Stacking records

[remicks]

*****

Anyone have an opinion about this .......


........ a friend advises me that stacking records on top of each other ( instead of being lined up side by side ) into a pile containing more than ten albums will compress and harm the vinyls' grooves ......

????

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[Bernie]

Your friend is correct. Stacking vinyl records should not be done as it places a lot of weight on the records which can warp or even crack them. Store records on a shelf or milk crate like you would books in a library-vertically.

[remicks]

*****

OK ....I go along with that Bernie . But what I really want to know is .... have the albums' actual sound quality been affected ?

For instance , say you go to a garage sale and there is a stack of records a mile high that have been like that for years ........the ones on the bottom ..... any belief that these will probably sound thin because they've had their grooves flattened ?? :-?


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[Noman]

I just went through my mothers classical records. Been stacked in piles with 50 for more than 30 years. Took 3 from the bottom that looked almost unplayed to check them out. Sounds like the cleanest vinyl i have ever heard, no distortion or anything, they are truly mint condition.

[QUINNY]

I've often wondered if this is a myth. I mean, a vinyl record is pressed using how many tons of pressure, when it's fairly hot. I would have thought that more distortion and problems are likely to occur going from that state to being dead cold, than having 100 records stored on top of it. Even with that many, we're only talking a few kilos of pressure per square inch, if that and there's the covers to help distribute the pressure more evenly.

How would they ever test the theory scientifically?

[Disco Funk]

I doubt the records warp when stacked on top of each other, but I believe that's if they aren't near a heat source, and if they are on a completely flat surface. Also, I'm guessing inserts or gimmicky sleeves (like my Muscle Shoals Horns LP designed to look like a pair of jeans with a fly) might distort the shape slightly if its at the bottom of a huge pile.

Disco Funk