The record pressing machines are wearing out

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
What the Vinyl “Comeback” Really Looks Like…
i guess the graph of sales of digital mediums today won't be look much better, sadly.
since the introduction of internet, mp3, all this shitty businesses such like i-tune and compact listening devices,
for music industry things got only worst.
but on the another hand, music industry with it's greed and stupidity is only one to be blamed. instead of use
previously earned billions for developing new business model, educate consumers and promote new sound formats,
they put emphasis and went to fight the teens and single moms, who been caught to share mp3 over internet.
what goes around, comes around.
 
My turn for a mini rant. I don't object to heavier vinyl, but if you are gonna make the vinyl thicker, for Pete's sake, press deeper louder grooves in it like the 80's 12" singles from Europe.

That doesn't work. The louder you make the recording the shorter the playing time. The groove excursions are wider with louder recordings, meaning that the grooves have to be farther apart. They could make those 12" singles louder because they have fewer grooves per inch.

Music recorded between the stereo speakers makes the groove wiggle sideways, not up and down. The left channel is recorded on the left wall of the groove (closest to the spindle), while the right channel is recorded on the right wall (closest to the record rim). Any vertical motion would end up in the surround speakers of a Dolby Surround system or the back speakers of QS.

If you sell e a 180-200 gram record and the first time I slide it out of the cheap, coarse paper sleeve it has static and audible abrasions like my US print of NKOTB (which was pressed like DynaFlex), then I feel like I have wasted my money and won't play it again. I change all inner sleeve to poly as soon as I crack the shrink, but still worry more about new records over older.

I stopped using poly liners because they caused MORE static..Paper liners are fine as long as they are not shedding. The best cure for static electricity is having enough humidity in the room.

On a different note, I don't get the problem with DynaFlex. I have an inherited copy of Three Dog Night's Greatest Hits. I know it went to parties, and it got played on a 78 needle (the one my Dad said lasted longer) and yet still plays great. I only find they slip on changers, which if it is an important record, I wouldn't play in a stack anyways.

Dynaflex was a problem only when used with too heavy a tracking force, and with certain record changers that set the arm down in the wrong place because of the shape of the record rim (e.g. Dual 1006). I had trouble with only one Dynaflex record, and that was because it was thicker right next to the spindle hole than it was anywhere else.
 
I have had another problem with the new vinyl records. I have recently acquired 4 of them. On two of them the center hole was too small - sticking on the spindle on my turntable. The record would not drop, and it would not turn once it was manually placed directly on the turntable.

I used a micrometer, and found that the hole was exactly 1/4 inch. The RIAA spec calls for a 5/16 inch hole.

I hated to do this, but I carefully used a reamer to enlarge the holes just enough to work, and vacuumed up the chip before playing the records.
 
Demand would go up if the price came down. I'm not paying $25 or $30 for a single LP even if it is on 180 gram "Virgin" vinyl. And... does EVERYTING have to be on 180 gram vinyl. I have plenty of LPs that sound great on regular old 120 gram or 150 gram vinyl.

Well said! :upthumb
Some of those old SQ Columbia records are thin as a pancake but still sound so good!
 
If vinyl is such an inconvenience, you are way too obsessive about it. Just relax and enjoy it. You don't have to wet clean new records. You don't have to wet clean records every third play, if ever, after the first time. You don't have to have the VTA within .0001 degree of ideal. You don't have to use an oscilloscope to adjust azimuth. You don't have to replace the stylus on the exact hour of life recommended by the manufacturer. You don't have to use $1000.00 cables to connect your turntable to your preamp. Etc, etc.

Doug

Hear hear! :worthy
Just as an example I've transferred and decoded into 4-channel FLAC over 150 SQ LPs this year and by and large it is a lot less hassle than I was expecting, with only a few titles causing any real difficulties (mostly having picked up 2nd copies of those few irksome records it would seem its inherent in the mastering/pressing since the replacement also suffers the same issue).. I rather enjoy the ritual of washing the disc and cleaning the stylus and cueing up the record and so forth.. and the artwork is often just a joy.. the result when you've played a grubby old record you picked up for pennies in the thrift store once and found it lacking to give it a thorough clean and marvel at the instant improvement is so so satisfying.

You know, I almost didn't get back into vinyl at all as I'd given it all up years ago for what I perceived to be a load of hassle back then.. though I'd been toying with the idea of giving it another go for some time.. but as soon as I did it was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years - just wonderful and made me wish I'd never lost touch all this time :)
 

Very interesting stats, thanks!

Coincidentally I've noticed the easiest years to find Columbia/Epic/CBS (and their subsidiary labels) SQ LPs is 1972-73, a period where pressings are plentiful.. but I figured something must have happened with production levels or something in 1974/5 (it turns out it was a big dip in sales.. less sales back in the day means less used copies out there now I guess?!) because SQ LPs from 1974-1975 are definitely the rarest and hardest to find.. even those from 76/77 which being the last rock & pop SQ stuff should be the hardest haven't proven as tricky to find in playable nick..
 
Very interesting stats, thanks!

Coincidentally I've noticed the easiest years to find Columbia/Epic/CBS (and their subsidiary labels) SQ LPs is 1972-73, a period where pressings are plentiful.. but I figured something must have happened with production levels or something in 1974/5 (it turns out it was a big dip in sales.. less sales back in the day means less used copies out there now I guess?!) because SQ LPs from 1974-1975 are definitely the rarest and hardest to find.. even those from 76/77 which being the last rock & pop SQ stuff should be the hardest haven't proven as tricky to find in playable nick..
They did jack up the price $1 on those later SQ vinyls. That should have helped the sales decline.
 
I wonder if Jack White needs a tech, no pressing plant experience but a quick learner. I wouldn't mind that kind of factory work.
 
That's for sure. It would be really cool to be able to say, "I was a record pressing expert in the seventies."

The company I worked for made 8-track decks for Ford Motor Company and I became expert at that but I have always liked records the best.

Doug
 
c19b635576570340546d87d7b9b1f7f9.jpg


https://tinyurl.com/5xhdz739
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/50s/Audio-1950-Feb.pdf
 
My turn for a mini rant. I don't object to heavier vinyl, but if you are gonna make the vinyl thicker, for Pete's sake, press deeper louder grooves in it like the 80's 12" singles from Europe. If you sell e a 180-200 gram record and the first time I slide it out of the cheap, coarse paper sleeve it has static and audible abrasions like my US print of NKOTB(which was pressed like DynaFlex), then I feel like I have wasted my money and won't play it again. I change all inner sleeve to poly as soon as I crack the shrink, but still worry more about new records over older. On a different note, I don't get the problem with DynaFlex. I have an inherited copy of Three Dog Night's Greatest Hits. I know it went to parties, and it got played on a 78 needle(the one my Dad said lasted longer) and yet still plays great. I only find they slip on changers, which if it is an important record, I wouldn't play in a stack anyways.
I never thought that there was anything wrong with those DynaFlex LP's. I remember them all sounding great. There might have been problems using them on the old record changers with their light weight causing the records in the stack to slip over each other. The thinner vinyl might have also been more prone to warpage. I believe that they came about due to the energy crisis of the early seventies causing a shortage of the materials required to make vinyl. I remember being confused when reading about DynaGroove, and confusing it with DynaFlex.
 
Yeah, DynaGroove and DynaFlex aren't related, at all. DynaGroove was strictly a recording process operation and mastering modification where DyanFlex was making skinnier records which RCA claimed to actually be better than thicker records re warpage, etc.

I have never found DynaFlex records to be inferior to any others in spite of almost being able to bend some of the very early ones in half! And DynaGroove, all the ones I have sound fabulous, contradicting the general condemnation through the years.

Doug
 
I've been doing more needle drops lately, the last one being John Kay's "Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes". ABC/Dunhill releases in Canada were manufactured and distributed by RCA. Some releases even bore the RCA label. More often than not they were DynaFlex.. I can attest to them all sounding great. IMHO they are better sounding than their US counterparts. I don't find the vinyl to be excessively thin or light either.

DynaGroove as I recall was an equalisation/compression scheme designed to make records sound better on cheap equipment. Hey that sounds like todays brickwalled CD's! I doubt that DynaGroove damaged the sound as badly as brickwalling does however! I know that I have a few DynaGroove's in my collection as well.
Scan-220321-0001.jpg
as well.
 
Par4ken that is a great album John Kays first followed by his second one. I have American vinyl and a cassette compilation. One of the Steppenwolf collections included the singles from his two first albums.
His third solo album.....he tried to go disco. it is best forgotten
 
Back
Top