Old gems in the attic
Posted by: Jens on 30 June 2003
Hi Folks,
I scored a bit of a music bargain last night: 100 classical records and about 40 60s schlock like Bacharach, Beatles and Bach in Bossanova -somebodies old collection from the 60s and 70s for A$80. Some guy was selling his parents old collection which he never played. The records looked in pretty bad condition with frayed covers, surface scratches and lots of grubby prints on all the ones I've listened to so far. But here's the interesting thing-as a rule they sound fine. Hardly any scratches, and just the occasional bit of surface noise, but for the most part clear as a bell.
It's amazing how difficult it is to judge the potential sound quality from just looking at a record. So much of the crap on the surface doesn't seem to enter the grooves I guess. However, I think I'll get me a record cleaner to see if I can get still more out of them. It'll be interesting to hear what they sound like when they are pristinely clean-and whether the occasional bit of surface noise/distortion in crescendos goes.
One more thing. There were heaps of records from the Everest label (Library of Congress). Anyone heard of these? I thought I'd bought some dodgy cheapies until I heard the sound that was buried in those old cruddy grooves.
Cheers, Jens
I scored a bit of a music bargain last night: 100 classical records and about 40 60s schlock like Bacharach, Beatles and Bach in Bossanova -somebodies old collection from the 60s and 70s for A$80. Some guy was selling his parents old collection which he never played. The records looked in pretty bad condition with frayed covers, surface scratches and lots of grubby prints on all the ones I've listened to so far. But here's the interesting thing-as a rule they sound fine. Hardly any scratches, and just the occasional bit of surface noise, but for the most part clear as a bell.
It's amazing how difficult it is to judge the potential sound quality from just looking at a record. So much of the crap on the surface doesn't seem to enter the grooves I guess. However, I think I'll get me a record cleaner to see if I can get still more out of them. It'll be interesting to hear what they sound like when they are pristinely clean-and whether the occasional bit of surface noise/distortion in crescendos goes.
One more thing. There were heaps of records from the Everest label (Library of Congress). Anyone heard of these? I thought I'd bought some dodgy cheapies until I heard the sound that was buried in those old cruddy grooves.
Cheers, Jens