Vinyl Records Look So Cool, But....

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Vinyl Records Look So Cool, But....

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Topgunz
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#2550023 26-Aug-2020 14:30

I like the colour, they do look very cool. I got an Audio Technica AT-LP3 recently for a birthday. I still have all my 80's collection but most are 12" singles so lots of turning and switching. I also have a bunch of my dad's that are pretty dirty.

This arrived just now, I purchased the full set that includes CD, cassette and t-shirt :)

Movieman

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#2550032 26-Aug-2020 14:36

Here are two more yet to be released coloured vinyl's that I would just have to have. Blimmin' Gorgeous!

Also, not available in NZ.

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Fred99

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#2550036 26-Aug-2020 14:44

ToPGuNZ:

I still have all my 80's collection but most are 12" singles so lots of turning and switching. I also have a bunch of my dad's that are pretty dirty.

12" 45 singles are usually very good - they overcome some of the technical limitations on dynamic range / deep bass - so they could mix them with a lot more punch than 45s or LPs. They've possibly got high value as used records too - so look after them.

Movieman

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#2550038 26-Aug-2020 14:45

ToPGuNZ:

I like the colour, they do look very cool. I got an Audio Technica AT-LP3 recently for a birthday. I still have all my 80's collection but most are 12" singles so lots of turning and switching. I also have a bunch of my dad's that are pretty dirty.

This arrived just now, I purchased the full set that includes CD, cassette and t-shirt :)

Do you still have a cassette player?

old3eyes

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#2550042 26-Aug-2020 14:50

Fred99:

Movieman:

🤣 Why would they do that? Well, it would sound like some of my old records that I never, ever cleaned, or took care of. Teenagers eh?

Sparklehorse "It's a Wonderful Life" title track. Was released first in 2001, the 180g vinyl recently. I just looked them up on Wiki - the lead singer is dead - so can't ask him, and the stated "genre" of their music includes "Lo-Fi" - which I never really thought of as a "genre" - more a "mistake".

Some of my old records going back to the '70s are still good condition. The thing that really makes me sad is that so many have disappeared. Probably in the late '70s / early 80s, people would take records with them to parties etc, so probably left behind - or accidentally taken by someone else.

I still have some LPs going back to the early 1960s and they sound great no doubt because they were true mono or stereo not like the 1970& 80s mono/stereo compatible junk made here.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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Topgunz
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#2550043 26-Aug-2020 14:50

Movieman:

ToPGuNZ:

I like the colour, they do look very cool. I got an Audio Technica AT-LP3 recently for a birthday. I still have all my 80's collection but most are 12" singles so lots of turning and switching. I also have a bunch of my dad's that are pretty dirty.

This arrived just now, I purchased the full set that includes CD, cassette and t-shirt :)

Do you still have a cassette player?

No. I did get one to try out again on my cassettes quite a few years ago and they sounded really, really bad. Not going to unwrap this one. Just to keep to show the kids what one looks like. They really enjoyed me showing them how vinyl worked.

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Movieman

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#2550045 26-Aug-2020 14:53

Yeah, can't see cassettes ever making a comeback. But browsing the recordstore.co.uk website, I was surprised how many cassettes were still being sold as new releases. There must be people that still use them.

Fred99

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#2550100 26-Aug-2020 15:25

Nothing would surprise me any more. Problem with cassettes "coming back" is availability of players / recorders that still work. Drive belts turn to sticky gum, pinch wheels go hard and crack, plastic gets brittle, stuff rusts, and parts supply is probably near zero, half the companies that made them seem to have vanished. A turntable is something you could make yourself, the tone arms, cartridges etc never really vanished thanks to DJs etc, and a few purists paying high prices for high-end gear.

Movieman

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#2550108 26-Aug-2020 15:35

Anyone looking for a cassette player? Here ya go 😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jc8K9qutds

old3eyes

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#2550126 26-Aug-2020 16:07

Fred99: Nothing would surprise me any more. Problem with cassettes "coming back" is availability of players / recorders that still work. Drive belts turn to sticky gum, pinch wheels go hard and crack, plastic gets brittle, stuff rusts, and parts supply is probably near zero, half the companies that made them seem to have vanished. A turntable is something you could make yourself, the tone arms, cartridges etc never really vanished thanks to DJs etc, and a few purists paying high prices for high-end gear.

You can still buy USB cassette players that pug in to a PC and transfer tape to it. I bought one about 2 years ago to transfer old family cassettes made in the 1970 / 80s.

Regards,

Old3eyes

elpenguino

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#2550129 26-Aug-2020 16:15

Fred99: Nothing would surprise me any more. Problem with cassettes "coming back" is availability of players / recorders that still work.

All true but cassettes and their players just don't have the charm of a record player. Playing a record involves a really tactile ritual - searching through the covers, sliding the record out and so on.

Plus cassettes don't even sound very good or age well. Skipping a song now is as much of an anticlimax as it always was.

I recently got a half decent tape deck at the dump shop ($20) and tried out some of my old tapes. I was underwhelmed.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

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Aborto

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#2550183 26-Aug-2020 16:52

Varkk:

*On first listen. Every playback degrades the surface slightly leading to the sound quality dropping over time.

FYI this isn't really practically the case with a decent turntable and clean records. Technically correct but unnoticeable if you look after your gear.

If you use a crappy ceramic cartridge crosley turntable or play dirty records you will wear them pretty quickly, but with a entry level deck with a real stylus and counterweight (not necessarily expensive), set up properly, there isn't any noticeable degradation over thousands of plays. And the vinyl itself lasts practically forever if stored well, unlike the CDs from the 80s and 90s that are now dying to disk rot.

A lot of their bad reputation for being fragile is just because no one looked after them properly in the early days, but 100 years from now well stored vinyl will still play perfectly while CDs will be extinct.

The cost and inconvenience is another matter! but they are fun to collect.

Fred99

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#2550185 26-Aug-2020 16:52

Agree - commercial recorded tapes were dire, but with good quality deck and tapes, the result of "format shifting" and making your own mix tapes from LP was okay - and especially for listening to in a car or walkman. One of the decks I had could auto-skip tracks which kind of worked - except when it didn't know the difference between the end of a track and a quiet part in the music.

There's one of these somewhere in the house among assorted music equipment my son accumulates. The tape paradigm is still alive, even on a portable synth / 4 track digital recorder OLED display used by people who've never seen a tape / cassette in action. (Don't ask me about the device - I stare at it blankly wondering what the hell it actually is - but apparently they're at least as useful as a kazoo - but look cooler)

Dunnersfella

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#2550208 26-Aug-2020 17:54

Cassette tapes for music are only good for black / death metal in my opinion... it sounds rinsed out to begin with - so it matches the format perfectly.

I have Mofi sleeves and I believe that one wash when brand new is all a good pressing will need for years. Basically, once the record is pressed there will be gunk in the grooves from the manufacturing process, so clean it prior to playing.

I was religious about it when I first got a turntable about 7 or so years back, but got a little slack with it after my records went to work with me for after work listening sessions... I should really take advantage of any more COVID related lock downs to clean my collection again!

Borrowing a Spin Clean but buying your own fluid could be a good thing... or going shares on a record cleaning machine with a group of friends.

And re: Recordings of NIN

I was listening to The Downward Spiral @ 44.1 FLAC (using a download code from my LP if my memory serves me correctly) when I re-read this thread.

But yeah, I have Ghosts V / VI and Still to purchase @ CD quality... and maybe the 2019 Ninja Tour Sampler.

mudguard

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#2550230 26-Aug-2020 18:40

My sister and her partner have multiple turntables and hundreds of records. I house sat for them once and was quite excited as we have very similar music tastes. What I forgot was having to bloody get up every four songs to change sides!

Not for me personally, I'm the same with books, kindle only now, my father has hundreds of books which line two hallways, I don't see the point for fiction. I lost my CDs awhile ago, they'd been boxed up so long I moved without them and couldn't remember where they were!

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