Temperature for storing records

[bart1927]

I live in a very small apartment, so I don´t have a dedicated record room, I just keep my records in the living room. The temperature lies between 63 (night) and 70 (day), unless it´s a hot summer day (80). I made sure my record cabinet stands in the shade all day and is not too close to the central heating. Are my records safe in these conditions? What about humidity? I don´t know how exactly how humid it is in here, but I'm guessing between 50 and 60%. What are the official guidelines for storing 78's with regards to temperature and humidity?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[bart1927]

I live in an almost tropical climate, often with very high humidity, and I've never noticed any damage occuring to my disc's.
Cylinders on the other hand can be a worry

What started me worrying was something I read about the well-known HMV-crackle. The writer claimed that this was not caused by inferior materials used to make those records (as opposed to better quality materials used for Victor records) but instead it was caused by the British climate. I have a couple of recordings both on HMV and Victor, and without exception those Victors sound better. Not only less crackle, but also much less distortion (or none) on loud passages, another phenomenon I have observed on HMV records, even those that are visually graded E- or better.

And since the British climate is not very different from our Dutch climate (maybe they have a little more rain) I am afraid that even my pristine Victors will eventually sound just as crackly as those HMV´s.

[OrthoSean]

Yeah, Shane is right. 78s are pretty sturdy and can stand up to lots of extremes more so than cylinders. I have about 30,000 78s stored in my basement. This time of year, it is in the mid 50s to 60s, in the summer it can get into the 80s there. Never been a problem. Dampness is more of an issue than humidity with 78s. Prolonged exposure to dampness could possibly cause some kind of mildew issue. Once I actually left a milk crate full of reject 78s on the floor and ended up losing power one day and having a small flood. Normally my 78s are at least a foot off the floor and I've never had a problem. This crate sat in a few inches of water for a day or so. Once they all dried out and I patted them all dry, they were all OK. I wouldn't trust laminated Columbias or Diamond Discs to hold up well like this though!

I was talking about this very HMV crackle problem last evening on the phone with another collector (you must also belong to 78-L!). I've had a large stash of HMVs that are basically new (these came from a university archive and most were still in HMV and Columbia shipping boxes). These mostly play silently. My basement is relatively dry most of the time and humidity levels can vary greatly, but after five or so years of having these stored in my basement, there haven't appeared to have been any ill effects!

Bottom line, Bart, it sounds like you shouldn't have any problems.

Sean

[bart1927]

Thanks for all the feedback. I feel a little more at ease now. I also had my doubts about the HMV-crackle theory. It may be humid in the UK, but aren´t there parts in America that are also very humid? I don´t know the composition of HMV records, but I still think they were made from inferior material compared to Victors.

[richardh]

oooo, HMV crackle...this is a subject that can raise lots of discussion!

Its a tricky one....climate or materials.....I'm on the fence on this one. I have a large number of HMV 78s from the teens, 20's, 30's and 40's. I also have some Aussie HMV laminated pressings from the 30's / 40's.

I can never decide if the HMV crackle is a climate or materials problem that has evolved as the shellack mix has aged. Who knows what they tossed into the mixing pot. I think the first thing to remember that UK HMV pressings from the periods above were all designed to be played with steel needles. They were tough...and contained an abrasive material to grind the needle down to the correct shape. I guess Victor records started off this way but they seemed to have changed to a quieter form of shellac - I assume without the abrasive fillers HMV used...once lighter electrical pick ups became the norm (in the 30's?). The down side is that they don't seem to be as tough and if you play a mid 30's Victor pressing on an acoustic machine with a steel needle then rapid record wear is likely to occur (in my experience).

I have some HMV pressings from the 20's / 30's which are superbly quiet...however I also have some where the crackle and hiss is so loud as to virtually obscure the recording! I jest not! I can't beleive that HMV would have let such a poor pressing pass its quality control...always possible...but I would have thought given that in the UK records were relatively expensive and luxury item ...that if they were this bad I am sure the customer would of returned them and complained. I can only assume that the crackle has developed and become much worse over time. Dont get me wrong, they were never silent...but I think that some pressings have become much worse over time. Howeve whether it is climate / aging materials or even a combination of both I have no idea!

Boy I seem to be writing long posts today!

Thats my view anyway!

RJ

[richardh]

oops! Bart, after spouting out all the above I forgot to say that I dont think you'll have any problems with your records given your storage temperatures and humidity!


Just one thing to add to the above...if you play war time UK pressings..they can sound really horrid, But then they did use ground up old 78's when materials ran short! Thankfully HMV, in particular, re-issued lots of their war time and pre war catologue in nice post war shiny smooth shellac! Now they sound really nice

RJ

[OrthoSean]

Another point that was made on 78-L which I hadn't really thought about are the early, say pre-1920 HMV and related family pressings. These, if in clean shape, are often silent (I've never heard a crackly one and I have loads of them). They suffered from heavy wear though I assume because the shellac mixture was softer. This was pointed out by another transfer guy (and I think he's right). He also mentioned something being added to the mix to make them "harder" which could have broken down and caused crackle. Anyhow, it IS interesting. I do think climate may play some part in either speeding up or slowing the process though, I'm not certain exactly how.

When I picked up the HMV 163 this summer, the records that came with it were mostly HMV and Columbias from the UK. They were certainly stored in much less than favorable conditions for years, judging by the mildew on most pf the playing surfaces. Once cleaned properly, I started to play the few I cared enough about to keep and noticed a huge difference from one to the next. One could be nice and quiet while the next one could be noisy as hell.

Strange...but interesting...

Sean

[richardh]

Interestingly, the very earliest HMV disks I have are, as you say sean, almost silent! Very strange. As an example here is a very early HMV - although this one seems to predate the use of HMV name and just refers to the Gramophone and type writer Company!

http://www.box.net/shared/c8i2tb3ynb

The "singer" is Harry Lauder. The record Label is very nice too and will be doing a scan for the label archives

RJ

[bart1927]

I can't beleive that HMV would have let such a poor pressing pass its quality control...always possible...but I would have thought given that in the UK records were relatively expensive and luxury item ...that if they were this bad I am sure the customer would of returned them and complained. I can only assume that the crackle has developed and become much worse over time. Dont get me wrong, they were never silent...but I think that some pressings have become much worse over time. Howeve whether it is climate / aging materials or even a combination of both I have no idea!RJ

I noticed the crackle is much less pronounced when I play certain HMV records on my Columbia portable compared to how they sound on my modern equipment. So maybe the buyers just didn´t hear it because of the limited frequency range of their equipment. Based on what I heard acoustic gramophones were still being bought and sold in Europe when electric was already the standard in the USA.

[beaumonde]

The matter of HMV crackle (not on laminated HMV pressings, but only the UK ones, and also afflicting post-1931 Columbias) has been discussed often on various forums and among collectors. Apparently these were not crackly when new, but the shellac mix rendered the record susceptible to degradation by bacteria or mold at certain levels of moisture. Apparently UK storage facilities were pretty moist.