The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Just for others with the same problem, I use a player piano vacuum that has a built in small variac. Its been working great so far. Similarly, I run it at about 75% of its max and that got rid of the whistling.
You can get them on ebay for about $300.

Its weird, I have far more clicks and pops after the ultrasonic bath than leaving it with antistatic residue and any debris from cutting. I even static gun it and pass it under the ionizer after washing. The disk is nice and clean though, and I'd love to be able to send this instead of one that has ...

I used a lot of anti static too, so I tried washing today. Weirdly I got a ton of pops and crackles afterwards, and this was in an ultrasonic bath with de-ionized water.
Have any of you noticed records to be noisier after a rinse? I had high hopes sadly.

Just wondering if people wash their lathe cuts before shipping, like maybe a one of those vacuum machines or an ultrasonic cleaner?
Or does this not really have any value as a final step?

cheers

Thanks for the suggestions Mark. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s the amp as it still hums when the amps are powered off and disconnected from my head. I cut a groove with the heater wires and audio leads of the head disconnected, and it was still present. The unheated stylus was noisier in surface ...

Thanks for the suggestion, it made me realize that despite having my amps off, I didn't disconnected them from the speaker terminals on my lathe. Regrettably the 120hz is still there with no audio device connected. It increases and decreases in volume sometimes which makes me think its something mec...

Hello I’ve been cutting more lately and have noticed a floor of 120hz hum creeping into my cuts on a presto 8dg. I had terrible dirty ground noise and I cleaned it up with an Equitech, dedicated outlet, and better cable management. But now with the garbage out I can hear 120 mostly continuously, but...

Hi Markrob

Thanks for taking the time to explain. That makes sense now. I forgot about the embossing option, although I hear in stereo its not as effective to emboss.
So have you found that you need to angle it slightly toward the rotation like some suggest, or is straight down ok?

I was wondering if someone could kindly educate me as to why the stylus faceting is meant to point towards the user, instead of the other way around. My natural inclination is to think of the faceting like the bow of a ship, and faced it towards the oncoming plastic. Eg, turned around 180 degrees. I...

I have gone with hypex 1200 based mono blocks that are solid state, and other pieces with tubes for outboard gear. You’re going to be paying 10k+ USD for a stereo amp that has tubes and can do 8 ohms 450 watts per channel. You probably only need 80% of those 450 watts but you need a tremendous amoun...

It depends on the lathe. Stereo valve amps would be very expensive.

Thanks Markrob, makes sense.

I’m fortunate enough to be running the Bettermaker EQ so it’s like Fabfilter controlling an analog section. My RiAA curve will be generated by a sweep/noise for the actual head and dialed in digitally. I think it might be the best of both worlds.

Sorry, but is Souri’s style of head an open or closed loop? I’m not as technically informed to follow the last two posts, unfortunately.
Should I be reconsidering placing the EQ last with this type of head?

This is very informative, thank you for the detailed replies.

I’m going to take your example and put the limiter last. It sounds like the best way to get a cleaner and slightly generally louder cut, loudness war aside.

Interesting replies, thanks. It sounds like its a good idea to control that energy despite the risk of squash. Markrob, but one concern is the potential risk of changing the whole curve by limiting it. If the treble curve is being limited, it seems that one might be driving up the lower register too...

Hello all I’m redoing my mastering chain to be mostly analog, except for the deessing, and am curious about other people’s signal paths and reasoning. If you had an outboard EQ, and/or RiAA box, to do your RiAA curve and cutterhead resonance duties, would you have that as your last piece before your...

@fredbissnette Just curious, how is dropping to 33 giving you less wow and flutter? Is there something particular to 45 on your machine, or is this a universal issue that 45 rpm introduces more w&f from mechanics/physics? I’ve been thinking about this option vs 1/2 speed, to not lose as much bass in...

Thank you for your kind reply Discomo. It’s great to hear you’ve gotten good results with a stock system. And I will certainly be taking your advice and others’ about the thousand blank learning curve. I’ll likely order a few hundred blanks and a stylus now from Steven as learning material, assuming...

Hello I apologize if this topic exists, but I was unable to find it. I am a new member, but long time lurker. My VR has been underused but I’m getting back into cutting. Has anyone tried the new My Shank Nightingale feedback cutter head? It’s a substantially pricier option than Souri’s, but I’m havi...