Dear All, A brief reply from a Britisher. The problem cited by Tom Fine used to occur here; and when I was working for a certain British Broadcasting Corporation which shall remain nameless, I found a cure. The idea was to use an Ortofon SPU-GTE pickup cartridge. This was the best pickup cartridge with an ellipsoidal stylus, with extremely low "tip mass." By inserting small pieces of cut-up rubber-bands between the stylus and the remainder of the headshell, one could increase the downward pressure on the stylus without also increasing the tip mass. Then one could play the disc with a downward pressure of seven or eight grams - and the whitish haze would simply be removed from the groove. It formed minute piles of stringy material round the stylus, which would eventually break away; and a human-being puffing gently could blow the patches of haze off the turntable. After one such treatment, I could get a satisfactory transmission from such discs. In those days, the certain British Broadcasting Corporation gave us rehearsal-time for just such a reason! Peter Copeland Former Technical Manager, British Library Sound Archive.