Is it bad(as in harmful to the lP or stylus) to start in the middle of and lp rather than the smooth spot on the outside edge?

I think it's fine, as long as you set it down nicely.:music:

I do it all the time. If you were to forbid yourself from it, well, there goes your random access. Say you want to listen to one song and it's the final track. You'd have to play the whole side just for one song. Even tapes are better than that.

That's exactly what the cueing mechanism is for. No bad at all as long as it's a soft landing.

Is it bad(as in harmful to the lP or stylus) to start in the middle of and lp rather than the smooth spot on the outside edge?

ZAZ, I used to this this all the time, back in the olden days, with my Pioneer PL-51 Table, and Shure V-15 III Cartridge. then about 12 years ago, with the acquisition of VPI Turntable, and Benz Glider Cartridge, I ceased this practice.

As well as being a PITA, constantly futzing with the cue lever every few minutes, (No wonder why CDs were favored back in the day!) my thinking was that no matter how smoothly one tried gently cueing a Stylus, with a hardness of 10, down upon a record, with a comparitive hardness of less than 1, that damage to the record was bound to happen.

Of course by not doing the jumping around on an LP, you'll of course hear less than stellar cuts from an artist-group, but at least I get to sit for 20, or so minutes, and relax. Another side benefit, may be less wear, and tear on the Stylus cantilever Suspension. Mark

Never a problem in my experience. I prefer cueing by hand and have no difficulty doing it gently.

If you are accurate enough to usually get the stylus down between tracks, I see no harm. I think if the stylus lands right on the peak of a groove, it could cause a pop or tick. I usually start an album at the beginning, I just usually like to hear the whole thing.

Is it bad(as in harmful to the lP or stylus) to start in the middle of and lp rather than the smooth spot on the outside edge?

As so many have already said - be gentle and you'll be fine.

Only a problem if you are trying to listen to the first few tracks!

I didn't elaborate much in my last post, but my reasonings were, on some of my older vinyl, and as well as some vinyl I have bought used in later years from the thrifts, I had begun to notice often crackles, and pops on the intros of tracks, and got to thinking, what is causing this?

it was always especially agravating on tracks that start out quietly, for instance, let's take ELP Tarkus for example.

Searching for answers, I always wondered why this was so, an it was like dang, here's another LP that seems so horrible at the start, and why is this, what is causing it? Are so many records flawed at the intros of a song?

I concluded that "I" was the culprit, ruining my own records by doing this.

I decided that in order to stop this from happening from future purchases, I from then on refrained from cueing into fav tracks on any LP I own.

And I have noticed mucho improvements because of this, and it does make in my experiences a difference, and makes vinyl listening more enjoyable.

Lifting-cueing off from a track might not be quite as detrimental, or have the same possibility of damage, as cueing onto a track. This I still "may" occasionally do on a rare basis.

Usually, if i want to hear a quick medley of tunes, and wish to do a short amount of listening for certain reasons, I'll then fire up the CD Player instead. Mark