Open or closed turntable lid?

[Kaboom]

I somewhere read that it was best to leave the lid up while playing a record, since it gave the better sound. Now i hearily agreed with this with my previous piece of crap turntable, where leaving it open would a much more defined soundstage, more extended bass and much less shrilly trebble.
Now imagine my surprise when i buy my Rega P3 and i read on the instruction manual (if you can call the 1-sheet leaflet that...) and it tells me that its best to leave the lid close because it will prevent dust from settling on the record while its spinning and that it will actually improve the sound... Thing is with the Rega i can BARELY hear any difference at all. If anything, the sound seems slightly thicker and warmer with the lid up, but JUST.
so what do you people do when u spin vinyl? lids up or down?

[Resident Loser]

...'way back in the vinyl-assic period the same question was raised...

Open: exposed the disk to dust...

Closed: protected the disk BUT, the static charge from the cover could cause an attraction of the lightweight cart/tone arm and a slight change in tracking force resulting in mistracking.

Since the actual unamplified sounds produced when sylus rides in groove is barely perceptible any sort of "feedback" related issues are negligible IMO i.e. acoustic amplification or smearing or other such whatnot...

Me. I close it after giving it a zap with the old Zerostat...

jimHJJ(...FWIW...)

[JohnMichael]

When I play vinyl on my Rega Planar 2 I remove the dustcover completely. Sounds best to me that way. My turntable is fairly close to the left speaker and I always worried about the dustcover picking up those vibrations and transmitting them to the table.

[Jimmy C]

I somewhere read that it was best to leave the lid up while playing a record, since it gave the better sound. Now i hearily agreed with this with my previous piece of crap turntable, where leaving it open would a much more defined soundstage, more extended bass and much less shrilly trebble.
Now imagine my surprise when i buy my Rega P3 and i read on the instruction manual (if you can call the 1-sheet leaflet that...) and it tells me that its best to leave the lid close because it will prevent dust from settling on the record while its spinning and that it will actually improve the sound... Thing is with the Rega i can BARELY hear any difference at all. If anything, the sound seems slightly thicker and warmer with the lid up, but JUST.
so what do you people do when u spin vinyl? lids up or down?

...the air inside a closed cover may be slightly turbulent, and therefore microphonic. My Perspective has a one or two inch gap when closed... maybe that's why.

Me? I have to remove the cover when playing. The turntable shelf in my wall unit doesn't have enough clearance to fully open the dustcover.

[vinylphile]

As stated earlier : potential mistracking due to static charges and potential problem with microphonics. That said, I leave my dustcover down most of the time (like Resident Loser, I have an old Zerostat I use). The housecats usually have access to the room the equipment is housed in -- when the turntable is used with the lid down there is no issue; with the lid up it's cat bait (watching the revolving disc).

[risabet]

Closed or preferably off if you can. I have no idea why but mine sounds better w/o the dustcover. Unfortunately, the cat thinks the tonearm is a toy so the DC stays on, better a little less transparent sound than a snapped cantilever.

[Glen B]

If I am listening at low levels, I often leave the dust cover on but keep it closed. At louder listening levels, I always remove the dust cover. An open dustcover can act as a microphone and pick up vibrations which end up being transmitted to the stylus.

[ericl]

I leave the dustcover on my P5 when playing records. It keeps dust off and it sounds just fine.

e

[thepogue]

but i'd love to have me ole Zerostat back...i think shes in the attic!!

Pogue

[dean_martin]

I take the dust cover off when playing. I'm lucky when I have an hour to sit and listen. At most I may play 4 albums in a session and usually it's only one side of most albums. But my preference doesn't have anything to do with the sound because I haven't compared. Actually, I developed this habit when I had a table with a stroboscope. It just looked so much cooler when playing w/out the cover.

One thing that might prompt me to try playing a record with the cover down is if today's manufacturers made the smokey gray or black covers like they used to. Today's clear covers just look cheap to me.

[thepogue]

I kinda like the dark cover also...

I take the dust cover off when playing. I'm lucky when I have an hour to sit and listen. At most I may play 4 albums in a session and usually it's only one side of most albums. But my preference doesn't have anything to do with the sound because I haven't compared. Actually, I developed this habit when I had a table with a stroboscope. It just looked so much cooler when playing w/out the cover.

One thing that might prompt me to try playing a record with the cover down is if today's manufacturers made the smokey gray or black covers like they used to. Today's clear covers just look cheap to me.

[StanleyMuso]

can be a real issue. Our cat used to jump up and watch the record going round and round, and gave us no end of amusement. Then, one day, it actually pounced, scratched the record so badly it was unplayable, and snapped an expensive Shibata profile stylus. From then on the cover stayed closed.

As you can imagine, I was livid. Only my wife's intervention spared the poor brute's life.

[dean_martin]

Nice pic, Pogue. I like the land of the rising sun theme and of course the Linn.

[Garrardman]

Mine stays open on my Garrard 301 as, when it's closed, it just touches the top of the arm bearing assembly, which tends to inhibit tracking somewhat!!

[thepogue]

Shes me pride and joy...lol... (but don't tell me speakers

Pogue

Nice pic, Pogue. I like the land of the rising sun theme and of course the Linn.