Present day, the sound quality standard for vinyl rips is very low - even with professional DJ's. Playing a combination of vinyl and different sounding digital files in a DJ-set can become challenging. Poor rips cause ear fatigue and simply don't do justice to often beautifully produced music, losing a lot of its sparkle and definition in the process.

These low-grade vinyl recordings come as no surprise. As with many technical processes, a lack of know-how and appropriate equipment will result in an unsatisfactory outcome. A low-budget stylus will never be able to track the groove as accurately as a professional one and sonic information will get lost in translation. A dedicated high quality phono pre-amp will amplify the signal more adequately and a high budget AD converter will capture the signal more precisely than a basic sound card.

The contact area between the tip of the stylus and the groove is so small that it can result in very high local temperatures up to 160°C, damaging the top layer of the record microscopically and wearing out the vinyl with every play. Especially in a club environment, DJ needles are often fitted with a high tracking force hence putting extra strain on the grooves.

With this in mind, it's clear that archiving precious records before playing them regularly and wearing them out irreversibly, is a wise thing to do.

For more information on the individual steps of the digitization process, head to the Services section.

We've also added a section with A/B comparison tests demonstrating the differences between recordings with or without cleaning process, with or without restoration and using different budget equipment.