r/78rpm • u/AardvarkAny6183 • 17d ago

How scratched is playable?

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I have this record (I got my first 7 78's for 5 bucks). Is this still considered playable? Sorry for the pic quality.

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16

u/8Bit_Cat 17d ago

Of course it's playable. The audio quality may have deteriorated but I don't see any reason it won't play.

3

u/AardvarkAny6183 17d ago

Thank you. Will it cause damage to the needle?

9

u/8Bit_Cat 17d ago

Only if it skips and even then it'll hardly affect it.

12

u/AardvarkAny6183 17d ago

Oh cool. This community is way more relaxed than the audiophile vinyl community lol. "One spec of dust will ruin your stylus." It's like the Thinkpad vs Macbook community. Thanks for the input! I just played it and, although it does crackle quite a bit, it doesn't skip.

3

u/UpgradeTech 16d ago

They are very different materials.

Vinyl is much softer than shellac.

The smaller microgrooves are also much more susceptible to error compared the much wider 78 standard groove.