I think the subject of "playing discs wet" deserves its own thread and 
would like to see some discussion regarding the practice, techniques, 
science, etc.

I have subsequently changed the subject line.

Thanks,

Corey
Corey Bailey Audio Engineering

On 4/11/2012 1:54 PM, Louis Hone wrote:
> I remember working in a classical music radio station in Toronto 40 years
> ago and the policy was to "wet play"  noisy records, in other words, soak
> the grooves with distilled water as the cartridge tracked along. We also
> had to make sure to dry the record afterwards. It worked pretty well.
>
> Louis
>
> 2012/4/11 Doug Pomeroy<[log in to unmask]>
>
>    
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> An extremely fine spray of distilled water completely eliminates
>> the disc static problem (no, I don't get the labels wet), and it is
>> possible to find perfume spray bottles which are perfect for this
>> purpose.
>>
>> There are those of us who believe there are also other advantages
>> to playing discs wet as (but not shellac!).
>>
>> Doug
>>
>>
>> On Apr 11, 2012, at 12:00 AM, ARSCLIST automatic digest system wrote:
>>
>>   Date:    Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:03:57 -0400
>>      
>>> From:    Tom Fine<[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: Recording_78rpm_records
>>>
>>> BTW, I should add a third key rule about ticks and pops -- do everything
>>> possible to eliminate the
>>> static charge on the record surface. I have always liked the ZeroStat ion
>>> gun, which has been back
>>> in production for several years now. My old Discwasher version still
>>> works well, but they do wear
>>> out eventually. In general, LP playback in a very dry environment is
>>> fraught with static issues. My
>>> best playbacks occur when it's not indoor-heating season.
>>>
>>> With my Denon high-output moving-coil cartridge, static discharge can
>>> completely short out the
>>> signal, the waveform looks like the needle is jumping the groove but I
>>> don't think that's what's
>>> happening. I think the coils are completely saturated by the static
>>> charge and take a few
>>> milliseconds to recover as the charge passes through the cable. Not
>>> positive that's exactly what's
>>> happening, but there can be complete loss of signal after the pop, with
>>> very fast rise time on the
>>> pop, almost instant fall-off, then a short "blank" period, the resumption
>>> of signal. In that case,
>>> the best one can do is remove the annoying pop, but there's no underlying
>>> audio content to recover
>>> so it can appear to the ear as a small dropout (small enough that it must
>>> be listened carefully to
>>> hear, but still undesireable). So I work hard to avoid static charge on
>>> the record.
>>>
>>> Sometimes you can discharge a lot of "popcorn" static by using the cue
>>> lever to hover the needle
>>> just a tiny bit over the record. Static then jumps to ground via the
>>> needle or cantelever and it
>>> should then not appear as a loud pop later. As I said, though, a warm
>>> heated room the winter is a
>>> pretty challenging environment for LP playback. My rule of thumb is, the
>>> appropriate environment for
>>> acetate and early mylar tapes is also appropriate for LP playback. The
>>> bone-dry environment
>>> recommend for sticky-era tapes is not.
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>>        
>> Doug Pomeroy
>> Audio Restoration&  Mastering Services
>> Transfers of metal parts, lacquers,
>> shellac and vinyl discs&  tapes.
>> 193 Baltic St
>> Brooklyn, NY 11201-6173
>> (718) 855-2650
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>      
>