Vinyl & turntables

[umslopogaas]

Very sweet ... and the music's interesting too.

[richardfinegold]

Alain, is your LP of the Shostakovich 15 the Russian Melodiya or the HMV issue which they put out on their ASD series under their collaborative agreement with Melodiya? I have both and I reckon the Russian original is better - which makes it very good indeed.

I was once told that a lot of the problems with vinyl date from the 1970s oil crisis. The price of vinyl shot up, so to avoid having to increase LP prices the companies starting padding out the vinyl with filler. What sort of filler I dont know, but its a fair guess it didnt improve the surface. The worst offenders I have come across are Supraphon, I have several of those that really do sound like a breakfast fry-up (though only a few, most are very good).

They also made LPs thinner and thinner as the years passed, which made them more prone to warp.

I worked a record store when I was at University in the 1970s. I think that we used to get about 25% of the inventory returned as unplayable by not very discerning students. EMI (which marketed Classical in the States on the Angel Label) was particularly egregious, and I remember Supraphon as being awful as well. DG and Phillips were the reliable, but premium priced, so as a student I could only afford the occasional splurge with my employee discount.

[Beef Oven!]

I worked a record store when I was at University in the 1970s. I think that we used to get about 25% of the inventory returned as unplayable by not very discerning students. EMI (which marketed Classical in the States on the Angel Label) was particularly egregious, and I remember Supraphon as being awful as well. DG and Phillips were the reliable, but premium priced, so as a student I could only afford the occasional splurge with my employee discount.

And there was that 'let's blame OPEC' epoch in the early/mid '70s that rendered many of my LPs unlistenable (and quite possibly other people's LPs too).

(If I may say so myself, the term OPEC-epoch, has a certain appeal!)

[umslopogaas]

I was also a student around that time and benefited greatly from the switch from mono to stereo. All the old mono versions of recordings were being sold off cheap, since most people wanted stereo. I only had one speaker (in fact, it was an old valve radio that I used as a speaker) so mono was fine. I used to regularly take the train from home in Surrey to Cambridge via Waterloo, and I remember WH Smith at Waterloo had a box of mono LPs where I seldom failed to pick up a bargain. Later, when I had a bit more money, I bought a proper system and replaced most of the mono discs with stereos.

Having to deal with disgruntled customers complaining about crackly discs must have been a sore trial. I remember hearing of one Wagner addict who drove the shop assistants mad with complaints about the Decca 'Siegfried'. I cant remember how many copies he replaced before he got one that satisfied him, but it was a lot!

[MrGongGong]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/audiophiles-luring-youngsters-into-boring-conversations-2013110180809

[umslopogaas]

Tee hee! Audiophilia may be rather sad, but it is fairly harmless and should be permitted between consenting adults.

[Beef Oven!]

Tee hee! Audiophilia may be rather sad, but it is fairly harmless and should be permitted between consenting adults.

Harmless? On the contrary, very dangerous ideas. Where will it lead us?

Next thing you'll know, is that people will think it's only fair to be allowed to marry their turntables.

[Beef Oven!]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/s...-2013110180809

"Parent Tom Booker said: “Audiophiles target vulnerable young people then bombard them with the dullest information imaginable, to make themselves feel cool and ‘with it’. It’s disgusting."

Ok, a bit dull, but it's harmless, unless the 'phile tries to touch the young lad's bottom.

I think I heard that there's a national audiophile register linked to the CRB.

[MrGongGong]

Harmless? On the contrary, very dangerous ideas. Where will it lead us?

Next thing you'll know, is that people will think it's only fair to be allowed to marry their turntables.

Don't start that one
it'll just go round and round
and why aren't you at this ?

http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/about_the_school/home/view_all_events/event_single_view/?tx_julleevents_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=3451

[Ferretfancy]

Alain, is your LP of the Shostakovich 15 the Russian Melodiya or the HMV issue which they put out on their ASD series under their collaborative agreement with Melodiya? I have both and I reckon the Russian original is better - which makes it very good indeed.

I was once told that a lot of the problems with vinyl date from the 1970s oil crisis. The price of vinyl shot up, so to avoid having to increase LP prices the companies starting padding out the vinyl with filler. What sort of filler I dont know, but its a fair guess it didnt improve the surface. The worst offenders I have come across are Supraphon, I have several of those that really do sound like a breakfast fry-up (though only a few, most are very good).

They also made LPs thinner and thinner as the years passed, which made them more prone to warp.

Umslopogaas

The version you mention, conducted by Maxim Shostakovich was the first I owned, and as you say it still sounds superb on LP. He gets the mysterious ticking percussion at the end of the symphony accurate rhythmically, which is not so in some other recordings.
I'll be hearing it live on Sunday, conducted by Petrenko, and I'm looking forward to that with the RLPO

I'm sure you are right about poor vinyl quality during the oil crisis, although I think that Supraphons were always a bit ropey. I still maintain though that playing discs on medium to high quality equipment at the proper tracking weights greatly reduces noise problems. As for warped discs, remember the recommendations in the Gramophone and elsewhere to place the discs between sheets of warmed plate glass with a heavy weight on top ?

[Ferretfancy]

Does anybody remember the mad American on Hi Fi news who reviewed all the astronomically priced equipment ? He loved to use words like 'slam" and "punch' and "sonic delivery"while cheerfully admitting that he only used three pop LPs to test these massive systems on.

Naturally, when CD arrived, the golden ears had to invent something new to worry about, so they came up with the green ink pen. This was used to colour the rim of the centre hole on the disc to prevent dispersion of the laser light. Incidentally, I hope you all know that if you have a house phone installed in the listening room it will cause deterioration in the sound quality ? Oh, and it's also a good idea to put small blobs of Blu Tack on strategic places near your equipment and on window frames!

[gradus]

Ken Kessler?

[gradus]

Ref the oil crisis and vinyl quality point raised earlier in the thread, I can certainly confirm that records spoilt during production were ground, pelletised and added to new vinyl in the Philips/Siemens owned factory that I worked in during the early seventies. The three day week didn't help quality much either.

[amateur51]

Does anybody remember the mad American on Hi Fi news who reviewed all the astronomically priced equipment ? He loved to use words like 'slam" and "punch' and "sonic delivery"while cheerfully admitting that he only used three pop LPs to test these massive systems on.

Naturally, when CD arrived, the golden ears had to invent something new to worry about, so they came up with the green ink pen. This was used to colour the rim of the centre hole on the disc to prevent dispersion of the laser light. Incidentally, I hope you all know that if you have a house phone installed in the listening room it will cause deterioration in the sound quality ? Oh, and it's also a good idea to put small blobs of Blu Tack on strategic places near your equipment and on window frames!

You gotta love those hi-fi loons - many thanks for the reminders, Ferret

[richardfinegold]

I was also a student around that time and benefited greatly from the switch from mono to stereo. All the old mono versions of recordings were being sold off cheap, since most people wanted stereo. I only had one speaker (in fact, it was an old valve radio that I used as a speaker) so mono was fine. I used to regularly take the train from home in Surrey to Cambridge via Waterloo, and I remember WH Smith at Waterloo had a box of mono LPs where I seldom failed to pick up a bargain. Later, when I had a bit more money, I bought a proper system and replaced most of the mono discs with stereos.

Having to deal with disgruntled customers complaining about crackly discs must have been a sore trial. I remember hearing of one Wagner addict who drove the shop assistants mad with complaints about the Decca 'Siegfried'. I cant remember how many copies he replaced before he got one that satisfied him, but it was a lot!

I have a fond memory of one customer interaction. He was a Professorial looking type, mid 50s, horn rimmed glasses, tweed jacket with elbow patches, and smoking a pipe. He had bought a set of Brahms Symphonies that were defective and insistent upon his refund. Our directions from management were of course to discourage such transactions. I remember telling him, in my teenage arrogance, that not only were the records playable, but that his choice of Conductor/Orchestra for the Brahms was awful, and implying that he was a nabob and deserved what he got. I was feeling pretty triumphant, but after he left the store the Manager, who had been hiding in the back, told me that I had been speaking to the Composer William Balcom, who was the head of the Music School at the University of Michigan at the time.