I'm comfortable with traditional things; they're usually the way they are for a good reason. Underwear should be white and vinyl should be black. I have to say I am not a fan of all the new colored records, especially clear and the color-splashed ones. I find them distracting and its hard to see dust and contaminants from my old eyes. Are the any advantages to them, besides marketing them as "rare editions" , that I am missing?
While I struggle with white LPs a bit, I think it’s all fun. I’m just happy LPs are being made again, whatever the color. But then, I haven't worn white underwear in 30 years.
I also have a dozen or so "clear" vinyl records. I believe the process is not simply removing the carbon black but requires a replacement compound to obtain that clarity.
The translucency is quite often a telling of the quality of the vinyl (virgin) used . Japanese pressings and British and German pressings using quality vinyl also were translucent even in black.
I have many British pressings that appear black but even in low natural or incandescent light they are actually a deep see through plum purple color.
No filler and higher quality (controlled) ingrediants .
Like the old softer red odeon pressings. Clear pressings still require an added compound in place of any other colorant to make them. Still colored to be colorless . Its all relative to the quality of materials used and the quality input from machines and the humans setting them up and handling them. I'm constantly amazed at how good many records do sound in context to my previous sentence.
I have some of the Clarity releases and, yes, they are milky white. But I also have some LPs that are colorless (clear), you can see your hand through them. Chet Baker "Cool Cat" on Tidal Waves Music is one that comes to mind. 180 grams and it has a lot of surface noise.
A lot of the records I buy these days come on colored vinyl--indie pop as well as other reissues. I haven't heard any difference in quality that can be attributed to the color vs. black.
Other than the clarity vinyl that is a translucent milky white, all vinyl is colored, all.
If the vinyl used is high quality (virgin) and the quality control is high its all relative.
Not to dismiss that in some instances it has been used as shiny object marketing where quality sound is glossed over. Picture disc's are another thing all together meant as visual novelty items not to be played with any seriousness whatsoever or at all.
As far as the underwear vs vinyl context goes ....
In this economy like many , for purchases like records I'm on a shoestring budget for now... so no context relative will be necessary or wanted . Prioritize and rationalize as a music loving audio person should...
My Mitsubishi and Sony Linear Turntables shine light up thru holes in the platter to detect lp size and then chooses 33 or 45 speed. I have to put a black light blocking LP below a Larkin Poe clear 'white' LP, which messes with VTA of course.
I think the colored vinyl is kinda cool and fun. I don’t buy records simply due to color, but some of the etchings and what not are cool additions. Black is boring, but of course gets the job done. My latest Bob Marley “greatest hits” is done in the red, yellow, green color scheme. Love it.
The Vinyl LP is not only a growing commodity in the Market Place as a result of the trend for the 'so called' Vinyl Revival, where the Vinyl/TT Source gained attraction beyond the die hard traditionalists.
There are a ever growing group who are New to Vinyl Collecting.
Limited Editions and Non Black meets their criteria for collecting.
Most importantly is that New Artists selling Hard Media, are aware of this other group of customers and see them as a important group, as one collectors purchase, is equivalent to 10's of 1000's streaming hits in revenues.
I am fortunate to have watched a recent released Vinyl LP appreciate in value from £35 to £600 across a few years, imagine if my copy was still in it manufacturers applied cellophane.
As a side, my Original 'Pulse' Album is still in the Manufacturers Cellophane, that one is now much harder to crack open.
Hey, I've got a couple of LPs that are cut from the center of the disc outward to the edge. One reason for it was to counteract skating forces...which, of course is obviated by the existence of anti-skate. Another reason was because classical music usually had its loudest passages at the end of the piece, and cartridges were better able to track them at the outside edge.
The Vinyl Me Please (VMP) label does most of its’ reissues in colored PVC, and has many of them pressed at QRP (Quality Record Pressings), Chad Kassem’s in-house Analogue Productions plant. When Doug Sax of The Mastering Lab fame passed away, Kassem bought all The Labs equipment and had it shipped to QRP, where it is now used to make LP’s as good as the world has ever seen and heard.
On their way to me as I type this are two titles from the recent Record Store Day event, both pressed on colored PVC: The Everly Brothers collection entitled Hey Doll Baby, and the Del Shannon album Rock On!, produced by Jeff Lynne and Mike Campbell. Both titles appeal to older buyers, so why it was decided to press them in color mystifies me.
The colored PVC craze/fad strikes me as a childish/girlie kinda thing. But some LP’s are available only that way, so if you want the music on LP you have to accept it. Some colored LP’s are noisy, but that’s not because of the color, but rather the low standards of the pressing plant(s).
The one exception is the "super vinyl" being used by Analogue Productions and MoFi in their premium pressings. It is a new carbon-free PVC, Analogue productions using Clarity brand PVC, MoFi their own version of same. The lack of color (the LP’s look like translucent skim milk) makes seeing the LP surface and any dust difficult, but has the potential to produce a very low-noise LP. But again, doesn’t guarantee it; some of the early AP pressings of their recent Kind Of Blue suffered from excess noise. AP replaced all bought noisy copies with later, quiet pressings.
MoFi did a very limited pressing (only 1,000 copies) of Dylan’s Desire on Super Vinyl, and owners (not I, unfortunately ;-) report it sounds considerably better than original Columbia pressings. Is that because of the carbon-free PVC, the MoFi mastering/plating/pressing, or both?
@aewarren: Have you tried any of the Speaker’s Corner LP’s? SC is a German company, and I have about a half dozen of their excellent LP’s. They offer titles in all genres, from Classical to Blues. One of my favorite audiophile reissue labels.
I was not talking about young people's music or picture disks. I mainly listen to and collect adult music (Jazz and some Classical and Blues) and I stopped buying used records years ago. It's too much of a crapshoot. They're mostly visually graded and one person's Mint Minus is another's VG, and you never know how they've been cleaned (or with what) or treated. I've found many reproductions from Impex, Tone Poet, Mo-Fi, Analog Productions, Craft and others to be superior to the best originals and way less expensive. I just see no reason for them to color the vinyl except maybe to differentiate it from the original.
Wouldn't it be nice if every band on a record side were a different color so we'd better know where to cue up the needle? Or how 'bout if the vinyl between cuts were a contrasting color to the rest of the side?
All in all, though, let a thousand colors bloom! It's the music and the quality of the vinyl/pressing that counts,
The main concern for most of the companies that sell records is how many they sell, definitely not sound quality, except for some small labels. If coloring the vinyl sells more copies, they’ll color the vinyl.
All that matters is the quality control at mastering and production.
Natural pvc has no colour, additives and black carbon (has conductive properties also) strengthen the lp and make it black and in the long run it would probably last longer. Colouring is a dye nothing more but pleasing to the eye and give a nice alternative, making more desirable some releases. True with clear and coloured ones imperfections are not easily noticed but sonically are equal to the black ones.
I would avoid, for sound quality only, the pictured ones being the thinner.
It’s because most of this new vinyl is being bought up by kids/teens...they like flashy colored vinyl...I can’t say that I have not bought some, not many. I generally stick to buying older vinyl, sometimes still sealed, mostly in VG+ condition. I find the older stuff sounds much better.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
