The Joys of Vinyl

[Bryn]

I need a round tuit to sort out my MD player ejector belt!

I had/have the same problem. However, I found that if one takes another MD and inserts it carefully into the relevant slot and pushes lightly against the errant MD while pressing the eject button with the power on, it gives just the impetus required to eject the rascal. Replacing the little drive band that drives the ejection mechanism is very fiddly indeed, at least with my Sony MD decks.

[smittims]

You're right, cloughie. It was recorded in Kingsway Hall on 3-4 October 1955 with a patch-up session on 17 December, and the matrix numbers (for any anoraks present) are XAX 870-871.

[gurnemanz]

I can certainly identify with that. My Thorens/Linn combo has been out of action awaiting my rewiring its mains supply cable. It has been in that condition for several years. I shold really get a round tuwit.

I had about 400. A few years ago I got shot of about 300 of them but anorakishly took a photo of the sleeves beforehand, camera set to 1:1 ratio, so I would know what I once had. I kept about 100 with special associations, eg my first LP and theirs - Rolling Stones 1964. I still have a deck but almost never play any now.

[Padraig]

There's a special pleasure in playing a nicely-cleaned copy of an old Columbia of Klemperer's 1954 'Jupiter' symphony, with the original sleeve propped up.

smittims, following your reference above, I have an old Columbia set of 3 LPs of the B minor Mass with Karajan and the Society of Friends. I bought it around the time of your 'Jupiter'. On the off chance that you would be interested in acquiring the set I would be delighted to donate it to your collection. I am on PMs - that's Private Messages.

[Alison]

I wonder if the standard of pressings has gone up with todays very expensive vinyl discs?

[Bryn]

I wonder if the standard of pressings has gone up with todays very expensive vinyl discs?

My understanding (not being taken in by this current fad) is that they use much more vinyl to give a greater quality of playback. To that extent, they are an improvement on what we were subjected to in the 1970s and '80s.

[richardfinegold]

I’m very anti vinyl, and Have posted many screeds here on the forum. There remain a few lps that I am interested in that are not currently available digitally and I am thinking of getting the DJ table-Technics 1500 Direct Drive. I found a restored one for what appears to be a fair price and am sorely tempted

[richardfinegold]

My understanding (not being taken in by this current fad) is that they use much more vinyl to give a greater quality of playback. To that extent, they are an improvement on what we were subjected to in the 1970s and '80s.

There is currently a scandal in the Audiophile community as Mo Fi, which frequently sells lps for $125, has confessed that they use
Digital processing

[smittims]

Thanks, Padraig, for the offer. I'll think it over, but don't wait if you have other ideas. I have the recording on CD.

It was unusual in that the choruses where recorded in Vienna with the Musikverein, and the arias in London with the Philharmonia. The Record Guide called it 'a tale of two cities'. The cover name 'Friends of Music' was Walter Legge's joke, Musikfreunde and Philharmonia meaning roughly the same thing!

[Dave2002]

There is currently a scandal in the Audiophile community as Mo Fi, which frequently sells lps for $125, has confessed that they use
Digital processing

I suspect that most producers use digital data and processing now. The whole vinyl business is a marketing con.

[smittims]

Well, Dave, I'd say a marketing strategy rather than a con. Many purchasers of the new LPs seem to derive pleasure and satisfaction from them. I believe it's more aimed at the popular music genres rather than classical.

I bought only one 'new vinyl': the Anthony Collins Sibelius set, which I couldn't resist.

[Bryn]

Well, Dave, I'd say a marketing strategy rather than a con. Many purchasers of the new LPs seem to derive pleasure and satisfaction from them. I believe it's more aimed at the popular music genres rather than classical.

I bought only one 'new vinyl': the Anthony Collins Sibelius set, which I couldn't resist.

An aspect of this fad with vinyl which annoys me is the exclusive use of it for some releases. I first encountered it with the release of a set of LPs of a Pellegrini Quartet perfromance of Morton Feldman's Second String Quartet, a work which takes up to 6 hours to perform, https://www.soundohm.com/product/str...tet-ii-6lp-box O.k., a just about serviceable mp3 of that same performance can be found via a search of the Internet, but the data rate for that is rather low and not directly related to the issuer of the boxed set of LPs. Quite a few new releases of improvised music are also appearing on vinyl only.

[Dave2002]

Well, Dave, I'd say a marketing strategy rather than a con. Many purchasers of the new LPs seem to derive pleasure and satisfaction from them. I believe it's more aimed at the popular music genres rather than classical.

I bought only one 'new vinyl': the Anthony Collins Sibelius set, which I couldn't resist.

I still think it’s ripping off the gullible, but I guess “anything’s fair in business.”

[cloughie]

Well, Dave, I'd say a marketing strategy rather than a con. Many purchasers of the new LPs seem to derive pleasure and satisfaction from them. I believe it's more aimed at the popular music genres rather than classical.

I bought only one 'new vinyl': the Anthony Collins Sibelius set, which I couldn't resist.

No doubt you fell in love with them via LXT or ACL?

[richardfinegold]

Well, Dave, I'd say a marketing strategy rather than a con. Many purchasers of the new LPs seem to derive pleasure and satisfaction from them. I believe it's more aimed at the popular music genres rather than classical.

I bought only one 'new vinyl': the Anthony Collins Sibelius set, which I couldn't resist.

MoFi intentionally represented themselves as pure analog. All of their literature was designed to make one assume that there was no digital stage involved. It slipped out accidentally in an otherwise innocuous interview with a MoFi engineer that yes, they do
do DSD masters for their lps that they routinely charge over $125.00 for. There has recently been a Class Action suit filed against MoFi for this, so not all of the swindled are deriving "pleasure and satisfaction' from this. For many of the Analog or Death! crowd, a digital phase is desecration.
It also conclusively proves, for me at least and many others, that the so called superiority of vinyl is the enjoyment of artifacts. The sound of the needle scraping the disc, the pops, clicks and skips, stuttering of the tonearm, somehow make it feel more real. However, if one is going to enjoy Digitally mastered files, for me it makes more sense to keep them in the digital realm, rather then to embed them in a slab of fossil fuel and then use an expensive sewing needle/magnet gizmo to extract those files, which is also slashing the grooves with each playing. Not to mention the short playing time, decreased dynamic range viz. Digital, the dust bunnies that collect on the styli, and the speed instability. I had a Rega P5 that was horribly unstable. A recording of Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven Sonatas ended side one with the first movement of the Moonlight. The famous triplets were so distorted that I thought someone had dropped acid in my coffee.
I have been sans turntable for about 5 years, but there are a number of second hand lp stores in my vicinity, and I have come across several lps that I would like to have that are not currently available digitally. And to be honest back in the day I had always wanted the D.J. table (Technics SL-1500). I'm hoping that a Direct Drive will eliminate speed instability and bloated bass so common to belt drives, even expensive ones. The seller has great feedback and I talked with him and he swears the motor is as quiet as Boris Johnson's Ethics Advisor. I figure that if he is lying (the seller--not B.J.), at $150 I can probably sell it off for parts and be whole again. So I will post back once I have it