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We all know by now that vinyl records are the best medium for sound reproduction, and we audiophiles take great pride and care in making sure that our records stay in tip-top condition.  However, there are those times when you run across a diamond in the rough…a rare recording at a garage sale or resale shop and the previous owner was not as conscientious about maintaining the condition of the LP.  Now is the time that we need to roll up our sleeves and figure out what to do with this unknown disc.

Step 1: Clean it up

Some people will say that this is a bad move.  They will suggest that you back it up to digital format first in case you damage the disc while trying to clean it.  My take is that if the disc is in that bad of a condition that it would more likely cause damage to you expensive stylus if played before it is cleaned.  You will have to be the judge.  When it comes to cleaning the disc there are numerous good record cleaning systems out there.  Just don’t be foolish and try to use cleaning products that are not made specifically for this purpose because they will most likely have a chemical reaction with the vinyl that will cause permanent damage.  The idea is to get all of the dirt, oils, smoke residue, and other foreign particles out of the grooves.

Step 2: Is it Warped?

Place the record on your turntable and let it spin so you can check to see if it is balanced.  Some minor warping may not impact the playback, but if it is too warped your tone arm will not respond effectively.  If you come across a badly warped LP then you can try this placing the clean disc between two panes of glass and exposing is to low heat (about 120-150) in your oven for about 10 minutes.  If you are going to try this then I recommend practicing on a garbage record to get a feel for the process before attempting it on anything important.

Step 3: Plow the grooves

This step is reserved for the true audiophiles.  Play the record on your turntable using a smaller needle to ‘dig out’ and residual particles, then re-clean the record.  This will provide you with the best possible playback for this particular record.

Now that you have restored the records to as good as it can get, you can be assured that any noise that remains on the recording will be the result of a structural problem (scratches, nicks, ruts, etc.) and will have to be removed from your digital recordings using software specifically designed to remove ambient noise from digital recording.

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