[78-L] Removal of hiss on 78 transfers

[Jeff Lichtman]

>When David discussed this last time I didn't really mean to put you
>down, just to explain like Jeff has done this time that the laser player
>that has been developed has more trouble with dirt and wear than does a
>stylus which can shove aside some of the dirt.

The first thing to do for noise reduction is to clean the record. 
There shouldn't be any dirt.

>  The steel needle is ground into the shape of the
>entire groove and hits the entire groove from top to bottom.  Our modern
>points try to find a "sweet spot" on the walls that has not been hit
>before.  But that is impossible because ALL the wall is hit every time a
>steel needle is used.

My practical experience (and that of many others) is that the stylus 
tip size usually makes a huge difference in signal to noise ratio. I 
could theorize about why this is true, but I'd be talking through my 
hat. I'd think the best way to understand what's happening would be 
to play records with steel needles and examine the results under a 
microscope. Someone must have already done this, but I've never seen 
microphotographs of groove wear.

I'd expect, BTW, that the fact that a steel needle covers so much of 
the groove wall would help eliminate some noise but make other noise 
worse. A steel needle should be more likely to track properly over a 
pit in a groove wall, but it would also be more likely to be 
deflected by a protrusion in one part of the groove wall.


                        -        Jeff Lichtman
                                 jeff at swazoo.com
                                 Check out Swazoo Koolak's Web Jukebox at
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