After a couple months of various issues, I'm getting myself back into the "groove" (pun intended ).
Anyway, just a stupid question, perhaps. But do record manufacturers all use the same vinyl formula? For example, does (or did) Deutsche Gramophon use a higher quality, and possibly more durable and responsive, vinyl in their pressings than, say, ATCO?
For the most part, yes. The manufacturer will add various components to the vinyl to get less static, quieter surfaces, easier relase from the mold, faster pressing times, etc. But the basic formula is the same. The largest different can be the purity of the vinyl. If you're buying second hand discs, you might find less and less virg!n vinyl. Most of the major manufactures would grind up old discs that hadn't sold or had been returned and used the vinyl a second or third time. I have never seen it but there are folklore legends about bits of old labels poking through the vinyl on LP's from the late 1980's.
That re-used vinyl is called reconstituted vinyl. It's more malleable than virg!n vinyl generally speaking. Cardas use a specially hard vinyl on their test and run-in disc. It's designed to be really durable as it has a run-in loop for running in cartridges.
Many reissues of today are on 180 gram vinyl. This is the same basic thing, although the stampers themselves are different in this case. Standard stampers could cope with discs up to 165gms but you need a more capable stamper for 180 or 200gm weights. Standard issue records seem to be better stamped than many records in the 70s and 80s. The thinnest records were around 120 grams; these tended to be very flexible, quite noisy, with lots of breakthrough and pre-echo.
I was cruising through the used LP bins yesterday and found exactly what I was describing. I pulled a disc from its sleeve and saw huge "blobs" of vinyl that appeared to be covering old bits of a label that had been ground up into the "reconstituted" vinyl.
That seems criminal. Is the makeup of the disc required to be printed on the cover? Is the buyer subject to random 'blobbing' with no forewarning?
Is it revenge that tree-huggers will buy these alone because of the recycling factor? Jan do your neighbors down the street know about this? If not, don't tell.
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