Just take those old records off the shelf
I’ll sit and listen to ’em by myself
– Bob Seger
So if you have read my blathering on about turntables, cartridges, tonearms, and phonostages, then you are probably thinking that this is all well and good, but I can see a weak link here. You are gonna spend a small fortune on equipment; but what are ya gonna spin? Those dusty scratchy old warped Guy Lombardo records that are in your grandparents basement?
Nope. Welcome to the world of high end vinyl.
Vinyl 101
Vinyl records are made from… you guessed it…vinyl. But if you want to be retro and old school, and have no one under the age of 70 know what you are on about… you can call them wax. Way, way back after wax and before the age of plastics they were actually made from shellac. Drop them and they would break. Vinyl first began being used in 1931, but not until the 1940’s did it really become accepted and became the standard. Although many speed formats existed over the years the three main ones are, as you well know, 78rpm, 45rpm, & 33-1/3rpm. Although 45rpm was the only one that was mathematically optimized. It is the superior speed as we shall discover below, however 33-1/3 became the commercial standard because more music could be packed onto one record. Record diameters and hole sizes also varied over the years.
I didn’t really want to go over the pros and cons of vinyl but for the sake of completeness here goes…
Cons
Expensive when compared to most other formats.
Fragile. Although CD’s are more fragile and wear more than one would think.
Surface Noise. Caused by scratches, dust, and other contaminants.
Mechanical Noise. From the actual groove, and motor noise.
Tracking Errors. This is inherent in the vary nature of the technology. Offset to varying degrees by expensive equipment.
Pros
Can be fully Analog.* Which means more information, and a continuous waveform, resulting in a ’warmer’ sound. Digital recording cannot fully capture an analog signal so there is always going to be some loss. *many modern records are cut from digital masters however
Ambience. Spinning records is as neat as fuck. Even just sitting there doing nothing a turntable looks cool. There is a tactile experience and ritual to playing a vinyl record that just does not exist in other formats. You actually get to invest some of yourself into the process. Something refreshing in this age of instant gratification.
Cover Art. Hopefully this speaks for itself. If not… google Hipgnosis, or Mouse.
So what makes a ‘Good’ vinyl record? Heavier vinyl for one. You will be looking at 180gm or 200gm vinyl. While many sonic attributes are touted for the heavier grades of vinyl the only significant ones are: less tendency to warp, and providing a more stable base for the stylus and cantilever thus reducing vibrations that can degrade sound quality.
Having a vinyl specific master. What does that even mean you ask? Well… keeping in mind the limitations of commercial grade turntables… by doing things like: Controlling intense dynamics. Attenuating excessively high frequencies. Avoid phasing issues by centering the lower frequencies. Not using Brick Wall limiting. Avoid excessive loudness.
UHQR. Often times UHQR involves things like hand-selecting the vinyl, not using colourants, or other additives, and just plain old attention to detail.
Direct to disc recording. Cut out the middle man so to speak, but what you see is what you get. No multiple takes or mixing, you get the real deal, warts and all. Less noise and loss because you aren’t going through several generations of tape, but an entire side of an LP has to be played and recorded in one take by the musicians and technicians.
High speed; i.e. 45rpm. In essence you get ‘more music’ per inch of groove. In other words a higher frequency response. You also get less compression of signals at any amplitude. All things being equal this is why 45’s sound better than ordinary LP’s. So why aren’t there 45rpm LP’s you ask? The answer is there are! These days you can get audiophile quality LP’s that are 45rpm. Of course you are going to get less music per side so these recordings usually end up being 2 albums.
But… with all of this high performance comes increased cost. These days it seems like $40.00 is entry level for a ’good’ vinyl album.
Some examples…
Collectibles.
This is where the wheels come off the cart. And in virtually all of the cases the cost has zero to do with the type or quality of the pressing, but to do with the rarity of the record in question. (As with most things in the collectible world.) However just for grins and giggles…
Elvis Presley: My Happiness (The 78rpm test pressing)$300,000
Beatles White Album: 0000001 $790,000
Wu Tang Clan: Once upon a time in Shaolin. There is an involved backstory here, but the one album in existence was purchased for $4mm.
Old records bring back memories pictures bring back tears Do you ever think of me after all these years I found a stack of old records that we used to listen to And there beside the records were pictures of me and you So I dusted off the records and played them one more time I listened and looked at the pictures and almost lost my mind
– Kitty Wells