Your records

Vinyl (and earlier) records

Gramophone records, which appeared commercially at the turn of the 20th century, hold the information as wiggles in a spiral groove. Playing the record involves physical contact with the stylus, and that is likely to inflict cumulative damage. This is particularly so if there is mis-tracking caused by small particles adhering to the groove wall, or by a worn stylus. Vinyl records are also quite subject to scratches, even with careful handling. In most cases, record playback will be accompanied by annoying clicks and crackle. The older shellac records were more scratch resistent, but quite granular, leading to a succession of small glitches heard as crackle.

Tape recordings

Cassette tapes, and the earlier reel-to-reel tapes, do not normally suffer from clicks, but they may exhibit unpleasant hiss, depending on what noise-reduction methods, such as Dolby, were used when they were created. Unfortunately, tapes also suffer from magnetic deterioration, and from physical stretching of the plastic medium which supports the magnetic recording material.