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Old Vinyl


SonicSeeker

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Just getting back into vinyl after about 30 years and I was wondering is there any reason to stay away from old vinyl that is in great condition?

I have a chance to purchase a collection of about 650 used albums from the 60"s and 70's from an older gent for about 550.00 and it is all music I like, but I did not know if there were any issues with old vinyl to be aware of.

Thanks for any feedback.

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If the vinyl was stored in a temperature controlled location, not subjected to temperature extremes or extremes of humidity, and was played on a well set-up turntable by the previous owner, then you should be good. If improperly stored or abused, you could have issues with warped and/or damaged discs.

In general I've had great experiences with used vinyl as long as the condition is excellent. Many of these discs can sound spectacular.

Cheers!

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+1

I came into 100 plus records in 2005 or so from someone who had accumulated them throughout the 80s and 90s. Some of it was "newer" vinyl but there was a fair amount of vinyl from the 70s. He stored it the right way and aside from some cover wear, the vinyl played well and sounded great.

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Although not 100% true, I have found that if the record jackets are in great shape then you you can know the records were cared for. And I have also found some awful jackets with pristine records in them.

Have you looked at them yet? Are they clean? Any warped? Were the sleeves replaced with new ones?

Sounds like you have a good oppotunity to acquire a huge assortment of good music and music history.

Also, many record buyers of the 79s would play them once and record to cassette to reduce record wear.

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The few random ones I pulled out had different sleeves and they all looked really good.

No better way to jump into vinyl than with the music you like and with clean records.

Gotta turntable yet?

How are you going to clean the records if required?

Storage for 600 records, now that is a few linear feet.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

With records in that great a shape it sounds like you better go get them before someone else does.

Edited by Wrinkles
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I listen to records that are, in at least one case, nearing 100 years old and they sound great. Records of any kind, vinyl included, remain the best lasting archival physical medium available. CDs are much better now, but many I recorded in the early days simply failed due to the dyes and such of the time not being permanent.

Same is true for magnetic tape. Stored under reasonable conditions, classic analog media is about as permanent as it gets. Remember Voyager has a gold LP on it intended to last for thousands of years.

Dave

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Just getting back into vinyl after about 30 years and I was wondering is there any reason to stay away from old vinyl that is in great condition?

I have a chance to purchase a collection of about 650 used albums from the 60"s and 70's from an older gent for about 550.00 and it is all music I like, but I did not know if there were any issues with old vinyl to be aware of.

Thanks for any feedback.

DO IT!

although one word of advice, when buying a complete collection over small pieces or by the piece, you should be paying much less on a per album basis.

I would even go as far as to make a generalized statement, that old production LP's are better than the majority of the newly produced goods that are marketed today. Not all new stuff is bad, and in fact some of it is very very good, but I have found in general that old LP production sounds better to me than most re-releases or "180 gram remasters".

the new re-release stuff is kind of hit and miss... the completely new releases are fabulous.

My latest acquisition... an original SS(still sealed 1973) copy of the soundtrack for the movie "electra glide in blue". I'm a sucker for old soundtracks.

11613319256_eeec3e61ab_b.jpg

Edited by Schu
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It truly depends. Sometimes old vinyl is ok. I found that even the old clean looking vinyl can sound bad. I only buy old vinyl when cheap or very rare and not for much money. I've found spending money on reissue and new vinyl to be the way to go. The sound quality is superb.

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Although not 100% true, I have found that if the record jackets are in great shape then you you can know the records were cared for. And I have also found some awful jackets with pristine records in them.

Have you looked at them yet? Are they clean? Any warped? Were the sleeves replaced with new ones?

Sounds like you have a good oppotunity to acquire a huge assortment of good music and music history.

Also, many record buyers of the 79s would play them once and record to cassette to reduce record wear.

That's true. Back in the Seventies, when I was using a BIC 960 turntable with a Shure M91ED cartridge, surface noise would appear after just two or three plays, so I recorded most new LPs to cassettes and used the cassettes to listen to. Fast-forward to 2005 and I bought an old Technics SL-1400 Mk2 and had it fitted with a new Shure M97xE.

Day and night difference! Finally, I was hearing the "vinyl sound" the audio magazines always raved about. As well, I had a collection of old LPs that had only been played once. They sounded great with the Technics, and sound even better now, since I replaced the old Technics with a new Technics SL-1210M5G. I had the five-year-old M97 switched to the new turntable and the sound was better. Then I replaced the stylus and the sound improved again.

As well as the improved sound with the new cartridge, the record wear seems to be unnoticeable. I haven't heard any increase in surface noise over the eight years I've been playing those LPs with the M97 cartridge.

Back to the original topic, some old records can be very dirty, as in actually having soil on them. I washed some used LPs one time with diluted dish soap, and brown water came off in the rinse. Even mold is a possibility in some cases, but that usually is accompanied by water-damaged record jackets.

It's a good bet to clean any used vinyl that you get.

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I do not have nor can I afford a record cleaning machine at this time so what would be the best way to clean them.

there are many many ways... usually I just lay mine flat on a terry towel and drip cleaning solution (I make my own) on the lp then sweep it with a micro fiber, then I do the other side. afterwards I go back to the first side and rinse that with pure distilled and repeat on the second side... let dry.

since I am in a desert, so I am constantly combating static so I then move to the player and sweep one more time with a "diskwasher" brush and solution that seems to have a antistat quality to it. after that I don't clean my lp's every listening... maybe every 2-3 listenings and then usually only with the "diskwasher" brush

Edited by Schu
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