Used vinyl criteria

[Nano]

A question for all you vinyl maniacs. When you go into a vinyl spree, probably you find stuff in less than excellent condition, for example:
-vinyl heavily scratched, or even dirty! (I saw shoe marks on some)
-one side in good condition, the other played to death;
-very thin vinyl, or with "waves";
-covers with previous owners names written on them, or giant stamps with "$ 1" on the front;
-without jackets for the record and/or its cover;
-partly destroyed covers;
-also, records in good condition... but with prices not so far from CDs.

Where do you draw the line?

[Graham_Start]

Where do I draw the line? Well, if it's cheap, I usually don't But I won't spend good money on something that's clearly destroyed unless it's very rare.

[Masdefi]

..yeah..I generally check the record in deep and I buy only if it is in a quite good condition.
There's nothing worst that coming back at home excited for your hunting and you have a stylus jump! I had that one month ago...

And don't forget that the most of the records you find in the shop are normally available through the Internet, so if you really need a record you can buy it through different sites.
I have my own list of sites that I check one after the other 'till I find the vinyl.
Mostly I get successful....
The only problem is that you must pay the post, but what joy to put the hands on it as it gets by you! :grin:

[SandraDee]

Some vinyl I've bought in recent months sounds like someone used them as frisbies! I couldnt get records this scratched if i tried. What do people do with them?

[Nano]

And BTW, don't you fear a record that makes your needle (i.e. stylus) jump can damage it someway? Or is this just myth?

[QUINNY]

Remind me. What are records? :grin:
I bought my first record in 17 years the other day. It happened to be a very good quality copy (thank goodness), so in that respect I wasn't disappointed. I'm amazed just how good some of my old 45s and 12" records do sound. Very few actually jump, most aren't too crackly but the one thing I can't abide is the bloody distortion.
I know you love your records and I can understand all the reasons why, but for sound quality give me CD anytime.

[Graham_Start]

Distortion can be eliminated, or at least greatly minimized, by using a decent cartridge/stylus (i.e. not a DJ one) and setting it up properly. I was amazed at the difference when I first started experimenting. What I had assumed to be the shortcomings of vinyl were in fact, the shortcomings of my system. Now I'm hooked on tweaking, and I am forever ordering new cartridges, adjusting the tonearm settings, etc. So, don't knock vinyl because of distortion. Surface noise, on the other hand...

[Masdefi]

On 2002-10-02 19:05, QUINNY wrote:
Remind me. What are records? :grin:
I bought my first record in 17 years the other day. It happened to be a very good quality copy (thank goodness), so in that respect I wasn't disappointed. I'm amazed just how good some of my old 45s and 12" records do sound. Very few actually jump, most aren't too crackly but the one thing I can't abide is the bloody distortion.
I know you love your records and I can understand all the reasons why, but for sound quality give me CD anytime.

Remind me, what are CDs? :grin:
Sorry but if you could have read some specialist articles you would have noticed the vinyl is preferred by audiophiles than CDs. Graham, isn't it?

[QUINNY]

Graham: We've been down this road before. I'm talking analogue distortion, which even with the best equipment is still noticeable compared to digital. Hell, I can hear much more distortion on the old studio analogue Reel to Reel tapes I transfer over these days for people.
I HATED DAT for at least the first 6 months I used it, because it sounded too clean, but now after about 13 years of digital recording my ears are tuned the other way.