Depending upon the geometric configuration of the stylus that did the damage to the record, a stylus of a different configuration may result in playback that is much better than you might expect.

For example, some of the new styli, such as hyper eliptical, micro ridge, and other names, may play a larger cross section of the record groove than an older stylus that made contact with the groove in a smaller (and now damaged) area.

As far as hiss, ticks and pops, I agree with Soundhound. The cure is worse than the disease. The operation was successfull but the patient (the music) died.

I have made a few transfers from LP to CD by hooking up the line input of a computer sound card (of course the better the sound card, the better the result) to an output of a preamp. Once the music is digitized, I go and manually edit the .wav file to reduce the amplitude of the large (and periodic: once per revolution of the LP) ticks or pop.

The small ticks and pops that are still present are not objectionable and add a "retro touch" to the music.

Paul

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the 1derful1