Noisiest records?

[John]

Since I've begun transferring 78s, I've noticed that some manufacturers made remarkably clean records, while others sound absolutely terrible. Of course, wear-and-tear, stylus width, condition, cleanliness, and other factors probably play a big role in the amount of noise, but in general, some are just noisier than others.

1-Decca, Royal-Blue Columbia, Blue Victors, Bluebird, Philharmonic, and Brunswick are probably the best sounding shellac 78 records in my collection. Even on my mediocre turntable and without much processing, they're very quiet and very clear. Pretty much all of these are electrics, with a couple re-issues here and there.

2-Batwing/Scroll Victor, Blue/Gold or Red Columbia, HMV, and Vox records are fair-to-middlin' in terms of quality. Some are pretty noisy, others aren't, but they tend to clean up nicely once they're ran through filters and re-EQ'd. This includes both acoustics, electrics, and reissued recordings.

3-RCA Victors, some scroll Victors, Flag Columbias, and various off-brand labels (Mercury, Majestic, etc.) tend to sound very noisy, sometimes to the point of barely unlistenable. Sometimes, they clean up OK, but other times.....

Right now, the records that are giving me the most trouble are a set of Red-Seal scroll Victors, mostly from 1923-1927 (late acoustic, early electric era). It's mostly Chopin/Liszt/Schubert piano music, so a lot of times the music's buried under surface noise. Interestingly, the early electrics (and there are 3 or 4 of 'em in there) don't sound much better than the acoustics in the set. The ones from the early '30s are almost breathtaking, but the early ones are really underwhelming sound-wise. Any reason why?


Anyways, how about you guys?

[52089]

Wartime Diamond Discs, the engraved shield label records with the date codes like "B10" or "A8". Surface noise can easily drown out the music on these.

[Wolfe]

Labels have their ups and downs, due to X factors, war, etc.

I tend to be most frustrated with Columbia in and around the 'teens. Particularly some of the Banner label classical discs that are not only noisy but not recorded without a lot of volume, so that the music has to fight with the noise, which also happens to be the kind of noise that NR tools can only partially mitigate.

[John]

I've actually got a little idea that I've been wanting to try out where I rip a 78 at 45 or 33 and speed it back up digitally. Since most of the noise is on the surface and not in the record, theoretically when the record's sped up back to 78, most of the surface hiss will be above the range of the recording, which means you'll get more sound outta the record

BRB trying it out

[ImperialGuardsman]

I've noticed that the few Columbia Viva-Tonal records I have, even when they are worn, have very quite surfaces. That, and the recodings seem very strong. I like them, in many cases, than my victor scroll records. Of course, I use a Columbia 710 for them, so maybe it preforms bettewr with its own brand.

[Wolfe]

I've noticed that the few Columbia Viva-Tonal records I have, even when they are worn, have very quite surfaces. That, and the recodings seem very strong. I like them, in many cases, than my victor scroll records. Of course, I use a Columbia 710 for them, so maybe it preforms bettewr with its own brand.

I like Viva-Tonal records very much. The best of them are better than Victor scrolls, both in sound quality and surface, in my opinion.

I've actually got a little idea that I've been wanting to try out where I rip a 78 at 45 or 33 and speed it back up digitally. Since most of the noise is on the surface and not in the record, theoretically when the record's sped up back to 78, most of the surface hiss will be above the range of the recording, which means you'll get more sound outta the record

BRB trying it out

If you do that with the RIAA curve, the entire EQ spectrum will be thrown off. But it's possible to compensate for it. I've the improved results from acoustic 78's by "ripping" hem at half-speed or so. Electric records that have a lot of range, not as much.

[Harold Aherne]

Late 20s Broadway records (i.e. the NYRL label) are kinda gritty, even when they're visually in good condition. Banner was another label that must have used a mediocre shellac mix for many pressings, as the ones I have from around 1929-30 are noisy.

Grey Gull and Paramount sometimes have less than stellar reputations among collectors, but in my experience their records from around 1920 sound fine, as long as they've been well cared for. Arto and mid-20s Emerson are also good when the records are in decent shape.

Spoken word recordings and singers with minimal accompaniment often sound worse on noisy shellac than a dance band would on the same pressing, since the resulting noise reduces the clarity of their words.

-HA

[CarlosV]

There are so many noisy labels that it would be impossible to rate which is the worst. Just think about all the labels that popped up in the 40s, like National, Savoy etc which seemed made out of recycled asphalt. In the 20s, when most of the patents that held up control of production to two or three major companies expired, a host of cheap labels spread around the globe,many of them with appalling pressing quality, like Grey Gull and the like.

If we confine the poll to major labels, the English HMVs/Columbias/Parlophones from mid 30s onwards are strong contenders for the noisiest surfaces. After the competitors merged into a single company, EMI, they all started to be pressed out of the same factory, following the same low standards of a minimum common denominator. The crackle of these prints defeat any softly recorded music like instrumental solos or chamber music.

[epigramophone]

The wartime EMI pressings with their high content of recycled material are among the noisiest, and we can only imagine what treasure was lost in the recycling drive.

Pre-1931 laminated Columbias are among the smoothest and quietest, even when worn.

I am not the only collector whose idea of perfection would be to have the HMV Celebrity Catalogue pressed on Columbia's silent surfaces.

[FloridaClay]

Wartime Diamond Discs, the engraved shield label records with the date codes like "B10" or "A8". Surface noise can easily drown out the music on these.

While I have some noisy ones in almost all labels, especially if badly worn, I guess I would have to vote for Wartime DDs also. Almost all of the ones I have are very noisy.

Clay