Ditch those tinted clear inners (RTI)!

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Classicrock, Jul 17, 2015.

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  1. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    The discussion on various Hendrix releases prompted me to get some out to play. The 2010 RTI pressed issues come in pink tinted clear inners of a thick polythene material. I notice that streaks had formed on the vinyl as if some deposit is given off from the sleeve over time. Fortunately cleaning with an alcohol based cleaner and RCM removes this deposit leaving a pristine record. I have now placed the discs in MFSL inner sleeves. I then checked through my collection from memory to locate any other records with these sleeves. Had already changed them on the recently purchased Paul Simon titles but found them on a US Back to Black as well as a number of Rhino and Friday music titles.

    Offending sleeves removed from the following.
    Back To Black Axis Bold As Love.
    2010 Sony Hendrix - AYE, ABAL, Electric ladyland and First Rays of The New Rising Sun.
    Friday Music - Heart, Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen, Santana Moonflower and Boston.
    Warner/Rhino Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of the Canyon, Court And Spark and Hissing Of Summer Lawns.
    Warner /Rhino Van Morrison - Astral Weeks, Moondance and his Band And Street Choir.
    Sony Paul Simon - Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years (thinner and pink or clear).

    It's imperative that these sleeves which appear to be on RTI pressings are replaced to insure your vinyl remains in top condition. They should never have been supplied on new vinyl as in my experience they are totally unsuitable. Replacing these is of higher priority than the stiff polythene outer sleeve protectors. A plain paper sleeve would be better but polylined paper or MFSL/QRP are to be prefered.
     
    dayday, MikeInFla, Dino and 4 others like this.
  2. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Thanks very much for the heads up about this issue. As this issue can mottle vinyl surfaces due to the reaction of the inner sleeve with the vinyl.
     
  3. Bolero

    Bolero Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    I always clean new records & they get a new sleeve

    question: is this an issue with the clear poly sleeves too? because I use them on 90% of my records

    I do use the MFSL sleeves for the other 10% though. But they are annoying because they always bunch up when you insert them into the LP cover...and I have run out of the MFSL catalog flyers to wrap them in & prevent that :D
     
  4. blakep

    blakep Senior Member


    Absolutely. They should be replaced immediately as soon as one receives the record. As well as the issue you describe, they're prone to being rough on records and leaving lots of hairlines over a period of time if a record is removed and reinserted frequently.

    My understanding is that they are in use primarily to prevent seam splits in shipping as they are much stronger than other inners in terms of resisting splitting. The tradeoffs, though, are not pretty.
     
    TLMusic likes this.
  5. TLMusic

    TLMusic Musician & record collector

    After first encountering them, I have not been a fan of those residue laden pink inner sleeves. They also have sharp edges along the opening, making it easy to scratch the vinyl surfaces when inserting a record into the sleeve.

    Coincidentally, Mobile Fidelity inner sleeves also had a problem of leaving residue.

    This lengthy thread discussed the MoFi problem, and there are also posts complaining about the pink sleeves found in RTI vinyl pressings:

    http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...r-encounter-this-problem.302662/#post-8302984
     
  6. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    From what I understand the offending Mo-Fi sleeves were from a bad batch. So far haven't encountered any problems. BTW it is the pink tinted sleeves that cause the contamination but I would also be wary of the neutral variety (same material) and change those out to be on the safe side.
     
  7. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Found some more titles that came with the pink inners.

    Audio Fidelity, Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love and The Sensual World.
    Rhino, Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago II.
     
  8. Jasonb

    Jasonb Forum Resident

    The diskeeper are a little thicker.
     
  9. tubesandvinyl

    tubesandvinyl Forum Resident

    I still can't believe RTI doesn't have someone reading these posts and fixing the problem.

    RTI, please stop using those horrid pink inner sleeves.
     
    TLMusic likes this.
  10. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    Always use white-paper sleeves here.
     
    TommyTunes likes this.
  11. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Don't those sleeves scuff your records? I prefer the diskeeper rice paper versions.
     
  12. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I just checked by my Back to Black and Legacy Axis Bold as Love vinyl with the pink tinted clear inner sleeves. There was not a flaw, streak or deposit to be seen under close examination under a bright light and those have been stored for years. It makes me wonder what conditions you store your vinyl in.
     
  13. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Some of the pink sleeves left no visible marks after around 4 to 5 years, others left a lot of streaks. Everything stored at normal room temp. I'm sure there is a powdery deposit on many of these sleeves. Better safe than sorry.
     
  14. JackJD

    JackJD All I Want is the Truth...

    Location:
    PA
    From your experience, are these marks/streaks audible, or visible only?



    :wave:
     
  15. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    I don't think they are audible at this stage but frankly I cleaned any affected discs immediately without playing as they looked bad. Eventually the problem may become audible but why take the risk. Also cleaned any discs in contact with the pink sleeves even if no visible marks. I estimate 2/3rds of these sleeves had left marks on discs from 3 to 5 years old. Some sleeves had started to ripple slightly (coinciding with marks) which suggests some chemical reaction taking place.
     
  16. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I didn't see any issues with my Hendrix vinyl - 5 different albums.
     
  17. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    You are lucky then, the bad pink sleeves are a real issue. More recent RTI pressings I've gotten have the same sort of sleeve but not tinted, I suspect they've realized the error of their ways. That still leaves lots of stock out there with the bad sleeves, buyer beware!
     
  18. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I swapped them out just to be safe. I will get rid of the other ones too.
     
  19. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    ------------------------
    I have not found that to be so. The are pretty smooth paper sleeves and leave no lint or static. Oh, and they are cheap like me.
     
    DigMyGroove likes this.
  20. Tommyboy

    Tommyboy Senior Member

    Location:
    New York
    I've seen plenty of Music Matter and AP Blue Note reissues that were scuffed due to the pink inner sleeves.
     
    TLMusic likes this.
  21. riknbkr330

    riknbkr330 Senior Member

    Just checked my Hendrix ones and yes, Electric Ladyland had that powdery looking stuff. Cleaned them on my VPI and put them into new rice paper sleeves. Goodbye pink inner sleeves.
    Big thanks to the OP!
     
  22. krisjay

    krisjay Psychedelic Wave Rider

    Location:
    Maine
    Thanks, will check on this.
     
  23. VinylRob

    VinylRob Forum Resident

    I have several and none are showing any deleterious signs to the vinyl.

    I appreciate your heads up on this but, from a more careful examination of the ones I have, it appears that the light surface texture on the sleeve poses no problem that I can sae. It doesn't appear that there's any outgassing onto the vinyl surface and I don't see them to be any more likely to scuff the vinyl than common paper sleeves.

    Just my humble opinion.
     
  24. riknbkr330

    riknbkr330 Senior Member

    Whatever it was...it was funk...and not in a good way. LPs were cleaned when purchased....re-cleaned to remove the pink sleeve funk....now that's a band name.
     
  25. Turntable

    Turntable Senior Member

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    RTI used the same sleeves on the Bob Dylan mono box set as well as lots of Sonic Youth albums

    No need to waste $$ on audiofool mofi sleeves.
    The cheap U shaped poly inners work perfectly and never leave a residue.

    Anyone actually recommending paper sleeves needs to be committed :uhhuh:
     
    quicksrt and MikeInFla like this.
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