee

 

[treitz3]

Good evening, gentlemen. Somehow, I stumbled across this thread and while I haven't listened to this in some time....listening to it again may make me appreciate it more than I have in the past. I don't believe I have the LP but I do know that I have acquired two SACD's of this album somehow. It has been years since I listened to this and it's threads just like this that talk highly about the music itself that makes one want to spin some forgotten tunes. Thank you.

Tom

 

[mep]

I have the LP version that Myles recommended and it's a socks-rotter.

 

[treitz3]

Socks-rotter?

Tom

 

[mep]

Socks-rotter?

Tom

Yep. It will knock your socks off.