Vinyl

Even more when needed.....I actually use one of those flat paint brushes like this...The brush part is not harsh does not scratch record. The bristles are short and get into grooves good. Long bristles will only lay flat on the record surface and not get into the grooves.

I use the brush in the video for the water rinse.

Sorry to jump into your thread guys- when i used to import a lot of US/ Canadian pressings i was under the impression that a lot of the visible 'textural' differences visible in US pressings were due to a difference in the manufacturing process; something to do with the temperature of the water used for cooling post-pressing and that it does not make much difference (if any) to the sound quality but put off lots of people in the European market. I had quite a lot of people either complaining or just concerned as they could see these surface 'defects' and i have always been at pains to point the fact that it doesnt generally affect the play-back. European and UK pressings had some pretty dodgy batches of vinyl during the 70's and used a fair amount of re-cycled material when needed.. but overall the consensus of opinion during the 70's and 80's (correct or not) was Best- Japan, next- Germany, next- Europe/ UK and Canada, then- USA and last- other Asian countries and Communist countries. Ive found over the years, lots of examples that de-bunk all that but it does seem that was how it was seen over here. About 25% of my collection is US pressings and overall they are easily comparable to what was available to elsewhere in the world.

Now, Sleeves... thats another matter..

 

Especially if the reason you're buying vinyl is because you have superhuman hearing that can detect the 16 bit 44.1 kHz limitations of CD music. 

 

A day or two ago, I was watching the video:

 

 

which mentioned (around the 3:50 mark) how crappy US vinyl is compared to other countries such as Canada and Japan.

 

He is missing the 2003 30th anniversary version, which is easily one of the best. It was done by Kevin Gray and Doug Sax using the A2/B3 plates. This is the version I think I currently prefer, against my 5th UK pressing. The bottom end of the 2003 version is lush and deep where needed. Don't get me wrong the UK one I have is very good, I've never heard a '73 original UK pressing, all these guys call it the best. But you need about $2K minimum to find one. Ain't happin'.......

Nothing technically wrong here. What is a bit messy is that he is talking about the digital capturing method against the vinyl playback medium. What he misses is the fact that the most common digital playback medium is the CD and it cannot go below 20Hz nor above 20KHz, whereas the vinyl medium can go below and above that.

The CD cannot hold that kind of frequency range so it should be described as a lossy medium due to redbook limitations. In fact both are a lossy medium in that the vinyl cannot go above about 80dB of dynamic range and the CD can get to about 92dB, but that is of less concern overall.

What is key for vinyl playback is the RIAA curve, which is why a phono preamp should be a focus on for getting the most accurate reproduction off the record.

I'm still trying to figure out that cartridge at the start of the video..WTH is that???