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You are here: Home / Archives for Cleaning - Care

LP Sleeves, Jackets and Care

August 11, 2015 by Bill Hart

    Veteran LP collectors might regard what follows as overkill, or even contrary to their practice or experience. So I offer this photo-essay of various ways to handle, package and manage LPs after they have been properly cleaned, along with some cautionary notes and guidelines, recognizing that there are many ways to approach the subject and a few “absolutes,” mainly having to do with the fact that some plastics used for outer jacket and inner sleeves, particularly PVC, are known to interact with vinyl records, and should be avoided. You can pick and choose your own method... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care, Features

Vinyl LP Cleaning- A Photo Essay

July 6, 2015 by Bill Hart

  Readers new to vinyl LP cleaning might benefit from this quick photo essay. Having just posted a capsule review of The Doobie Brothers- Toulouse Street on the site, I happened to notice another early copy in my “to be cleaned” pile.  It was a cheap bin find from some record store in Texas that was shipped back to NY with several hundred other records of mine: It looks like I paid $4.99 for this one and it is a pretty early pressing from the Columbia Santa Maria plant.   Under “normal” light, and in the kinds of photos you’ll often see on the web,... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care, In Brief

Cleaning Vinyl Records- My Personal Odyssey

March 20, 2015 by Bill Hart

  My current approach to record cleaning grew from the casual use of a basic vacuum record cleaning machine (a VPI) to more studied efforts to improve the sound quality of older vinyl records that suffered from various forms of contamination. See Record Cleaning- An Introduction.  I was cognizant of basic “good practices,” including those described by the U.S. Library of Congress website, which is a reasonable starting place, see Cleaning and Archival Standards of Care. But, in many ways, my more recent experience went beyond these basic practices. An Oversimplified History of... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care, In Brief

Cleaning and Archival Standards of Care

February 3, 2015 by Bill Hart 4 Comments

  My visit to the Audiovisual Conservation facilities of the U.S. Library of Congress was prompted by a desire to learn about the steps a first class archival facility uses to preserve and store recorded media, in particular, vinyl records. There is a wealth of products available to the consumer for record care and cleaning, but very little concrete information about the processes or their effectiveness, apart from what is supplied by the various product manufacturers; most of what I learned was based on personal experience, experimenting with different cleaning methods, machines and... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care, In Brief

Record Cleaning- An Introduction

February 2, 2015 by Bill Hart

Introduction: For decades, I had a pretty casual relationship with record cleaning.   I own a lot of records, bought my first vacuum record cleaning machine in the mid-80’s and didn’t give record cleaning much thought:  I’d use one brand or another of commercially available fluid (there were fewer options in those days and occasionally I’d mix up some home brew), apply it, vacuum it using the “cleaning machine” and done. Clean is clean, right? What started me down the path of exploring vinyl record cleaning in more depth over the past couple years was... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care

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In Brief:

There Is No “Magic Bullet” in Hi-Fi

There Is No “Magic Bullet” in Hi-Fi No Magic Solutions I’ve spent some time on the audio chat fora over the years. Many popular threads these days are devoted to cheap improvements that can be made using audiophile “tweaks” or repurposed non-audiophile products. These can be applied to isolate gear, enhance the signals or connections or otherwise address some perceived problem that, once solved, offers to raise the level of music reproduction. It’s like a cheap solution to upgrade your system: from audiophile fuses, special wires (beyond simply having a high-quality interconnect, speaker wire or power cable) and other tweaks, to contact fluids and other things that you can attach to power sources, equipment, or place in the room (bowls, various harmonizers or active resonators, noise harvesters, etc.) This is apart from room treatment, which is sui generis; that is, every situation is … [Read More...]

Milt Ward Reissue-release date May 6, 2022

Milt Ward Reissue-release date May 6, 2022  Andreas Vingaard, of Frederiksberg Records, dropped me a note that the Milt Ward & Virgo Spectrum record about which much has been written here will be available on vinyl beginning on May 9, 2022. However, several promo emails today, Friday, May 6, 2022 say the record is available NOW via Bandcamp (see link below). The reissue was done with the participation of Milt Ward’s family and includes comprehensive notes in a booklet. Given the price of original pressings, this should be worthwhile even if not taken from the master tape. I plan to get a copy and we’ll do a shoot-out with my “OG” pressing. I’m sure some of you are willing to brook a little sonic compromise to get access to an otherwise very hard to find, expensive spiritual jazz rarity. At the time of this writing there is one copy on Discogs in NM condition for media for over … [Read More...]

Milt Ward Virgo Reissue Coming from Frederiksberg

Although I don't have all the details yet, I have learned that Frederiksberg Records, a small, eclectic label from New York, is in the process of reissuing the hard to find (and even harder to pay for) jazz obscurity, Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum. You can find out more by keeping tabs on Frederiksberg's Bandcamp page, https://frederiksbergrecords.bandcamp.com   I'm told there is a bootleg out there so be careful. Frederiksberg is doing this project with the participation of the family of Milt Ward, which is to be applauded. Hopefully, this will give more access to a great jazz record at a reasonable price. The Roots album reissue from Frederiksberg (which is sold out on vinyl on the Frederiksberg Records bandcamp site) still appears to be available through some online retailers as a pre-order, so that's another one to jump on now if you can find it-- the original is extremely pricey and … [Read More...]

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond With a name derived from a character in the same literary work as the band name so famously identified with the Walter Becker-Donald Fagen duo, Clem Snide has an extensive discography, typically cataloged as “alt country.” This latest release is the work of one of its founding members, Eef Barzelay, who was responsible for much of the songwriting and singing. According to his bio, Barzelay suffered some serious bumps in the road during the last decade, including a failing marriage and financial ruin. At the same time, he learned that Scott Avett was a fan and they found inspiration in each other, leading to this album- a collaboration of artistry where Avett and Barzelay share some writing credits and Avett produces. The result is a fresh, upbeat set of tunes that are appealing in their simplicity and refreshing in their sincerity. The band is first tier … [Read More...]

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence Muriel Grossmann continues her quest for musical ascension on Reverence, which was released on vinyl in early December, 2019 on the RR Gems label as a 2 LP set. The compositions are Grossmann’s, and the band is much the same as the group of seasoned musicians with whom she has worked for some time (and detailed in the review of her Golden Rule), but for one notable exception: the addition of a keyboard player who brings that rich, woody Hammond B-3 sound to a series of compositions devoted to Africa. In some ways, Ms. Grossmann’s exploration of the roots of jazz deliberately eschews any superficial attempt to make African music. Instead, she draws inspiration from its influences, which are wide ranging and deep—you can hear rhythm and blues sounds mixed with more traditional African instrumentation and polyrhythms and come away with something that is both … [Read More...]

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