My 7 Simple Tips to improve your Listening Experience

While most of us dream of having the space for a separate listening room just for our music listening pleasure the reality of the matter is normally somewhat less dreamy. The fact is most of our sound systems are located in the lounge areas of our homes and this area normally also serves as a tv watching room, family congregation room, games room, chill out room, reading room, etc.

Few of us will ever have the same high level listening room as this one that was custom built by ModWright Instruments on their premises:

...but we can dream can't we? ;-)

"Behind the scenes" at Abbey Road - Vinyl Cutting

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 3 - Clocks!

In the third post in this series we continue to explore the possibilities of things to do with your old records once they are too scratched and otherwise damaged to be used as a viable source of music listening pleasure. We have all thrown away old damaged LP's, but I am highlighting here that at our vinyl's retirement age we could turn that old friend into something more practical and beautiful, and it is even good for the environment folks! Recycle, recycle, recycle... now we can tell our lefty friends that we have done our bit for the environment!

My personal favourite, clocks!

Vinyl Feature: Readers Digest - Great Original Hits Of The '50s And '60s

I just spent a large part of my Sunday slowly listening my way through the Readers Digest - Great Original Hits Of The '50s And '60s Collectors Edition box set which I picked up a short while ago at Erikshjälpen in Åkarp for the paltry sum of 50 SEK. It offers a great walk down memory lane with a well chosen selection of hits from the 50's and 60's (yes, like it says on the box, stop being picky...) and packaged in a good quality sturdy box containing 9 discs. My copy is in MINT condition and looks as if it may have been played once. Maybe.

Front of Box

Neil Young Vinyl Quote

Vinyl Collecting As A Hobby - Video

Leonard Cohen interviewed by Jools Holland on Later (BBC2) 1993

Why Analogue Refuses to Go Away

I am currently at home recovering from a hernia operation that I had last Monday, and because of this I have a lot of time on my hands right now to sit and listen to music, read and think on such things as the meaning of life, which is the tastiest breakfast cereal and why the analogue medium refuses to go away. When I say analogue I am not only referring to music, but the whole range of “old” stuff that was set to be replaced by it’s newer, more modern counterparts years ago and despite all odds stubbornly refuse to disappear and in some cases, like vinyl records, are actually staging a measurable comeback.

Over the last 49 years since I was born the world has changed radically and quite beyond belief. In South Africa during the sixties we didn't even have television and had to wait until 1976 before it was finally introduced to an eagerly waiting public. Before my father acquired the large wooden cased floor standing television set that graced our living room we would sit down to dinner every evening as a family, and have conversations about our day, what was happening at school or work or with the ailing neighbour down the street. It was a time that I still cherish to this day and for me those were some of the happiest times of my childhood. However, the day that the new television came into our house I distinctly remember my father sitting down at the table, dishing up a plate of food and then departing, food in hand, for the sitting room. We never ate our dinners at the dining room table again, except on special occasions, and the relationship that we had as a family was never quite the same again. Progress had come, but was it really progress at all?

Foreigner (the band) Interview

Caring for your Vinyl Records

Having spent a great deal of money purchasing your precious vinyl record collection you will certainly want to make sure that you take good care of them. I will give you my own suggestions and tips gleaned from 40 years of hands on experience. Please keep in mind that these are merely my own recommendations and many other opinions exist (especially on internet forums) so just take this as a starting point and then figure out over time what works best for you.

Storage:

When storing records it is important to ensure that the place you store them is cool and dry. Vinyl records do not react well to heat and will warp if left in direct sun for even a short period of time. I had a friend once that stored a number of records directly on a wooden floor that turned out to have damp issues and the rising damp caused the record covers to mould and in a few cases even caused the paper sleeves to stick to the vinyl itself. The general rule for me would be to only store records on good sturdy shelving, off the floor and away from any direct sunlight.

Also make sure that your records are placed vertically, and not stacked horizontally, to prevent having weight on them that can lead to warping or buckling. Vinyl weighs a lot more than you think!

Do you want to own the world's largest record collection?

Paul Mawhinney, who used to own a store called Record-Rama, started his record collection over 60 years ago and in 2008 decided, for various reasons, that he wanted to sell his massive collection, today valued at $53 000 000, for a mere $3 000 000. In his collection is the first flat record ever made from 1881, and countless more rare and collectable records. The whole shebang is stored in a climate controlled warehouse.

However, to date he has had only one offer which turned out to be a hoax. Here is a short documentary that was made when he first decided to sell the amazing collection:

If you want to buy the whole collection (or just bits of it) you can contact Paul via the details on Record Rama's website.

Elvis Presley interview - 31 March 1972

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 2 - Bowls!

After posting about vinyl record tables that various creative people had made to convert old damaged vinyl records into something useful, I came across what must be the easiest thing to make from an old vinyl record. A simple bowl. I found a whole lot of them when searching online and because it looked quite easy I couldn't resist and had to do one myself! I documented it with my cell phone, so please excuse the photography, but it is good enough to get the idea.

First step was to find a junky old scratched up record, and I had one of those. Then I found a stainless steel bowl in the kitchen that would serve as my "mould":

This one seemed about the right size so I drew a dot in the middle to make it easier to line up the disc when I put it on top of the stainless steel bowl like this:

Katie Melua - Ketevan - available for pre-order on Vinyl!

Katie Melua's new album, Ketevan is available for pre-order from Amazon. Nice to see that it is available on vinyl as well as cd. The link below is to the page for the vinyl copy, but if you prefer buying cd's (or even mp3's) then it is simple to navigate to those pages as well.

Even though I live in Sweden it is still cheaper for me to purchase my new music from Amazon in the UK, and have it posted here, than it is to purchase it locally. All from the comfort of my office.

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 1 - Tables!

At some point or the other we have all had records that were just simply too scratched or damaged in some way that prevented us from being able to play them. Mostly we just toss them out and hope to be able to purchase another copy some time soon to replace it, but in this series of posts I will look at how other people have reused their old vinyl in creative ways. I may even try out some of these myself!

First up, Vinyl record coffee and side tables:

If you come across any other creative ideas, send me the link and I'll look at possibly posting or incorporating them right here on Vinyl Philosophy.