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Faint, cosmetic marks on vinyl


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Never set out to look with an obsessive critical eye,  but today an overhead can light in our living room, caught an album just right as I was flipping sides, and I noticed some very faint little marks on the album. Under other lighting, you can't see these tiny marks. I tend to use plastic anti-static sleeves by Diskeepers or a few from Quality Record Pressings, touted as non-scratching, but seems they do (faintly).  Guessing removing and putting back the albums will cause this no matter what kind of sleeve used? I don't use paper sleeves. Any other sleeve recommendations, brand, etc? Or, guessing just the nature of the vinyl surface itself. Thanks.

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16 minutes ago, JohnnyK45 said:

Never set out to look with an obsessive critical eye,  but today an overhead can light in our living room, caught an album just right as I was flipping sides, and I noticed some very faint little marks on the album. Under other lighting, you can't see these tiny marks. I tend to use plastic anti-static sleeves by Diskeepers or a few from Quality Record Pressings, touted as non-scratching, but seems they do (faintly).  Guessing removing and putting back the albums will cause this no matter what kind of sleeve used? I don't use paper sleeves. Any other sleeve recommendations, brand, etc? Or, guessing just the nature of the vinyl surface itself. Thanks.

Probably dust marks, homie. It's gonna happen no matter what.

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22 minutes ago, unknown pleasures said:

They're left there by the dancing cats that work in the pressing plant, carefully sleeving each LP one at a time.

Whaddyou say bout dancin cats??

 

 

Edited by nancy_raygun
Well I tried to throw in an edit of a dancing cat gif but I guess my phone won't allow that to happen. I'm sorry guys.
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40 minutes ago, VinylMario said:

Did you ever wash the record prior to playing? Many records come with particles from the sleeves and packing in general from the manufacturer.

Always, along with replacing the sleeves (I do keep orig sleeves in storage). Just have a spin clean, but very happy with it. I looked at about 10 albums, and it appears a few pressings have a shinier coating than most others. The more gloss like coatings, show some of these light markings. Slight, where u have to pivot the album under the light to see 'em. 

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Hairlines don't usually cause too much of a problem. Most aren't noticeable when listening. But to the perfectionist or if you're trying to sell a copy, it could be a bitch to get over hairlines. At worst, you're looking at VG+. Although it plays like a NM.

But you're right about just the mere fact that you are pulling out the disc from the sleeve. It will inevitably leave marks over time. Wouldn't put too much into it though if you're doing everything right. As long as it doesn't affect quality

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you seem to have a pretty good handle on the hobby, so I won't insult you by asking what your turntable is, but perhaps it's an alignment issue, maybe rebalancing would help if the tracking is slightly off it could be causing the needle to jump around a little and making tiny marks on occasion. I just doubt it's the sleeve and either you bought them with imperfections or just slight play wear. I know a similar thing happened to me, and that ended up being the answer I needed to realign it slightly

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23 hours ago, nancy_raygun said:

Could be worst, you could be playing mp3s which never degrade because of use

I started collecting MP3s in about 2001, and if I try to play any of the tracks I downloaded back then, even the stuff I grabbed at 320kbps, they just sound like crap. The bass is terrible, the midrange…well don’t get me started. Some of those albums have degraded down to 32 or even 16kbps. FLAC rips from the same period still sound great, even if they weren’t stored correctly, in a cool, dry place. Seriously, stick to FLAC, you may not be able to hear the difference now, but in a year or two, you’ll be glad you did.

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