Why I Love Collecting Vinyl (Records) (Page 1 of 12)

Congratulations  , you got some good records   

I've got quite a few back at my Mum and Step dads (Not enough Room in the Flat) 

Once you start getting a lot of them lying around, I've definitely noticed they are a space commitment as well.   

There was something magical in a LP cover ,the artwork ,the information ,the photos ect something that CDs
just don't capture ,I wont even go  into the LPsound vCD sound comparison but if any one wants to
open bat I will tag on    as my 24 year old daughter once said Wots that dad ? that's whats called a record player
oh the pain the pain

ahh the memories ,now I just wack in the silver  disc and walk away ,cant remember when I last sat down
and read a CD cover ,whats the point

I agree wholeheartedly. That was the first thing that ever wowed me about LPs, was the quality of the music. Vastly superior to the MP3. And the artwork used to mean something, as kids stared for hours trying to name everybody on Sgt. Peppers in the background.

The other thing I've noticed, is that compared to digital, the real piece always has a story behind it. Example being no one remembers downloading Led Zeppelin II from piratebay, but you will remember a story like where you where, or what was happening in your life when you played that album. Little things like that enhance the experience.

I bought a vinyl 'picture disc' of a-ha's 'The Living Daylights' at a record fair in a local town for £4 last year. It came in a transparent plastic sleeve with a white sticker that said "LIMITED EDITION A-HA "The Living Daylights" W 8305 TP." It has an extended mix of the song on one side and on the other side the song itself and an instrumental. Sadly I've not had a chance to listen to it yet. I'm sure that it's not worth very much, but I thought it was something interesting to add to the collection.

I have an old record player somewhere in the house but I haven't used it in years although I did used to use it a lot as a teenager with a cache of old Irish folk records my older brother bought at an auction in about 1997. Fond memories of singing along to those!

Yes, I kind of wondered if it would play at all looking at it as it obviously doesn't have your typical record groove. Here's a picture I found of it on the internet of the one I have:

And the other side of the TLD picture disc:

On a related note...I've recently been picking up some used records on eBay, and out of curiosity have priced some Bowie vinyl. Holy crap. Used copies of 'Hunky Dory,' 'Ziggy' and 'Station to Station' are going for upwards of $80    Think I'll let the grieving die down...

I had that one! Great record 

Agree with everything that you've said Loeffelholz. There's nothing to match the overall experience of listening to a vinyl record. From the packaging itself to carefully placing the disc on the platter and dropping the needle, and hearing the reassuring crackle as the needle works its way into the first groove. Then of course getting up to flip the record over for side 2. It makes listening to music an event, rather than a passive experience. It is for this aspect of vinyl that I was initially attracted, I'm certainly no audiophile but at the same time I do appreciate the different quality that this format has compared to digital. And on the subject of the remastered 180g records that you've mentioned, I've greatly enjoyed my brand new copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. My favourite artist is Bob Dylan and I recently added 180g copies of Bringing it all Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited to my collection.

As I mentioned, I'm not too interested in the highly technical 'audiophile' side of things. I don't think my ear is sensitive enough to warrant that sort of expense, but I did recently upgrade my turntable from one of the cheaply made modern turntable which are being flogged in their hundreds to the hipsters and got a fully refurbished Technics deck which dates back to the 1980s and the enjoyment factor skyrocketed as the sound quality was so much better, as well as removing the nagging feeling that every spin on that cheap deck was likely degrading the records much quicker than I would like.

Record collecting has become a great hobby, but I have to be very careful with my wallet because I can easily walk into a second hand record shop (of which Cape Town has many) and spend far too much cash! I recently got married, so my wife is keeping a close eye on my record purchases. 

In the years 1970-75 I served my apprenticeship at a printers called Robert Stace in Tunbridge Wells and they printed record sleeves for RCA, Decca, Deram and others, artists included: Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Moody Blues, David Bowie, John Denver, Caravan, Osibisa, Budgie, the list is endless.

This is a picture of the machine that combined and glued together gatefold record sleeves, once glued another machine would then crease the spine to produce the folded sleeve.

And as an added bonus here is a picture of me (with hair) operating an early Berthold phototypesetting machine.