Are colored vinyl LPs and picture disc LPs inferior?

I have 2 Yardbirds picture discs on Get Back Records. (Italian company? or Spanish? )

They sound fantastic. Dead quiet. They are:

Havin' a Rave Up
Over, Under, Sideways, Down aka Roger the Engineer.

 

I read many people's comments that match up with what Steve said about the black vinyl having some sort of any agent that solored discs don't have. I guess my TT isn't audiophile enough to notice that much of a difference, because I have a bunch of various aged colored 45's, and most of them sound pretty good.

I own a nice Green Vinyl 1949-issue Eddy Arnold 45 on RCA Victor, and I'll be damned if it isn't one of the quietest discs I own. The fidelity, even for 1949, is just beautiful. How are the Red Vinyl RED SEAL 45's looked upon? Good? Bad?

 

i've got the norah jones 150 g red vinyl back-ordered from acoustic sounds (limited 500 ed.); NOW I SEE this thread AND that classic's got a 200g (available slightly later).

Should I:

a) keep the red.
b) cancel the red.
c) order BOTH (red collectible)
d) get only the 200g
e) punt

There's a price differential as I recall, between the red and 200g, w/red less expensive.

ideas, thoughts welcome--i can (if i must) bear the burden of this "weighty" and colorful decision alone.

doug

 

Classics vinyl compund is totally different from the standard colored vinyl used in previous days, it's a high quality proprietary formula. I think you might actually be better off with their red vinyl 150gram weight. The 200gram weight pressings are hard to get quiet surfaces on in my experience. All IMO.

 

The "secret ingredient" in black vinyl sounds intuitively incorrect. Vinyl in its natural state is, I believe, clear. Unless that agent is black in color, I don't see why it could not be added to other colored vinyl discs. Perhaps as a matter of practice it is not, resulting in poorer sonics. But, for Beatles collectors all of these Japanese red vinyl pressings (all of the original Odeons for example), are the holy grail. I can't believe that they have intrinsically poorer sonics than black vinyl?

 

It depends on your budget. Personally if you are really worried about sound quality I keep the red AND order the 200gm. The reason is that there are a couple of records at the top of my wants list that are really expensive and on hearing what some people paid new I would love to find them for that cheap. Keep the red because if you decide that you don't want it down the road and decide to sell the value will probably be higher than retail if it is truely limited to 500 copies. I personally like colored vinyl and have some that sound great. Just my $.02 on the matter.

 

I always thought that many colored/marbled vinyl generally sounded worse because they were pressed later with worn stampers

 

There is an audiophile label (Pure Audiophile?) that says their tests indicate that blue sounds the best. They even had a release pressed in different colors so you could try it out for yourself. I believe that their records are mastered by Stan Ricker and pressed at RTI .
Regarding the comments about the translucent vinyl from the 80s, IIRC, this usually indicates a Quiex or Super Vinyl pressing. Your copies may be noisier because the owner didn't care for them very well .

Cody

 

When I worked in shops at the height of the pic disc/colored vinyl craze, there was a guy who came in and said he'd buy any promo discs we got. I sold my I'm In You pic disc for $60!.. After a few weeks of this mad spending, the guy came in crying when he realized he'd spent hundreds and had only aquired 8 records, that sounded like a popular breakfast cereal.

That was a desperate time when the labels had to resort to that hype to try and sell anything! Must have been '78 or so.

I probably have a few... my Marc Bolan Christmas 45 is delaminating, and makes great noise on the intro...

 

For the most part I've found my colored vinyl to be noisy, although I have a few that are really good, I tend to avoid colored vinyl if I can.

Picture disc's I always thought sucked but I recall one night (after a few beers) taking a few of my Alice Cooper Pd's off the wall and playing them and was surprised that they sounded pretty good, or it was the beer

I bought the 3 LP set of the Iron Maiden live in RIO album (on picture disc's) and as I recall that had an alright sound to it, the records are a bit thinner and feel more like "normal" records then most Pd's do so I don't know.

Isn't a picture disc just clear vinyl with a picture in it anyway?

 

I always thought my picture disc Pepper sounded ok. Not great but decent enough.

 

I bought the red Norah because it's almost certain to appreciate in value.

As a rule black vinyl is the safest sonic bet (as Steve indicated), but I have many red vinyl pressings that sound magnificent. In the old days (early 60s) red vinyl was often higher quality and reserved for first pressings, on "bargain" labels such as Crown.

 

I have been wondering about a related mystery for million years. I have a a copy of "I Robot" I purchased around '81 or '82. One evening I was hanging out with the black light on and I noticed that the vinyl was marbled, only under the blacklight though. So, of course, I pulled out all my lp's and ... nada. "I Robot" was the only one.

So the question is: was this just 2 batches of vinyl where one had happened to have a fluorescing additive, or was it intentional?

Steve? Anyone?

 

threadjacking the threadjack: speaking of marbled vinyl and lights, has anyone ever tried shining only a strobelight on marbled vinyl while it's playing? the effect will make it appear that the vinyl is simultaneously melting and regenerating (it's really cool looking!)

 

My Sgt. Pepper picture disc (US Capitol) had a disclaimer on it that said "Sound quality may not be comparable to conventional edition." And it was noisy.

Still cool to look at, though. It was a close cropped image of the Beatles from the front cover on the front, and the Sgt. Pepper bass drum on the back. (I believe the UK version was different.)

 

I was such a poor kid.

Early 80s, I was obsessed with the Beatles and all I had was a Sgt. Peppers picture disc.

And I played it over and over and over again, and the only thing that bugged me was that it was hard to find a particular song when I wished to.

In fact, I rember making a cassette copy of the album. By holding a tape recorder on record up to the speaker !!!!

And that was good enough for me!

My, things have changed.

 

You were seeing the "grind up" reused records melted down and repressed. Sometimes they don't mix it up enough and you can see the odd vinyl mixtures.

 

The SPLHCB picture disc I have is a 'size as' print of the front cover of the album on both sides with "FOR GEORGE AND MABEL" in the deadwax on side 1 and "ANOTHER WINNER FROM ERNIE" on side 2. The UK issue I assume.

Looks cool. Sounds like caca as I recall. Suitable for framing.

 

today i received my first picture disc...lana del rey ultraviolence.
i already had the regular black vinyl that sounded very nice.....but when i compared it to the picture disc. the picture sound much better! vocals were louder and clearer...everything was just more powerful sounding.
this picture disc sounds great

maybe just slightly more surface noise in quiet parts...but EX sound quality.

 

I never noticed any difference in soumd between black and color. I enjoy the colors.

 

I just got my Brothers Johnson Blam picture disc in today and it sounds just as great as my black vinyl copy.

 

Pshh h3ll yeah!

 

Wow I didn't know that was on colored vinyl! Thanks for letting me know!

 

Hey I don't agree, but I respect your opinion.

 

Picture discs have inherent inferior sound quality because on one or both sides will have grooves embossed on a sheet of thin clear vinyl above the paper with the picture.

Coloured records can be good or bad the same as black vinyl! The quality of a pressing depends on the moulding cycle, the quality of the metalwork (mother and stampers) as well as the quality of the vinyl! Some vinyl is softer than others. Carbon black may increase the hardness of vinyl, but it is not the only factor. Pye Records didn't use carbon black in their own vinyl formulation.