Re: [ARSCLIST] White haze on older LPs -- cure??

["Copeland, Peter" <Peter.Copeland@xxxxx>]

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:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: 18 February 2006 13:06
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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

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