This has been gone over many times. But here is a tip, Bowie RCA originals in US were orange labels. Then reissued as tan, and then black RCA. So go out there and find mint and near mint copies and pay less for the later color labels. But statrting with Young Americans, labels are tan on originals in the US. So some originals are not always orange. Just go for near mint and mint condition. It's fun and it's easy!
as you're specifically asking for vinyl and analog you are, as others have said, low on low-cost options. you've really no choice but to buy used and hope for accurate gradings. it's really the wrong time to be looking for bowie bargains i'm afraid. of the recent parlophone pressings only Ziggy claims to be all-analog and some have had skipping issues with this pressing, but it'd be worth picking up via amazon as you can safely return it if faulty. the rest of the box is all digital and considering the number of flawed titles and (presumably) surplus live albums you'd be wasting your time and money buying it. avoid also the 1990 vinyl pressings from Ryko/EMI unless you like your Bowie bright and bass-less. you could do worse than the european '80s editions (RCA International). in the US it was once easy and cheap to pick up black label RCA pressings of which most sound close to originals (avoid '80s pressings of Hunky Dory which have tape damage), and some of the Canadian Best Buy editions are very nice. in short you're going to have to gamble and put a collection together from a number of sources.
as he's requesting "Five Years" era stuff it's fair to assume all original RCAs will be orange labels. generally speaking he'll do fine with later US pressings for most titles.
I'm not so sure about "fun and easy"! Just going by the brick-and-mortar record shops in my broader metropolitan area, Bowie RCA LPs have become pretty elusive, prices have shot up since Bowie's death, and it's getting increasingly difficult to find those LPs in NM or even VG+ condition. Anything less than $20 is usually scratched or flawed in some way. Of course, you can probably find a lot of stuff online, but again, prices will be on the steeper side, and buying online is always a gamble with condition.
$20 is nothing in this day and age. 20 years ago it seemed like a lot, but with the value of the dollar and inflation $20 is nothing for a 35 year old item kept in pristine shape, what are you talking about!
$20 is typically not going to get you an RCA-era Bowie record in pristine shape, at least not where I live. What I said was anything less than $20 is scratched. But $20 is not usually going to get you pristine either. But to reiterate, even RCA-era LPs for $20 are extremely uncommon in the shops these days.
Not only are Bowie LPs uncommon but used stores are just as uncommon. There is a big beautiful World Wide Web out there for the exploring. I would search thetbout before ever looking locally.
But a few moments ago you were saying it's easy and fun. I don't think crossing your fingers that a seller honestly described a record is fun ... not when I can get a new copy for less money these days.
Actually, used shops are still pretty common here in the Bay Area, even though many have sadly closed over the years. But, again, as I said in my original post: buying online is always a gamble with regard to condition.
One needs to know how to read an eBay seller. The clues are there the feedback it there. And do they offer returns and refunds? If they do not, paypal does baby!!!!! I spent 40 years putting my collection together - it's been a blast and many deals found. My best sounding Aladdin Sane is the 1984 UK picture disc. I got one with no ticks or clicks. Ziggy is great in that series as is D Dogs. I am typing on a cell phone, sorry for rough spelling.
The Rykos were NoNoised as well - in fact they might have been one of the earlier reissue campaigns to use the technology. It gives the high-end an odd grainy character as a result, and leaves them slightly muffled I think. They are a bit antiseptic because of a hot midrange, but are blissfully free of compression - in fact, they could probably do with a bit more to make them sound more like the LPs. But they do seem to have been done with more care than most of the subsequent releases and they have a fantastic selection of bonus tracks. And most of what's wrong with them can be fixed with EQ if you're bugged by their sonic profile. This is in contrast to virtually every subsequent reissue, which have issues with compression, damaged tapes, freaky EQ, clipped tracks, etc. etc. etc. Screwing around with the EQ on these tracks would probably take a lot less time than trying to hunt down decent copies of vintage Bowie on vinyl, and if you ultimately aren't satisfied with the results, you at least have all the bonus tracks. I played around with the EQ on a few Hunky Dory cuts years ago and got pretty good results, but didn't ultimately process the whole album assuming that someday we'd get a decent remaster. It seems more and more like that's never gonna happen, so maybe I should add this to my lengthy to-do list... Our forum host actually recommended (or blessed off on) a suggest EQ profile in one of the threads around here. Essentially you tame a midrange band and I think pump up the deep bass a bit, and that's it.
If you have a media player (for example) by Oppo or Cambridge that has a DAC that upsamples to 24/192 the Rykos will sound better than they did when they first came out. Just something I noticed when I upgraded my equipment. Is it perfect? Oh hell no, but this is David Bowie, there isn't a perfect version of any album because if any artist was about alternate realities it was David Bowie. Whether you want to or not just get 2 or 3 versions of the albums that you like or think are important. ;-)
The UK 1981 Green RCA International pressings are almost as good or in some cases as good as originals, and you're more likely to find these 1981 LP's for less money and they will potentially be less trashed than original copies.
Thanks, I might not have been 100% clear....If there are older analog pressings that are good and affordable great, and that is my preference, but I am not opposed to digital sourced vinyl if it sounds good. And when I say low cost, I don't mean it has to be $10, I just don't want to be paying outrageous prices. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks. I am ok with $20-$30 if fairly clean and listenable. I plan on grabbing one or two and comparing I did just grab two of the newer ones to see if I like them, Aladdin Sane and self titled because they were super cheap on Amazon (as someone above just said avoid those LOL....they were both less than $15).....I do have the newer Ziggy
The newer Ziggy is 100% analogue and is generally considered to be just about on par with the best prior vinyl release.
Thanks for the tips everyone....I'll keep an eye out for the ones mentioned. $20-$30 give or take is not bad in my opinion if they are good and listenable...I would pay about $20 for the newer ones anyway. I don't see too many in stores around here, by I also haven't been looking specifically for him until now. I don't mind going the discogs route if needed
I skipped the first box - too many quality issues with the earlier discs and too much compression on two of the later ones - but picked up the second box because it seems like the best-executed of the bunch and because those records I figured probably wouldn't suffer as much from a bit of compression. I think the EQ on them is generally good, and they sound more like what I remember my uncle's original pressings sounded like back in the '70s and '80s, when we played them. But my guess is you could get the Rykos to sound very similar, and without the compression, which is still somewhat excessive.
Here's what I found doing a Google search of the forum, re: equalization of the Ryko Bowie CDs: With the Ryko's, I'd take off 1-3 dB around 16k and 8k at a slope 6, add 1-2 dB around 500 and 100 cycles (slope 6), and add 2-3 dB at 50 cycles (shelf). It kind of varies, depending on your tastes, but I think you have to take off some of that top end so it isn't as grainy or bright, and you really need to restore that bass cloud, especially on the glam-rock era material.
a bad start! seriously, if you're satisified with those duds then just buy the current issues and save yourself the search for superior, earlier options.