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vinyl-heads: any drop in quality from first to second play of LP?

T

thomsbrain

Lifer
i'm a total vinyl noob. i've been raiding my parents stash (man they have some seriously worn-down records) and I have some used records I got for next to nothing, but I just got my first new record, Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream. I want to record it in all its new glory, (in high quality digital) before I play it too much. I don't have my recording equipment with me, but I really want to listen NOW. Will it make a big difference if I record on the second play instead of the first? Am I being WAY too anal? Does nobody care about my stupid little situation?
 
Given the nature of the medium there is obviously going to be a drop in quality between each play. I really can't speak as to how much of a drop there would be or if it would even be noticable. The extent of quality degredation depends on what kind of needles you are using.
 
Believe it or not, I've heard that, if the first play is done with a high quality tone arm and stylus, the second play is the best because the first play does a fine burnish of any slight rough spots in the groove.
 
I want to record it in all its new glory, (in high quality digital)
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Buy the CD if you want high quality digital sound. The whole reason some people prefer records is simply because they like the analog sound better.
 
As long as you have a good turntable and a good stylus, you can play records pretty much forever. The problems come when people have heavy vibration transferred to the record player and it skips, or when the stylus is old and dirty, or when the turntable is low quality and the tone arm doesn't track well.

I would actually recommend against recording to digital and stick with reel to reel analog tape. Recording a record to digital is really overkill and magnetic tape has a longer archival life than most digital storage media. Then again, this is probably just the insane part of me that thinks backing up a record should be done in the period proper way.

ZV
 
Originally posted by: Harvey
Believe it or not, I've heard that, if the first play is done with a high quality tone arm and stylus, the second play is the best because the first play does a fine burnish of any slight rough spots in the groove.
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Wow. I'd never heard that before, Harvey.😎
 
Originally posted by: Perknose
Wow. I'd never heard that before, Harvey.😎
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One of my previous clients was Mobile Fidelity, one of the companies that made half speed mastered upscale album pressings. That's where I learned about first play burnishing.

I used to have a virgin half speed mastered Beatles collection until I was burglarized. I still have a number of good MoFi releases. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: notfred
I want to record it in all its new glory, (in high quality digital)
Click to expand...

Buy the CD if you want high quality digital sound. The whole reason some people prefer records is simply because they like the analog sound better.
Click to expand...

haha, you said high quality and CD in the same sentance. good one. 😉 no, i would have used far greater quality than a CD.

but anyway, as an update, I played it (it's on awesome-looking orange-marble vinyl), and IMO it must have been a crappy master (I found some other people on forums saying the same thing about this particular album). There's some distortion on the right channel during the really loud parts and some dusty-sounding stuff even though the record is new and clean. On the upside, the high end is much smoother than the CD, there's more dynamic range (the snare drum hits HARD now), and it's generally "prettier" sounding. bass is more balanced and has more character (you can actually hear the tone and not just a generic note). also, the louder you crank it, the better it sounds, whereas the CD kinda gets harsh when its cranked. vocals are more life-like and defined, and there's more mid-range definition in general. so there's some good and bad. i probably won't bother making the recording.
 
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