Music - modern Vinyl Records

Apparently vinyl is coming back in a big way. There was a big article/interview with a local man in a newspaper here a couple of days ago. He runs a record shop and says his sales are multiplying. He also said a lot of youngsters are becoming more interested too.

 

Vinyl sales have been building year on year for the past ten years. What can’t speak can’t lie...

 

Funnily enough, I was chatting to the fella I sold my DM4’s to the other day. It must be around 30 years ago I sold them to him, and yes, they’re still going strong!

 

I've got one in the workshop, it was made well before my time 1934 from memory its not a nice as yours S, it still plays ok though from memory there's a new tin of needles inside.

 

I prefer didgital than vinyl. Don't have to change the stylus and i believe can hear a lot more detail. Hubby has a sound system, but only had place either a turn table or a CD /DVD player He dicided to buy the CD/DVD player. I was very upset about it, because i had a lot of Carpenters LPs and always played them. But through the years i've been able to get on them on CD. But yes i prefer Didgital.

 

I have music on; vinyl, cassette, CD and 3000 plus mp3s. Some of my jazz albums I've had from the late fifties. A few are that worn I've bought the CD, to replace them. I quite like CDs as many jazz albums were de-listed, then reissued again in the 80s on CD. So what was once unobtainable became available.

I subscribe to a Canadian audio equipment message board, where vinyl is discussed frequently. Some contributors have equipment that costs thousands, valve amplifiers or often seen as a "must." I put down all this money they spend on kit, on the fact that they must be snowed in for much of the year.

My audio equipment is mostly from the seventies and gets used for everything.

But for me, vinyl is mostly a bit of nostalgia. I like to play my vintage vinyl jukeboxes. It's all about choosing the title, putting in the money, the click of the buttons going down, the clang of the button bank latch bar solenoid releasing the buttons after selection, the whir of the carousel as the record is sought, the noise of the stylus hitting the track-in area on the record, followed by the anticipated noise of the beginning of the record. I've 50s/60s/70s/80s pop and a few jazz standards in one box and Motown and Soul in the other.



I do ring the changes in the carousels from time to time.

Jukebox mechanics and turntables look a bit industrial but they use Shure cartridges.
Their principal function was to make money, not play records, so they could be on for 12 hours or more a day, in pretty much continual use.
New, these would have cost the price of a small car, so were mostly rented.
They weigh in at nearly 300lb.



Half the fun is keeping the buggers goin' as one is nearly fifty years old and parts , as we say, are sometimes made of "unobtainium."

In our front room, we've got these, a mix of old and new technology.

Same experience though.





Many of these selections were downloads from Napster, or Audio Galaxy, (yes that old!) my own CDs or YouTube MP3 downloads.

 

Although vinyl has had a resurgence of interest with the younger generations, I think it's still a bit of a passing fad. At the moment it's something a novelty with them, resulting in some high sales of Chinese made "Crapaphones." Even second-hand audio equipment on eBay seems to have doubled in price in the last few years.

What I find sad is the amount of really good vintage audio equipment in the USA that gets dumped. In the fifties and sixties, young and old adults who'd "made it,"aspired to a Magnavox Astro sonic phonograph.

Searchlock.com

These were really expensive and were the top of the range.
Conversing with enthusiasts in the USA, several times now, they've told me of examples they've found in thrift shops for a few dollars or "free at the kerb."
Many are discarded by the grandkids who inherit the property of people who have had these from new and have lovingly cared for them, if not used much in later years. All they need is often a "lube job," on the turntables and the amplifiers re-capped.

The Garrard, Collaro, or BSR auto-turntables of the fifties, common to most record players were not new.

Completely automatic turntables, capable of handling shellac records were made before WW2.

Here's an example, an early jukebox, from 1929.




He was also responsible for this, out of my league but fascinating, from 1946.

 

My son has been listening to and coveting my vinyls since he was single numbers! He now has a player and a few records of his own. He loves them! However, when he's at work it's a playlist or an app. I think it's a sign of the times unfortunately
However...... if he came across any of those jukeboxes! I think he'd ........ probably spend all of my lodge money just as well he doesn't follow this site

 

A fascinating read Doghouse Riley. You certainly love your music and equipment. I think @Fat Controller will be just a little bit jealous when he sees your posts.

 

In interesting point about Shellac.
All records before WW2 were made of it. But during the war it became an "essential war material," so became pretty much like "unobtainium." It was used as insulation in electric motors, etc.,
To get round this record companies recycled old records and then made "record sandwiches," two thin layers of shellac, either side of a filling of sawdust.
In this country, during the war, according to Humphrey Lyttleton, you had to hand an old record in, before they let you purchase a new one.

For anyone interested, this is the Canadian message board I mentioned.

You'll see some fantastic audio kit owned by some contributors on there.

HiFi Haven


There you go, a random image of someone's tube amplifier.