Over a course of two visits to Kuala Lumpur - once in December last year and more recently, earlier this month - I have picked up several second-hand vinyl records from the Joe's Mac shop at the Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya. Those weren't the first times that I had set foot into this interesting shop but from my delightful experience during the past two visits, they wouldn't be the last, if I can help it.
Main reason is because of the wide range of second-hand records I found there but the other reasons would be that I found the records clean enough - Joe and his staff must've cleaned them up after acquiring them from the sellers - and there were very little surface scratches too.
Nevertheless, I still had to resort to cleaning up the records in my own way after I had returned to Penang in order to remove most of the surface noises, namely, the pops and crackles. And I must say that the resulting sound was marvellous. I couldn't have been more satisfied. I'll try and describe the records I bought in the next few weeks but in the meantime, excuse me as I play them through my hifi system first!
Joe's records are not actually clean; they only look shiny and clean. In fact, they are sometimes really filthy. His staff probably use a multifiber cloth and some dubious cleaning liquid. The dirt gets stirred around and pushed further into the grooves. I prefer to buy from his pile of 'uncleaned' records. Cheaper too!
ReplyDeleteI've been buying records from Joe on and off for over a decade. In fact I was an early customer when he started off with a small stand right next to the escalator. There have been records that look pristine but have a lot of ticks and pops. I've had to use a professional vacuum record cleaner to clean them up to 5 times before they are reasonably quiet. Some are never quiet.
I trust you found some nice records there. But you need clean them properly. Caveat emptor!