The Vinyl Thread

[progmatist]

I've seen all good people...pulling out their Yessongs albums....

But handle with care, it might be Fragile.

[Garyhead]

I've seen all good people...pulling out their Yessongs albums....

.....and putting it on their Roundabout!

[Shadow]

.....and putting it on their Roundabout!

Now that's a Long Distance Runaround!

[per anporth]

Excellent! Vinyl has that magic for sure. Did you buy a new turntable or did you dust off one you already had? I got a new TT this past summer but also got a new amplifier (my olde one was toast) with an onboard phono preamp with low output moving coil cart capability. Loving the whole experience as well. Any nice used LP shops in Edinburgh?

I upgraded the old one - it's nothing special, & I don't really have the "facilities" to go crazy with the sound system.

Vinyl Villains at the top of Leith Walk has always been worth going back to. But I remember when I started buying records in the 70s, these little places tucked in around corners of the Old Town - the Other Record Shop on St Mary St, Phoenix Records at the foot of the High St - places I'd spend hours in...

[Trane]

I upgraded the old one - it's nothing special, & I don't really have the "facilities" to go crazy with the sound system.
>> I have stopped the audiophile crazyness, but that's easy to say, since I plan to keep whatever I own 'til I die. But you never know, if one day I fall onto a used Yamie YPB-4 TT again. I am soooooo nostalgic about it (I'm usually not nostalgic about much)

Any nice used LP shops in Edinburgh?

Vinyl Villains at the top of Leith Walk has always been worth going back to. But I remember when I started buying records in the 70s, these little places tucked in around corners of the Old Town - the Other Record Shop on St Mary St, Phoenix Records at the foot of the High St - places I'd spend hours in...

Do all three of those place still exist??

I used to haunt these places in August during the late 80's-early 90's when visiting my parents, when not hanging around on Princess Street (with its two HMV stores too) and the park to watch all the Festivals artistes displaying their skills during the day - and the anarchist-communist library on St Mary as well. Night time was often spent in the jazz club (forget its name on Recent under Nelson's monument
Not to mention the Whiskey museum next to the castle and the Springbank shop halfway down the Mile... There was also a fudge-only store that I would raid before leaving the city to offer to my GF

Vilains were a bit excentered (still walking distance of course) and concentrated mostly on punk & glam if memory serves (or at least didn't care much for prog), but they had the coolest plastic bags. Surely they've got tote bags with the gothic-comics logo.



I should really return there (surely it's changed a fair bit) - after all it's been been over 30 years.

[per anporth]

Do all three of those place still exist??

I used to haunt these places in August during the late 80's-early 90's when visiting my parents, when not hanging around on Princess Street (with its two HMV stores too) and the park to watch all the Festivals artistes displaying their skills during the day - and the anarchist-communist library on St Mary as well. Night time was often spent in the jazz club (forget its name on Recent under Nelson's monument
Not to mention the Whiskey museum next to the castle and the Springbank shop halfway down the Mile... There was also a fudge-only store that I would raid before leaving the city to offer to my GF

Vilains were a bit excentered (still walking distance of course) and concentrated mostly on punk & glam if memory serves (or at least didn't care much for prog), but they had the coolest plastic bags. Surely they've got tote bags with the gothic-comics logo.



I should really return there (surely it's changed a fair bit) - after all it's been been over 30 years.

Yes, Vinyl Villains wa/is definitely more punk/glam. Sadly, The Oher Record Shop & Phoenix are both long gone, The Jazz Bar has moved to Chambers St - & is brilliant - packed most nights, with three "sets" - early, late, then clubbing after midnight - loads of young 'uns come to hear the music & to dance. The Whisky/Springbank shop on the Royal Mile is still there - in fact, when my younger daughter was studying at the Uni in Edinburgh, she rented a flat two doors down from that shop!

If you're ever planning on going back - let me know, & I'll see if I can catch up with you there, & take you on a tour of (some of) best pubs!

[Zeuhlmate]

Electron microscope slow-motion video of vinyl LP

[progmatist]

^^ Groovy Man! I can dig it!

[chalkpie]

I picked up a 1977 original pressing of Marley's Exodus on Discogs...what an absolute sonic masterpiece. One of the best sounding LPs I own now. The bass is just unbelievable and the soundstage is wide, focused, and just wonderful. So many beautiful details lurking on that recording, especially the background vocals, percussion, and keyboards. There is a half speed mastered LP available but I can't see that album sounding any better than this pressing, but of course I would be curious.

[JAMOOL]

Speaking of Yessongs I recently discovered a cleaning solution called TergiKleen which has been, hands down, the best cleaning product I've ever used on vinyl (to be fair, I've only used like...4). The cleaning pads seem to just push dirt around and the solution that came with the spin clean only made a slight improvement most of the time - this stuff really does seem to deal with anything that's not a scratch or a warp. I bring it up because my copy of Yessongs was totally junked, just constant surface noise and even a few skips, and after running it through with this I can confidently say it's basically a VG+. If you've got dirty records I recommend you give it a try, especially since it's pretty cheap (one $25 bottle can clean like 500+ albums). No I do not work for them. I'm just excited to find something that actually works, for once!

[Mister Triscuits]

Speaking of Yessongs I recently discovered a cleaning solution called TergiKleen which has been, hands down, the best cleaning product I've ever used on vinyl (to be fair, I've only used like...4).

I've been using Tergikleen for a couple of years now and I swear by (not at) the stuff.

[alucard]

Speaking of Yessongs I recently discovered a cleaning solution called TergiKleen which has been, hands down, the best cleaning product I've ever used on vinyl (to be fair, I've only used like...4). The cleaning pads seem to just push dirt around and the solution that came with the spin clean only made a slight improvement most of the time - this stuff really does seem to deal with anything that's not a scratch or a warp. I bring it up because my copy of Yessongs was totally junked, just constant surface noise and even a few skips, and after running it through with this I can confidently say it's basically a VG+. If you've got dirty records I recommend you give it a try, especially since it's pretty cheap (one $25 bottle can clean like 500+ albums). No I do not work for them. I'm just excited to find something that actually works, for once!

I avoid buying dirty records , even if A somtimes it's hard to see and B on discogs it's a leap of faith. I use a audio technica stylus cleaning fluid that comes with a small brush, that cleans and protects. One problem I have with the record cleaning fluid. It dissolves the dirt and then the stylus kind of pushes it out and shoves a heap of white material out of the groove and I don't think it's very good for the stylus. One of the used record shops I know has invested in a pro cleaning machine and he cleans also customer records for 4 Euros which is quite expensive, but the records he sells are really clean, but then I rather put the money in a NM record offer on Discogs.
Homeoffice temptation I bought quite a lot of records from Japanese vendors: they tend to grade very conservative and I even buy VG+ from Japanese vendors which I normally don't do and in general the records are in excellent.shape.

[chalkpie]

Cool thx for the Tergikleen recommendation. Could I use this with my Record Doctor machine in place of the Record Rx liquid I use now? The Rx and Doctor does seem to do a great job and most of my vinyl is in at least VG shape or higher.

[progmatist]

I recently discovered an extremely effective cleaning method. A 2 stage system using the Vinyl Styl Deep Groove washer. The first wash step with 10:1 Simple Green solution. I dab it dry with a towel between stages. Then for the second and final step, rinsing with plain water I bought from a coin-op vending machine. To dry, placing it in the rack stored at the bottom of the Vinyl Styl washer. I actually use 2 Deep Groove washers for the wash and rinse stages, so I don't have to change the water between steps.

The end result transforms a dirty sounding record to virtually noise free, with only the occasional pop or click.

[JAMOOL]

Cool thx for the Tergikleen recommendation. Could I use this with my Record Doctor machine in place of the Record Rx liquid I use now? The Rx and Doctor does seem to do a great job and most of my vinyl is in at least VG shape or higher.

yeah - I just use it in the spin clean I have in place of the liquid that came with it. it looks like what I've got is just a much less sophisticated version of what you have.

I agree that buying off Discogs is tricky, but I've picked up on two things. For one, don't trust any seller who routinely lists 30+ year old records as "Near Mint", if it's anything less than sealed. obviously it *could* be in that good of shape but more likely they're either not grading things correctly or are actively trying to deceive people. Second is that the price tells the story more than the listed condition does. When I think back on the records that were very much NOT in the listed condition, in most cases it was something that was 20-25% less than the "normal" price.

[progmatist]

^^ A month or so ago, I ditched the Spin Clean for the Vinyl Styl. The goat hair brushes of the latter work far better than the velvety pads of the former, reaching much deeper into the grooves.

[alucard]

What is the best effective washing tool with a good price. I tried some homemade cleaning methods with a mix of alcohol and demineralized water, but I never get the dirt completely out of the groove. The pro machines seem to have good aspiring methods or ultrason for the high end tools.

[progmatist]

^^ If you choose the wet method, like the Vinyl Styl method I described just above, you *NEVER* want to dry with a cloth just before placing it on the turntable. In my experience, drying with any microfiber, or those diaper (nappy for you Brits) like Spin Clean cloths will ALWAYS deposit fibers on the surface. Those fibers will generate crackle, and they'll build up as lint on the stylus. As the lint builds up, the sound becomes more distorted. You want to let records air dry on a rack.

[Mister Triscuits]

^^ If you choose the wet method, like the Vinyl Styl method I described just above, you *NEVER* want to dry with a cloth just before placing it on the turntable. In my experience, drying with any microfiber, or those diaper (nappy for you Brits) like Spin Clean cloths will ALWAYS deposit fibers on the surface. Those fibers will generate crackle, and they'll build up as lint on the stylus. As the lint builds up, the sound becomes more distorted. You want to let records air dry on a rack.

My opinion is the opposite: the most important thing is to remove all moisture as quickly as possible. Use a surfactant like Tergikleen so that most of the water runs off the record, and remove any remaining moisture with a lint-free microfiber cloth. Letting a wet record air-dry allows dust, particulates, and pollutants from the air to dissolve in the remaining moisture, and that stuff gets pasted into the grooves as the moisture evaporates.

[chalkpie]

I'm super happy with the Record Doctor machine. It was $200 but imo does an amazing job of cleaning LPs. The disgusting liquid muck when you drain the bottom is testament to how much shit it takes off records. I clean everything, including new vinyl.

[progmatist]

My opinion is the opposite: the most important thing is to remove all moisture as quickly as possible. Use a surfactant like Tergikleen so that most of the water runs off the record, and remove any remaining moisture with a lint-free microfiber cloth. Letting a wet record air-dry allows dust, particulates, and pollutants from the air to dissolve in the remaining moisture, and that stuff gets pasted into the grooves as the moisture evaporates.

Using my latest method above with plain water in the rinse stage, the water beads and runs off. The record air dries in no more than 10 minutes or so, not much time for airborne particles to adhere. Those pasted dust particles of which you speak pale in comparison to pasted cloth fibers. I've tried a multitude of different microfiber cloths. All deposit fibers when in contact with a wet surface.

[Zeuhlmate]

[alucard]

Always a nice adventure to check out The record shops in a town. I spend a week-end in Nizza and my favourite one is The Electric Monk, 3 rue Alberti in the center. Small shop very well organized with an excellent choice, good prices, a nice owner and free ultrasound cleaning of the records you buy.

[progmatist]

Always a nice adventure to check out The record shops in a town. I spend a week-end in Nizza and my favourite one is The Electric Monk, 3 rue Alberti in the center. Small shop very well organized with an excellent choice, good prices, a nice owner and free ultrasound cleaning of the records you buy.

One of the better shops in Phoenix has an ultrasonic cleaner. They routinely clean every record which enters the store. They place the freshly cleaned records in new archival inner sleeves.

[alucard]

One of the better shops in Phoenix has an ultrasonic cleaner. They routinely clean every record which enters the store. They place the freshly cleaned records in new archival inner sleeves.

That's à perfection way to have clean records. I had recently some bad expérience with a supposed NM record which was very dirty and noisy.