Dear All, A brief reply from a Britisher. The problem cited by Tom Fine used to occur here; and when I was working for a certain British Broadcasting Corporation which shall remain nameless, I found a cure. The idea was to use an Ortofon SPU-GTE pickup cartridge. This was the best pickup cartridge with an ellipsoidal stylus, with extremely low "tip mass." By inserting small pieces of cut-up rubber-bands between the stylus and the remainder of the headshell, one could increase the downward pressure on the stylus without also increasing the tip mass. Then one could play the disc with a downward pressure of seven or eight grams - and the whitish haze would simply be removed from the groove. It formed minute piles of stringy material round the stylus, which would eventually break away; and a human-being puffing gently could blow the patches of haze off the turntable. After one such treatment, I could get a satisfactory transmission from such discs. In those days, the certain British Broadcasting Corporation gave us rehearsal-time for just such a reason! Peter Copeland Former Technical Manager, British Library Sound Archive. -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine Sent: 18 February 2006 13:06 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARSCLIST] White haze on older LPs -- cure?? Hi All: I have here a couple of mid-50's mono LPs, excellent condition as far as scratches and grit but they have that dull white-ish haze, which seems to make the vinyl hiss when it's played. Kind of like tape hiss, but less full-spectrum. Not swish-hiss, which seems to happen when this film doesn't uniformly cover the whole record surface. I think this white-gray substance might be leached out of plastic inner sleeves, but why only on one side of the records? VPI fluid doesn't remove the substance but does remove any crud from the grooves because the records play beautifully except for the hiss -- not a single tick/pop and no groove crackle. Any way to remove this or is it now part of the vinyl? -- Tom Fine ************************************************************************** Experience the British Library online at www.bl.uk Help the British Library conserve the world's knowledge. Adopt a Book. www.bl.uk/adoptabook The Library's St Pancras site is WiFI - enabled ************************************************************************** The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this e-mail and notify the [log in to unmask] : The contents of this e-mail must not be disclosed or copied without the sender's consent. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the British Library. The British Library does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. **************************************************************************