And if you lent the disc to a friend, the RIAA would sue you.

/plus ça change, moins ça change.

And some of them were on cereal boxes!

Lorelle

And in the National Geographic, which was also the only source of porn available to a youngster in the 1960's.

My sister used to have one of those in her car. You put these little plastic cartridges about half the size of a VHS tape into the slot and it would play music like the Village People.

I'm 38, and remember vinyl albums quite well. I am very, very grateful that we don't use them anymore. Play an album more than a few times, and the sound quality starts to decrease. Soon you have to buy a new one. How we put up with them for as long as we did, I'll never know.

john_d_corr
I'm 38, and remember vinyl albums quite well. I am very, very grateful that we don't use them anymore. Play an album more than a few times, and the sound quality starts to decrease. Soon you have to buy a new one. How we put up with them for as long as we did, I'll never know.

This.

And for all you audio geeks that think that vinyl sounds better:

Fark you. Fark you with a dull, dusty phonograph needle.

john_d_corr

Ummm.. dude... you needed a new needle.

john_d_corr: I'm 38, and remember vinyl albums quite well. I am very, very grateful that we don't use them anymore. Play an album more than a few times, and the sound quality starts to decrease. Soon you have to buy a new one. How we put up with them for as long as we did, I'll never know.

Well, I would say that you were playing the records in a really low quality turntable. I had collected over 600 vinyl records between 1969 and 1984 and still had them up until a 1996 hurricane destroyed them. Played them on a Yamaha turntable with a Stanton cartridge connected to a Pioneer 500 watt amp, ADC 10 channel R & L graphic equalizer and Acoustic Research AR-9 tower speakers and the records always sounded superb for years and years. I was quite anal in that I always cleaned the records thoroughly and used the Zerostat anti-static gun and felt cleaner before playing them. I miss my records terribly.

DrSandyBeech: I was quite anal in that I always cleaned the records thoroughly and used the Zerostat anti-static gun and felt cleaner before playing them. I miss my records terribly.

Quite a lot of effort just to hear a song.

Yes, I went through the whole thing as well. I think dad had (still has) a Kenwood amplifier with a technics (or however it's spelled) turntable to spin the Cletus Maggard, Merle Haggard, and Waylon Jennings (along with Elvis...did you know that the album Moody Blue was released on a blue semi-transparent record? The More You Know.....) I always had to use that record cleaning felt thing that looked like a blackboard eraser, and this little needle cleaning thingee. Kind of wonder where they all are now.

Pathologically hate both types of music: Country AND Western because of it.

/Now practices same technique of recording records onto 8-track, just use way better equipment these days.
//Plugs iPod into car transmitter; burns disc

I'm so analog I just pick up a guitar and play music when I want to hear it!


/sound quality is atrocious though

Weaps: I always had to use that record cleaning felt thing that looked like a blackboard eraser . . .

The brand name of that--the leading brand, anyway--was "Discwasher." I'm guessing their sales have dropped off just a bit over the years.

And for those who say that vinyl either didn't sound good or didn't last, it was all in the quality of the cartridge you used. I used the sell stereo equipment back in the day (during a couple of years that I had dropped out of college), and it never ceased to amaze me how many people would come in and buy a stereo system spending $500 on a nice turntable, $1000 on a nice amp, and $1500 on some nice speakers, and then have us install a $35 cartridge into that turntable. It would've sounded better if they has spent $100 on the turntable, $300 on the amp, and $500 on the speakers, but paired it up with a $200 cartridge. The cartridge was the cheapest component, but it made the most difference of all the components in terms of sound quality--and yet it was the thing everyone always tried to scrimp on.

Cyberluddite: The brand name of that--the leading brand, anyway--was "Discwasher."

That would be the brand. Ah memories.

Now that I think about it, I used to be a DJ on the USC college radio station KSCR. There I learned how to cue records, run a board, what carts were, etc. This was back in 1985. In 1988 I was out partying and hooked up with this girl who also was involved with the radio station so I thought we'd have something in common to talk about.

We didn't. The radio station by then had already switched to CDs, and all of my knowledge about cue-ing records was already obsolete.

let's be honest dorks use a spirit level to level their devices. as a kid records were around. I am 31. born in 76. so i listened to music on cd's which I read offered the best sound quality from many extant sources. but to be honest i have started collecting records and the sound is the same or even better than cd's

I miss vinyl. Don't get me wrong, I love the sound from CDs, but records just seem more substantial. You would get legible lyric sheets not in 8pt type, maybe some cool ass stickers, or even the record itself might have some wicked cool art on it.

tombraiderchuck: let's be honest dorks use a spirit level to level their devices. as a kid records were around. I am 31. born in 76. so i listened to music on cd's which I read offered the best sound quality from many extant sources. but to be honest i have started collecting records and the sound is the same or even better than cd's

Unfortunately, everything is going towards MP3's as a delivery system for music (iTunes, etc). So the sound quality of vinyl would be a step up than crappy, lossy files.

Something you kids will never learn: how to wield a Discwasher with artistic flair and the smoothness of a surgeon.

C'mon...by the 70s we had [kerchunk]

upgraded to 8-track tapes.

Puddinhed: even the record itself might have some wicked cool art on it.

And maybe some rare seeds in the album cover.

I'm 21 and listening to a record at this very moment.

/get the fark off my lawn

watch for incoming audiophiles!



(loves the turntable and very very tiny vinyl collection)

Control_this: Something you kids will never learn: how to wield a Discwasher with artistic flair and the smoothness of a surgeon.

I have 3 of those and could use and exta 5.
You should see my "library"
/started collecting in 1962.
//really.

First record I bought was a 78.
Second was a 45.

Lorelle: And some of them were on cereal boxes!

I have the original SUgar Sugar by the Archies.
One cut out and mounted on a stiffer piece for play, and one on the box.

Pfff, newfangled crap.

Still rocking one of these here:

I'm 36 and remember having to get up every 23 minutes to flip or change the album. Then they came out with those multi-loading turntables and I was in heaven until 1985 when CDs changed everything.

/submitter
//the lawn, get off

I know what a Record Im going to play some later

Phillips turntable, Sony tuner, Advent speakers...(4)
Quadraphonic

/10 years after

Savage Belief: Fark you with a dull, dusty phonograph needle.
Clarify, please?
One of the steel needles we use to listen to Phonographs on a victrola, or a nice diamon stylus we use for the limousine releases with the "new" bands on them?

They still released stuff on vinyl well into the '80s.

understimulated: I'm 36 and remember having to get up every 23 minutes to flip or change the album. Then they came out with those multi-loading turntables and I was in heaven until 1985 when CDs changed everything.

/submitter
//the lawn, get off

Tell us more about these strange rituals, Grandpa.

john_d_corr: I'm 38, and remember vinyl albums quite well. I am very, very grateful that we don't use them anymore. Play an album more than a few times, and the sound quality starts to decrease. Soon you have to buy a new one. How we put up with them for as long as we did, I'll never know.

You're not meant to use a fork as a stylus.

/never understood comments like this
//still have dozens of vinyl albums that are in excellent condition after 20+ years of play

Kar98:, you have to replace the micca pad and gasket yet?

skinink: If you've ever owned any of these before, then you are an old fark, and you need to get off my gotdamn lawn right now!!!

You didn't need them ig your record player came with a 45 spindle.
Or you could always learn to set your 45 by eye.

Cyberluddite: The brand name of that--the leading brand, anyway--was "Discwasher." I'm guessing their sales have dropped off just a bit over the years.

Discwasher
Innovative USA based maker of audio and AV accessories, went out of business in 1991 with the trademarks and some product lines being sold to Recoton later that same year.

So... yeah, just a bit.

My Grandfather bought the first model of RCA record player designed for 45 RPM records, in 1949.
It is now mine, and yes it still works.

Just use a good stylus, and keep it fresh. Don't beat up your records, and they'll sound good for a long time.

/3 milk crates of records

Wish I could find the Foxtrot Comic where Jason and Marcus and flinging Jason's Mom's LP collections.

/Led Zeppelin went the farthest?
//Really? I would have put money on Jefferson Starship. . .

Is a 45 sort of like a laser disc? I remember those when I was real young...

Oldiron_79: They still released stuff on vinyl well into the '80s.

You've got that backwards. You mean '08.

skinink: If you've ever owned any of these before, then you are an old fark, and you need to get off my gotdamn lawn right now!!!

Damn you, I wanted to post this:


and now I can't.

Can any of you young farkers get some ol' school scratching on those MP3 players of yours? I didn't think so.

I rocked the attic biatches!!!

Ok, hands up. Who rocked the Fisher Price record player growing up?

I had The Christmas Song (?) by Alvin & The Chipmunks on a 45. The reverse was "Almost Good" with David Seville; jazz with I think only a piano, bass, & drums. I haven't heard that in decades but I remember it every Christmas.

Weird the stuff that sticks with you.

I think I saved up candy wrappers to get this, my first record:

Vinyl typically sounds better primarily because of the mastering decisions, and the inherent limitations of vinyl which promoted more musical mastering decisions. CD's can sound much better than vinyl. It is not a failure of the medium, but the producers and engineers.

the only record i ever had was an alf record. i was like... 5. my mom bought me an alf doll that came with a record of alf singing random songs and the dolls mouth would move teddy ruxpin style.

i don't have a lawn. so there's nothing to get off of.

/you're old
//when i think of farkers listening to music on records in the 70s and 80s, i think of that scene in boogie nights where the coke dealer is listening to sister christian all tweaked out...

CornFedIowan: Tell us more about these strange rituals, Grandpa.

We listened to bands called Men at Work, Foreigner, Spinal Tap, and Asia, all of whom wore onions on their belts.