Don't play a side more than once a day????

[Etnier]

I used to drive my friends crazy by following advice I'd received somewhere: don't play a vinyl side more than once per day- to give the vinyl time to 'recover' or 'harden back up' or something. I dunno...

Does anyone follow this rule any longer???

[bogle111]

Decca cartridges produced a white paper type blurb about this topic in the early '70's and showed photographic proof of groove distortion caused. I believe it may hold some solid truth.

I used to adhere to this. I don't now get enough chance to listen to Vinyl as it is, let alone the same side twice.

[hoolio]

Came across this too but I buy vinyl to play so if I want to listen to a record more than once a day then I will.

[Etnier]

Thanks folks. Would love to read that Decca white paper. I'll report back if I find it. Other comments?

[bogle111]

Thanks folks. Would love to read that Decca white paper. I'll report back if I find it. Other comments?

It came out in the very early '70's and looked like an A4 ad sheet. Came with my first Decca London. Had good pics on it of "used" once and used "multiple times" grooves. Have tried to find a copy to no avail. They also stated that very low tracking weights weren't ideal either. (I think this was aimed at Shure, as the Decca's were recommended at nearly 3gms.

Please let me know if you find a copy.

Regards
Pete

[cristo]

If this were so, I've damaged parts of every record I've ever taped,
since I audition some of the loud spots first to set a record level.

Sounds unlikely to me with a healthy reasonable stylus and modest tracking forces.
As a reality check, look at the threads here speculating on how much tracking force
it takes to damage a vinyl groove.

[MonkeyBoy]

I never heard this until I bought my first MFSL record. In the insert in every record they would tell about the damage to records when you play them without a rest. they also claimed that virgin vinyl made this unnecessary. I too used to play the loudest parts to set the recording level. Since I no longer record my albums that isn't an issue anymore.

[omcn7]

Does anyone have a powerful microscope? If so we could conduct our own study of this phenomenon...

[atomlow]

I just called Mobile Fidelity and talked to a analog specialist about playing records more than once a day. From what I got out of our conversation it's really not too big of an issue. As with anything he said there are a lot of variables: turntable setup, cleaning records, cleaning stylus etc. that you have to factor in when preserving your records. I left the conversation saying to him, "so I won't worry if I play a record twice a day." and he replied I think you'll be alright. The conversation went something like that.

This thread got me a bit worked up because I sometimes listen to a record up to 3 times a day. Especially if I'm working on something I'll keep flipping it until I want to pick something else. I really haven't noticed any wear on my records. The only records I've damaged were my records I had in Junior High with my cheap turntable that wasn't setup properly, one of those where you can't set it up.

The more you play a record the more wear it will have.

[freelancelot]

My understanding is the force of the stlus on the vinyl causes considerable heat, which softens the groove walls and makes them susceptible to warping and marring if you put the stylus through the grooves again before they've properly cooled and hardened. The guidelines I've read generally recommend a 30-40 minute wait before playing the same side again, not a whole day. Of course a stylus tracking at 3/4 g is going to do a lot less of that heating and softening than one tracking at 2 g, due to the increased force on the groove...

[kelvinMunson]

This myth has been discussed several times already; see viewtopic.php?t=27421

[mickb69]

this can't be right. P.V.C has a melt temperature of about 170 to 185 degrees, i know that the grooves are tiny and thus extra fragile but still, the cartridge can't create that much friction, besides, the stylus is constantly moving, it won't stay on it's contact point long enough for the friction to create enough heat, every cycle it has moved on to the next set of grooves.

the tiniest bits of vinyl at it's necessary melt point would just carbonise and they would have to be subjected to sustained heat.

there's only one way to find out, try it.
also, someone else remarked on here that they had a neighbour that played kylie minogues "i should be so lucky" repeatedly, and it could'nt kill it, and that was on a higher speed 45 single

[sknutson]

Guess if your Decca cartridge tracks at 3gms I would only play once. That is crazy high tracking force.

[flavio81]

Guess if your Decca cartridge tracks at 3gms I would only play once. That is crazy high tracking force.

Not really. It still safe for your records with a 0.7 mil stylus. Up to 4 grams is safe, some sources would say 5 grams too.

As for the "don't play a side more than once a day", that was probably true for a mediocre tracking cartridge. Loescher (of Lenco) did tests and got away with at least 1000 (ONE THOUSAND) sequential plays on the same record with no significant loss of quality using a good Shure cartridge of the late 60s. He claimed more than 2000 (TWO thousand) plays under the same conditions if using his wet playback fluid (which would leave a residue on the groove btw...)

This was an AES paper with photomicrographs and everything.