Why Vinyl Can't Survive

posted on a different thread but I went on a fun journey from "hmmm, something's a bit off with the sound" to "you should get a decent cartridge" to "maybe yours is just not aligned properly" to "you actually *can't* properly align a cartridge on your turntable because it's a straight underhanging arm that's meant for scratching and not really for listening", so yup got a new one coming in the mail, this hobby is so fun

i ordered a pretty expensive record and the vinyl was sealed in this stuff called 'Last', a sort of protective coating. never seen it before and can't find any info about it online, (it's a french record from the 70s). does this negatively affect the value of the record at all? the vinyl is pristine and sounds amazing, so i personally have no problem with it, but vinyl fetishists can be very weird

xp What did you get?

I've got tubes in my amp and preamp, so there are hums and buzzes coming and going from time to time. I've gotten pretty good about diagnosing the source.

Last may be a record cleaning solution as there was a company with that name that had a CD cleaning solution.

whaaaat

https://thelastfactory.com/vinyl-record-care-preservation/

thanks! it was a tricky google search. looks like this, was defunct for a time and now produced again

https://thelastfactory.com/product/heritage-last-record-preservative-purpose-record-cleaner-kit/

The 30-second treatment affects the vinyl to a depth of about ten molecular layers and becomes part of the groove wall. There are no surface residues for the stylus to pick up. In fact, overuse is harmless.

not sure how legit this is tho

“overuse is harmless” was the name of my rave night in 1997 iirc

PBKR - I got the AT-LP120X with Bluetooth. figured it might be nice to have that so I can use headphones since I sit about 15 feet away. I've heard a lot of good things about that turntable, pretty much everyone says it's a great entry/midlevel one for those who don't want to break the bank

those cleaning products drive me crazy, there are just so fucking many of them. I have the D4+ discwasher system which doesn't do much (just kinda pushes the dirt around), plus one of those brushses that's pretty decent at removing debris. for cleaning the stylus I just do the Magic Eraser thing, though I'm kind of confused, do you just tap the surface or does it actually have to penetrate the surface? (I've seen YT videos showing both)

I use the Magic Eraser on my stylus too; I just drop the needle on the eraser for maybe a second once or twice, and then lift it off. Can't remember where I read about that method, but it seems to work, and a few times I've seen dirt from the stylus left on the Eraser.

I have one of those zerodust gel things from Japan, it’s pretty sweet

this is the best brush I’ve used for picking up dust:

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at6012

although I read somewhere last year that AT started to cheap out on materials so the new ones aren’t as good lol :-/

I got the AT-LP120X with Bluetooth.

AT turntables are supposed to be pretty good and totally classic.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/first-vinyl-record-plant-factory-20329690

the last piece of news i expected to be reading today was a new vinyl plant opening in my shithole of a hometown. this is most curious. i was under the assumption that there are very few plants left operating internationally. at any rate, wonderful news

that’s awesome