Vinyl Defined, Kinda Long, But Still A Good Read

[Gilbert]

This is long, not Max long [], but long.....enjoy.

The 33rpm Vinyl Long Player, or LP as we know it today, began its life in 1948 as a replacement for the more fragile 78rpm shellac discs. The main benefits of the vinyl LP were improved durability and the capacity to record up to 30 minutes of music on each side. However, it wasnt until the mid-1950s, and the birth of Rock N Roll, that sales of vinyl LPs began to escalate.

Pressings from the UK have always been highly regarded amongst collectors. This is especially true of LPs manufactured during the 60s and early 70s. The superior quality of the heavyweight vinyl, along with the technical skills of the cutting engineer, meant that sound reproduction was always of the highest standard. Genuine UK deep-grooved first pressings, direct from the master tapes, can now achieve huge prices and are much in demand in Mint condition.

The first stereo LPs became available in 1958, however these did not become really popular in the UK until the mid-to-late 1960s, making early UK stereo pressings, and late UK mono pressings, very scarce today. Many albums in the 60s were issued in both mono and stereo versions. Opinion is divided about which is best, with both recordings offering a different listening experience.

Picture sleeves on UK LPs evolved throughout the decades. Imagery progressed from simple band photos towards more imaginative designs that were sometimes more memorable than the musical content. Psychedelic covers were often as weird as the sounds on the record inside! Many collectors regard the sleeve to be just as important as the vinyl and UK album sleeves from the 60s & 70s can be sought after as much for their high standards of manufacture as their imagery. Many UK sleeves were laminated, and the strong flip-back construction has helped many of them survive today. They are pure works of art that the compact disc era has not been able to match.

From the late-70s and into the 1980s the packaging became more elaborate, often including printed inner sleeves, lyric inserts, a bonus poster or some other novelty. Record companies kept finding new gimmicks to help sell their product and many of these extras were exclusive to UK issues.

By the early 90s demand for vinyl albums was in decline; CDs were becoming the dominant format, to the point where many artists no longer released their albums on vinyl. When they did there was just an initial first pressing, limited in number and quickly deleted from catalogue. However, recent years have seen an upsurge of interest in vinyl, both new and old. Classic albums are once again being remastered and reissued, sometimes as limited edition audiophile pressings, although many collectors still believe the original pressings sound best. Whatever your preference, vinyl is here to stay, and although the debate rages on over the superior sound characteristic of vinyl compared to CD, there is no doubt that UK vinyl LPs are among the most desirable pressings of this superb format.

[oldbuckster]

Nice article, but the record companies killed Vinyl sales with poor quality sound, warped records, raising prices, lower quality control, just to name a few. To me, $29.98 is too much money to pay for a record, yes, you can buy used,but that has risks too. It's a shame that you have to buy audiophile pressings, or UK vinyl, in order to get quality sounding records. My statement is more on the record companies, and not on the private user, or collector.

[Gilbert]

Personally, I don't know beans about the subject. The write up is just some guys opinion. Accurate or not, i don't yet know.

So far I've only purchased 2 LP's, Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" and a older Van Halen LP, "Van Halen". No MFSL or Euro, but they were both pretty cheap and NM condition.

[tychicum]

There was a cosmic intersection of good music in the late

60's and then the 70's and vinyl, There

is a large under current of young people (with taste) and that era. My 18 year son seems to have been bitten.

Yes he has nearly all of the 70's era on MP3 but he is also

crazy over vinyl. He has a 200 album

plus collection of most of the best of Rock in that era ... and growing.

Retro is very cool today ...

Don't throw out those old LPs ... they sell for 20 and 30

dollars a pop if they are in good condition.

I saw the impossible a few months ago. A limited edition press of ... wait for it

... "The Monkeys".

The store had a price tag on it of $2,500.00. Now you know that the world is crazy ...

[maxg]

That's not long - it is actually rather brief IMO []

It is also really far from accurate in many cases. Yes - 1960's UK vinyl was good - but there were many other sources of good vinyl during that period and by the 70's UK vinyl was often of rather poor quality.

An apropos example is PF Animals. I have 2 copies - one mint UK version and one somewhat battered US version. The sonics on the US version are simply miles better.

Additionally to talk about vinyl and not to mention the 2 major labels of Europe (DG - which had brilliant quality upto about 1975 and then degenerated until they became about the worst vinyl out there, and Philips - which was consistently good from the '60's to the last pressings they made (90's?)

London/Decca pressings were always very variable - from about as good as it gets to atrocious. RCA's were of a high qualirty throughout the 60's but again tailed off badly. EMI were even more all over the place - some great, some apalling and some utterly mediocre.

Smaller audiophile labels are generally very good at the studio side of the thing - but when it comes to putting the results down onto the vinyl they are often so off-centre that the benefits of the additional work with the master tapes all but disappears.

Aside from all of the above (and I have been VERY brief) there is a difference between audiophiles and music lovers, who, usually, are buying records to listen to them and record collectors who often don't. It is the latter that tend to pay exorbitant sums for really questionable material simply because of its rarity.

The Monkee's, for example, would not grace my collection for $1 per disk, let alone $,2.500.

[jazman]

The Monkee's, for example, would not grace my collection for $1 per disk, let alone $,2.500.

I'd like to offer one very hearty "Amen" to that statement!

Klipsch out.