Vinyl Records

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 11:55 am

I know we have some vinyl aficionados here. I'm looking to buy someone a gift, and the very limited local offerings aren't turning it up. I'll be checking one more place while I'm out shopping today, but if that doesn't work out, I'll have to order online, and time, she is a runnin' out. Where is a reliable place to buy vinyl records online?

Also, feel free to hijack this thread once I'm done with it.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:36 pm

Depends what you're buying. New or vintage?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:39 pm

I dunno about ordering online but this is where people go locally

https://thirdmanrecords.com/

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:58 pm

We have a local shop called Drastic Plastic that offers free shipping on orders over $30.

Of course, it would be hit or miss (probably miss, they have a pretty small selection) if they have what your are looking for.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:06 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:36 pm Depends what you're buying. New or vintage?

Vintage

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:17 pm

Vntage by mail fast is tough, assuming you're not looking for reissues/reprints of old albums. Target and Amazon are fine for those but always try to buy from the local shop if it's an option.

Vintage I've bought online from eBay and Discogs but you're at the mercy of individuals. Be careful.

Dusty Groove is a good local shop with an online presence.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:20 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:17 pm Vintage I've bought online from eBay and Discogs but you're at the mercy of individuals. Be careful.

Yeah, I'm only familiar with Discogs but it seems like a real crap shoot.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:37 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:06 pm
LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:36 pm Depends what you're buying. New or vintage?
Vintage

Have a butcher's at MusicStack.com. It's basically AbeBooks for vinyl records and CDs, so it's a marketplace dedicated to hooking collectors up with independent record stores and sellers from all over the world.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 3:01 pm

Vintage I always go through Discogs as they literally have *everything*, but it is a marketplace so as mentioned you do have to make sure you're buying from reputable dealers with good ratings. That said, I've never had a bad experience purchasing anything through the high rated sellers. That's the first place I go if I'm looking for a specific album.

I'll give a shout out to my local record store, Record Bar: www.recordbarilm.com

They only sell new albums online, but they're a great store and a true mom-and-pop owned independent retailer. They have a super fun Facebook Live show every Thursday night at 6pm EST where they sell new and used albums (fixed price, not an auction) and it's a blast. The owner Tony is a nut so he always keeps it entertaining, and they often have some really good deals for the live show crowd.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 3:59 pm

It's very hard to get vintage records online quickly.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 4:41 pm

We have a local used book and music store: https://blackandread.com/

I can tell you they have a pretty big selection (between 1/3 and 1/2 the space is vinyl). But I don't know anything about ordering online from them.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:06 pm

HPB Vinyl

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:32 am

Serious question:

What is the appeal of vinyl over CD? Sound quality versus digital? One scratch can spoil a whole record. Then there is maintaining a turntable. I was glad to see them go.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:46 am

Audiophiles hear a warmer, deeper sound that eludes the rest of us, partly because we are philistines and partly because playback tech has degenerated.

Stereo components were high-tech when I was a teen. I had saved up $1,200 to buy an almost-state of the art system. I'd settled on all of the components except the speakers, where I was waffling between Infinity and Klipshorn. Then I went with a friend to test-drove a 1972 Opel GT and fell in love with it. When my friend's financing fell through I spent my stereo money on it, because it cost $1,200. Which was high finance in 1974. Point being that your ancestors appreciated quality audio on a level that you've never heard.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 4:27 am

Jaymann wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:32 am Serious question:

What is the appeal of vinyl over CD? Sound quality versus digital? One scratch can spoil a whole record. Then there is maintaining a turntable. I was glad to see them go.

I've had more CDs ruined by scratches than I have records.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 8:48 am

Jaymann wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:32 am Serious question:

What is the appeal of vinyl over CD? Sound quality versus digital? One scratch can spoil a whole record. Then there is maintaining a turntable. I was glad to see them go.

1) The ritual. There is a ritual of listening to an album that doesn't exist with any other medium to date. You stop to engage an record by virtue of inconvenience. That record has a set of sleeves that contain part of the experience. You engage those sleeves when you stop to engage the album.
2) I can't speak for audio, as my hearing is not that great, but even at crazy good transfer DVDs aren't nearly as good as high quality analog visual. Forget cable or streaming.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:24 am

Jaymann wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:32 am Serious question:

What is the appeal of vinyl over CD? Sound quality versus digital? One scratch can spoil a whole record. Then there is maintaining a turntable. I was glad to see them go.

Beats me. I bought my first CD player 2 weeks after the format was released in 1983...bought 3 CDs along with it, then immediately divested my vinyl collection -- all 2000 albums. I've enjoyed life freed of static ever since.

A dozen ago, my 1200 or so CDs were ripped digitally. I no longer futz with physical media at all.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 11:09 am

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:52 pm

Jaymann wrote:What is the appeal of vinyl over CD? Sound quality versus digital? One scratch can spoil a whole record. Then there is maintaining a turntable. I was glad to see them go.

The sound quality goes without saying, but I'm not a big audiophile and my equipment is not super expensive, so that's not the primary draw for me.

I love it because it makes me appreciate music on a level that I can't get from a CD or streaming. A record is an investment both in time and money. You can't just easily skip around an album; it forces you to put it on and let it play. And unlike the digital stuff you stream for essentially free, when you put $25-$30 into a record you value it far more than a click on Spotify. Some people may not get that, and that's OK. I didn't get it either until I started collecting and immersing myself in the hobby.

The other thing I love about record collecting is the surprise factor. Nothing is more fun to me than buying some record for a few bucks, having never heard of the artist. Then putting it on and letting it play, not knowing what's going to come out of the speakers. You can't get that same feeling by randomly choosing an artist on Spotify. Again, there's no investment in that instant gratification. Flipping through stacks of records looking for some hidden gem can't be done through a web browser.

Also if you haven't heard a modernly pressed record, you may not realize how far things have come. There's no hiss, no crackles. And even old records are FAR more durable than I ever knew. Most of the skips and pops you get on a record are not from scratches but from dirt. Properly cleaned records, even vintage ones, sound REALLY good. I used to be terrified of the "delicacy" of vinyl until I started buying used records and cleaning them up and realizing you really have to beat the hell out of a record to make it unplayable.

Personally I just miss the appreciation I used to have for things I had to go out and look for and buy with my own money. There was a time, even with CDs, where I had to go to a store and buy that album. I had to carry it around with me. I treasured those albums. On-demand music that I can pull up anytime, anywhere, with my phone is super convenient. But I have zero connection to it. I didn't buy it, I can toss it aside with no loss and move on to the next thing. It's soulless. Vinyl collecting has helped me re-capture that love of music I lost when it became as easy to get as tap water.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:41 pm

YellowKing wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:52 pm Some people may not get that, and that's OK.

I'm glad to hear that is ok. The words all make sense taken together, but it all feels kind of upside down to me. To be fair I also like modern pop more than most things that came out of the 80s (exceptions being Pretty Hate Machine and Operation: Mindcrime).

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 7:51 pm

i feel there's a whole lot of hoodoo-voodoo about the vinyl listening experience, so from my perspective, the #1 reason people are really into vinyl is just that - the physical media 'experience'. this includes the artwork and liner notes, the flipping of the record, the tactile-ness, etc. that's indisputable.

audio quality? several parallel things going on here.

#1) record labels started abusing the increased audio capacity of CD audio and started compressing/'brickwalling' the master recordings to sound 'louder' than everyone else. this started in the late 90s and continues today. there is of course nothing preventing CD audio from having pristine sound - this is purely a business decision. vinyl record pressings can't be 'abused' in this way (because they don't have the audio bandwidth to do so). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

#2) current streaming/digital download quality (especially local Bluetooth wireless transmission) - i understand that while it's 'good enough' for many people, it's not great. unless you're ponying up for FLAC downloads, you're getting compressed audio in lossy codecs. combine that with people downgrading their actual speaker playback systems (from floorstanding hifi speakers to soundbars, from around the ear headphones to earbuds, random mono Bluetooth speakers) and audio quality has _regressed_ over the past 20 or so years for a lot of people. by definition, having a hifi means you aren't going (or at least, aren't supposed) to have these compromised playback systems.

for people invested in audio stream services, convenience is #1 priority. now, for the 'audiophile' group, they factor in the above along with their Final Conclusion that

#3) the perceived belief that analog records 'have better sound' than CDs. this debate has been going on for decades. i do dare anyone to do an A/B listening test between a quality mastered album on both vinyl and CD. really what most of these people are hearing is the 'pleasing distortion' inherent in vinyl, which is the source of that fabled 'warm sound'. i will say i prefer listening to albums on vinyl _that originally came out on vinyl_ (with a completely analog recording chain). there are a number of records being released today that were recorded digitally, then dumped to vinyl - what's the point?? these 'purists' who swore by analog recordings - that their ears can TOTALLY tell the difference - were completely hoodwinked. here's a recent scandal for more info on one record label who deceived customers in this way: https://www.audioholics.com/audio-techn ... ty-scandal

plus, there are manufacturing defects to consider - you can run into a lot of badly pressed vinyl records with surface noise, an off-center hole, or a warped platter. i see these complaints on discogs on new releases aaaaallll the time. then there's storage and maintenance - records need to be stored vertically or they'll warp, can't be exposed to heat, need cleaning, you need to replace the record needle after so many plays, need to balance the tonearm and anti-skate, blah blah blah. (oh yeah, and they're misery when you have to move house)

don't want this to turn into a stevehoffman forum post, but there's more that can be said on this topic. i think a lot of the 'vinyl being objectively better than CD' is mostly hokum.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:49 pm

Too bad you don't live close by. I have a bunch of 33s and 45s I'd let you have for free. They're kind of hard to get at right now for me tho.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 10:19 pm

Dad used to fix jukeboxes when I was a child in the 70s. He gave me stacks of records. I had Beatles to Boots Randolph. One day he let me use a stack of 45s as frisbees and I flew them into a creek that led to a river. Ill never know what I tossed that day lol. Horrible I know.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 11:22 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 10:19 pm Dad used to fix jukeboxes when I was a child in the 70s. He gave me stacks of records. I had Beatles to Boots Randolph. One day he let me use a stack of 45s as frisbees and I flew them into a creek that led to a river. Ill never know what I tossed that day lol. Horrible I know.

too bad you turned that river into a superfund site

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articl ... vironment/

Still, the production of a vinyl record is often a noisy, dirty, 19th-century steam-driven manufacturing process, involving a series of environmentally troubling materials. As Michal Sterba, CEO of Czech-based GZ Media – a company a lot of UK record labels use for their manufacturing – admits: “Vinyl record is not the most ecological product in the world. A lot of steam, a lot of chilling, questionable process during the galvanics, the compound itself contains PVC, [it’s] very difficult to recycle in the end.”

PVC first replaced the brittle shellac – which had been used for 78s since the 1900s – during the 1950s, as use of the new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) became more widespread. PVC certainly has its manufacturing advantages: it is durable, cheap, easily formed and moulded, and is a stable plastic with an extremely low flammability, low melting temperature and low static charge. All these attributes make it an ideal material for manufacturing records.

However, PVC is also derived in part from the use of fossil fuels – primarily gas, but also oil – and the finished record can contain toxic additives such as carbon black and heavy metals, as a stabilising agent is added to the PVC to keep it from degrading over time. Vintage vinyl is quite likely to contain cadmium or lead – both toxic to humans – and even some new vinyl might still contain lead.

actually playing the records (the process of the needle scraping against this thing) does release aerosolized heavy metals into the surrounding air, but it's a very minute quantity

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:37 pm

Resurrecting this thread just in case we have any vinyl collectors that hit Record Store Day this past Saturday.

My daughter and I got in line around 6:45am at our favorite local store and were about 20th in line. We had a couple of people that had camped out the night before, but there weren't any titles on my list that I needed that bad.

It was a good, fun crowd and we met some really nice people in line. One guy had come about an hour and a half from Myrtle Beach to get the Eric Carr boxed set and CD. He was a mega-KISS fan and pretty fun to talk to about all his concert experiences. I also got a chance to see some friends I've met through vinyl collecting that I only get to see in person on Record Store Day.

I wound up walking out with the following:

Charles Mingus - Reincarnations - I'm a big Charles Mingus fan so I picked this one up since it was pretty inexpensive. I've heard mixed reviews on the sound quality but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. It's a collection of various tracks that is a follow up from last year's "Incarnations" RSD title that I didn't grab but now need to track down.

Yusef Lateef - Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon - I haven't listened to a ton of Yusef Lateef but what I have heard I really liked. I heard really good things about this 1972 concert recording so I decided to grab it. I'm glad I did. It sounds amazing for a live recording, and there are some great tracks on this double LP. Also included a beautiful color booklet. Really happy to have this one.

Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans - I was going to pass on this one since this album is pretty widely available for cheaper than the RSD edition, but I changed my mind when I found out it was repressed from the master tapes in a mono version. Since I didn't have this classic title yet, it made sense that this would be an excellent sounding version.

Gandalf - Gandalf - Gandalf was a psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 that put out only one album, this one. Their label issued the release with the wrong record in the sleeve, had to do a recall, and the group never recovered from the horrendous sales. Only in retrospect was the group rediscovered and gained a bit of cult status. I picked this one up because it was a really limited release (1500 copies), and I've really been into psych rock lately. It's a great listen and I love obscure bands like this that put out only an album or two and then vanished.

We also managed to grab the Olivia Rodrigo/Noah Kahan single and a Taylor Swift Tortured Poets Department variant for my daughter, so she left happy.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:29 pm

Sounds like fun!

I don't bother with Record Day around here. In the past it's just been a bunch of people looking for rare issues to flip and store owners overly wary of flippers.

I did buy a few records on Bandcamp recently:

Mute The Charm, Vinyl by Unwed Sailor
Underwater Over There, Blue Oceania Vinyl by Unwed Sailor (pre-order)
One Million Love Songs ♡, ❤ Red & Blue Vinyl ❤ by Bnny
Power Corruption & Lies: Live In Dublin Vol 1, White Vinyl, Peter Hook & The Light
Power Corruption & Lies: Live In Dublin Vol 2, Red Vinyl, Peter Hook & The Light

And from Discogs:
The Veils - Advice For Young Mothers To Be (7") (Rough Trade - RTRADS 367)

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:41 pm

Lawbeefaroni wrote:I don't bother with Record Day around here. In the past it's just been a bunch of people looking for rare issues to flip and store owners overly wary of flippers.

I really like how our store does it. Everyone in line gets a checklist, you mark what you want. All RSD titles are in a back room, so as you enter the store they pull your list and let you know if something is unavailable. And they limit everything to 1 per customer. No way to flip multiple titles and no fighting as it's first come first serve. I've heard horror stories from my buddy in NJ about the store he hit where it was just a total Black Friday free-for-all when they opened the doors.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:31 pm

only vinyl i bought this year was Rustin' Man - Clockdust off Silver Platters' Discogs site. i am positive this record (brand new, still in shrinkwrap) was marked down to $4.99 since no one knew what the hell it was*. since the Silver Platters (a local record store mini-chain) Seattle store is not very far away, i asked if they could just bring the record to the physical location for pickup to save on shipping and they said ok. would have preferred to have this on CD, but this was waaay cheaper.

now CDs, i have purchased _quite a few_ in the past two months... best finds were in the massive Waterloo Records haul i picket up in Austin, TX a few weeks ago - a MFSL pressing of Love _Forever Changes_ for $15 and an RCA pressing of Bowie's _Young Americans_ (one of my least favorite of his, but... RCA pressing for $8 with the original mid-1980s jewel case and tray)

* (it's Paul Webb and Lee Harris, formerly of Talk Talk and .O.Rang - their first album had Beth Gibbons of Portishead on vocals - she also did vocals on a few .O.Rang tracks previously)

em2nought · Post by **em2nought** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 7:16 pm

I bought a 45 record for $0.10 so I have one to test an old school suitcase player with if I ever come across one. My sister wants an old school with the auto dropping mechanism for my parent's collection of old 45s. It don't rain little green apples at Winchester Cathedral.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 7:59 pm

I'm currently sitting at 360 LPs. Around 60 of those are jazz titles, another 30 or so are soundtracks/scores, and the remainder are a mix of classic rock, singer-songwriters, 90s alternative, and country.

I love 70s music so that's probably my most represented decade. I'm working on collecting all the records of all the great 70s singer-songwriters - Gordon Lightfoot, Billy Joel, Elton John, James Taylor, Jim Croce, etc. I mostly buy used because my budget is not unlimited and new vinyl can get freaking expensive.

If anyone wants to flip through my collection you can do so here:

https://www.waxlog.com/collection/eldritchfury

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:49 pm

I got rid of the last of my vinyl about a year two years ago when I had to move them because of a house renovation, also my turntable had taken a dump and I didn’t want to buy another one.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 9:29 pm

I can't remember if I've posted about this before, but aren't today's vinyl releases just analog pressings of digital recordings?

No artist today goes into the studio to do analog recording sessions. It's all born digital. So isn't a fancy vinyl release today just a translation backwards?

I guess the real question is whether it matters. Does a vinyl release of a 2024 digital session somehow enjoy the same warmth (or texture or whatever it is we like) as a vinyl release of a 1972 analog session?

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 10:17 pm

Yeah, outside of some really high-end pressings, most titles these days in some way, shape or form go through some digital processing. But they still sound great. Unless you have an insane sound system and are doing direct comparisons, I don't know how you'd be disappointed in the sound from a well-pressed modern vinyl record vs. an original.

I don't collect it for the sound quality because quite frankly I think the notion that vinyl sounds infinitely better than other formats is mostly nonsense. I collect it because it forces me to invest in my music. Not financially (though that's part of it), but primarily through time. I don't think you can get a true appreciation for anything that comes to you via instant gratification.

Every record on my shelf has a story behind it. Why I bought it, where I bought it. Whether I got a great deal or paid too much. There are records I stood in line for, records that were like stumbling across a treasure in a junk pile. Records I hunted down for months. Records that I had no clue what I was buying but the cover looked cool so I took a chance. Records I was given, records that I won. For every record I own, that's 30 minutes to an hour I invested in listening to it. Not skipping around. Listening to an entire side, then flipping it over and listening to another entire side. All of that...the stories, the money, the time spent listening, it's all a personal investment. I really treasure that aspect of it.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:57 am

I think the psychological appeal of vinyl records transcends the sound it produces.

There is a personal analog participation involved where the listener actually 'plays' the record. It's almost an instrument of its own. I think that level of intimacy with the music is what's behind the romance of vinyl records. The suddle hiss and pops just make it even more organic - no matter the source of the recording.

Eel Snave · Post by **Eel Snave** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 10:32 am

We recently went out and got a vintage stereo system and vinyl sounds amazing on it. I've been collecting Bob Dylan and his most recent one (Shadow Kingdom) sounds incredibly rich.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:09 pm

If nothing else the ability to enjoy the vinyl albums themselves, the artwork and liner notes makes them neat. But the space requirements don’t. And you can’t play vinyl in your car.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:42 pm

Scuzz wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:09 pm If nothing else the ability to enjoy the vinyl albums themselves, the artwork and liner notes makes them neat. But the space requirements don’t. And you can’t play vinyl in your car.

They did make them at one time....

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 4:23 pm

Unagi wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:57 am The suddle hiss and pops just make it even more organic - no matter the source of the recording.

i heard it characterized as 'distortion that happens to be pleasing to the human ear'

St Paul Public Library (Minnesota) has some sort of recordcollector head on the music acquisition board - they get really good vinyl LPs every month:

https://sppl.bibliocommons.com/v2/searc ... le=New+LPs

they also have record players and listening rooms at some of the library branches. if i still lived there, i would be going alllll the time...

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 4:32 pm

YellowKing wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2024 7:59 pm
I love 70s music so that's probably my most represented decade. I'm working on collecting all the records of all the great 70s singer-songwriters - Gordon Lightfoot, Billy Joel, Elton John, James Taylor, Jim Croce, etc. I mostly buy used because my budget is not unlimited and new vinyl can get freaking expensive.

you need to get Gene Clark _No Other_ - reissued on 4AD https://shopusa.4ad.com/no-other

also in the realm of soundtracks, you also should get one of my all-time favorites - Michael Mann's _The Keep_ (music by Tangerine Dream)
https://elitesoundtracks.com/products/t ... ine-dream/
backstory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keep_ ... eam_album) - the film came out in 1983, but the soundtrack recording was in legal purgatory for decades and didn't get an official wide commercial release until just a few years ago.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 5:30 pm

Had stacks and stacks of 45s as a kid in the 70s and early 80s cause my dad worked on old jukeboxes from local bars. Now all I have are the 3 45s I found still on my old record player and a Candy-O Cars album and ABBA greatest hits album I picked up at goodwill.