180G LP's

[JoZmo]

Can someone enlighten me about 180g. lp's? I asked one of the sales guys (a kid) at the local record store and he looked at me like I had three heads!
And they even sell them but didn't know anything about them!

I finally talked to a manager type and he said that the difference was the thickness of the vinyl and that they would last longer.

I asked him if there was any sonic differences and he said no, just the thickness of the vinyl.

Needless to say, I'm skeptical about this info and figured someone here would know.

On a related note, I picked up an lp of Coltrane's Love Supreme at this same store for $10. The cover was wrapped in plastic and when I got it home and put it on the tt, it was so warped I couldn't believe it!
It looked like was going up and down the rolling hills of... whereever...
It plays ok but is this due to it being in the plastic for so long?

Thanks

 

[Richm]

The guy is an idiot. The vinyl will not last any longer unless you are using it for a frisbie. Your intuition is right.

As far as "wear" a record will be shot with only thousands removed. Once the grooves are to that point, the fidelity would be long gone anyway.

180g vinyl is usually better sonically. Your tonearm produces thousands of pounds pressure on that tiny needle. Like all things the record resonates and the resonance alters the sound as it travels back the tone arm.

Some high end turntables use clamps, multi layored platters, etc to make the record "as one" with the platter to reduce those undesireable effects. Heavier vinyl "in theory" does something similar.

There is a little "voodoo" involved with LP's and lots of arguments, but basically that is the idea.

As far as the warping, they did that even new. I collect Sheffield LP's and they had problems with certain manufacturers in the day. Storage will effect that too. Keep them standing up.

I had a rare Kodo drummers LP. Probably one of 50 pressings. It was brand new and had a major warp. Since it was 1/2 speed master 45 the warp was more noticable. I pressed it between glass plates and it took several months before it came back.

Record clamps also help

Rich

 

[WildWest]

Speeeeeaakin of 180 gram LPs. I had two more hit today from LP Now. Hmmm sonic differances? Well maybe the heavier vinyl helps some but I bet that's about it. I have a few 180 gram LPs and some of the 1980's stuff is awesome but then again. So is standard wieght vinyl from that era. Sigh... I find that most sales people are morons and will tell you anything. ESPECIALLY in the audio world.

 

[car67]

I haven't bought any of the new 180g vinyl yet but would the old Shef Labs and Mofi's be equivalent in weight?

The heavier weight should help with warps, I would think. Looking at some of the heavy classical Thrift store LP's that I have, they are dead flat and I'd say some of them are close to indestructible as well! With some of them I have to look twice to see if I haven't picked up a shellac by mistake. Apart from the warp and platter-coupling factors, have to agree that the contribution to sound quality is probably limited. I have plenty of standard weight pressings that sound very good.

hey Rich, the glass plates worked? At room temperature?

cheers
Jack

 

[Pat S.]

Not all 180g LP's are created equally. The 180g weight alone does not mean that it is necessarily superior to a lighter weight LP.

 

[Wardsweb]

I just bought some new sealed 180G vinyl; Dave Mason, The Clash, and Super Tramp. I've never owned 180G before, so I'll let you know what if any difference I hear over my MFSL stuff.

 

[Richm]

In response...

Although my friend from Sheffield tells me that they talked about 180g vinyl a lot, they never really made it a production thing and only dabbled in "heavy" vinyl. It was a cost issue.

MFSL's as a rule used heavier vinyl than Sheffield. The big advantage of Sheffield was their recording process and not the stamping process. Sheffield was staffed and owned by nothing other than pure music talent. They wanted the LP to sound exact and not BETTER than the actual artist. MFSL on the other hand was more into "enhanced" music. Although it might be more vivid than Sheffield, it was further away from studio sound.

Although some others are called direct to disc, Sheffield actuallly had a lathe cutting vinyl while the musicians were playing. There was no room for error because it is a continous process. Many masters were tossed because of a slight mistake.

I would say that Sheffield was unique in the market. They had a different vision anyway.

And yes, the plates worked at room temp. But, they were 1/2 thick glass and had a Dalquist DQ-10 sitting on top of them. I thought about heat but this was a very RARE LP.

Rich

 

[bob82274]

I found a 200 gram pressing of John Coltrane's Blue Train still sealed earlier this week. Came with a single sided 45 too. I would have picked it up but they wanted $65 for it. Can't afford that. I try not to pay more than $5 for a record unless its either new or one that I really want. But $65 is just too much. Would be nice to feel the heft of it though.

 

[Tonto Yoder]

For that kind of $$ you might get the 45RPM Trane set:

http://store.acousticsounds.com/store.cfm?&do=search
sorry, can't link directly to a Coltrane search--you'll have to enter yourself.

Of course it's a pain to get up and change the LP's. By the way,
the 45RPM's that I have (Mingus & Cowboy Junkies) are ONE-sided.

TY

 

[car67]

Rich,

Thanks and good to see you around. I've got back-up copies of the Shef Labs that I like now.

cheers
jack