Colored Vinyl , Picture discs , standard ??

davidk5

davidk5

Super Member
Just kinda curious what people think on different Vinyl formats ??
I know since the 70's picture discs always were super noisy & were just more or less cool items to look at rather than play .
Red , blue , orange etc. colored Vinyl seemed to me to have a bit more static & pop's in it vs. standard Black vinyl .
I see a lot of the 180 gram re-issues are printed on different colors (ramones , New york dolls, slayer , joni mitchell , hendrix etc.) , what's everyones thoughts on sound quality ??

I just got the new pressing of Jimi hendrix Axis bold as love that came out yesterday on black vinyl & also got Band of gypsies which was pressed on audiophile Clear red Vinyl , it seems to sound really good , better than i expected .
 
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Unless I'm mistaken, black vinyl will have more petroleum product in it and should have a lower noise floor. However, I have several coloured vinyl albums that are drop dead quiet and at least one picture disc (Linda Ronstadt, Living In The USA) that is quiet as well. Most pic discs are noisy because the clear layer over the paper insert is usually very thin and uneven. I also suspect worn stampers were used for them as well. For whatever reason, the LR disc has a very thick playing surface and was probably made using a new stamper.
 
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I recently purchased Pink Floyd~The Division Bell on transparent blue vinyl. The vinyl has defects you can see if held up to a light and is so noisy I can't listen to it.
 
Vinyl in its natural state is transparent. Most records are made from PVC (or polystyrene) mixed with carbon black (the same stuff they use to reinforce car tyres), the idea being that this increases the durability of the vinyl. Coloured vinyl is made from PVC mixed with dye. If properly made, it should be impossible to hear any difference between black and coloured vinyl.
Picture discs, on the other hand, usually sound like crap, being that the picture is usually a thin decal stuck on top of a conventionally pressed record. This usually manifests itself in the form of muddy sound and massive groove roar during quiet passages.
 
I think it has more to do with quality than color - that is to say an audiophile pressing, or even an 'ordinary 180g' pressing on clear or colored wax will sound better than your ordinary-run-of-the-mill pressing on black vinyl. Especially stuf from the dynoflex days, or the Columbia 'unbreakable' records etc...
Anecdotaly (as proved above) we've all got good and bad sounding records of all types; you should enjoy a record for the content of it's grooves, and not the color of the vinyl (to paraphrase a great man)
 
I just bought a vintage Mayfair Stereo colored vinyl LP by Jerry Gray and his Orchestra. Thick and hefty. Amazing fidelity for a 50-plus year old pressing.
 
I got a Yellow LP pressing of Steely Dan's "Can't buy me a Thrill" That sounds better than my black copy. Now, I agree with all on the picture disc. But I would not get a picture disc to play but just for looking at IMHO:yes:
 
I've got several coloreds and picture disks.. all of them sound great except for one, which is made up of lots of different colors. I can't remember right now who it is, but everyone else that has it here has said theirs are very noisy too..
 
I view picture discs more as art work than anything else. I have 20 of them framed and hanging on my wall. :)

I also have some colored vinyl and I must say most of it sounds very good. Examples would be:

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (blue vinyl)
Grand Funk - We're An American Band (translucent yellow vinyl)
Porcupine Tree - Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape (green vinyl)

I agree with the others in that it's the quality of the pressing and not the actual color of the vinyl. I also have the marbled color vinyl of Dave Mason's Alone Together and it sounds like shite.
 
agreed with drybasement. "picture discs" are for looking rather than playing. i have several, including mike oldfield's "tubular bells".....rob zombie "hellbilly deluxe".....marilyn manson "antichrist superstar".....and the vinyl is most certainly NOT "play grade". they have each been played only once and it was not a pleasant experience. the vinyl was very crackly, poppy, noisy.

now colored vinyl is a different story. i also have pink floyd's "the division bell" on blue vinyl which i bought new when it was first released and the sound is excellent. i also have others.....belly "star" (white vinyl).....soundtrack from movie "spawn" (red vinyl)....kd lang "all you can eat" (orange vinyl)....and they all sound terrific.
 
All things being equal when new the sound should be the same. My exerience with old colored vinyl suggests that black vinyl may be more durable. I recently went through about 750 LPs from my father. there were maybe 5 or 6 red LPs and most were unlistenable through the surface noise.

Then there's this argument to consider:
"Classic Records' newest formulation: CLARITY SV-P II CLEAR VINYL!
The genesis of the new formula came as a result of a visit to High End Audio's self proclaimed Vinyl Guru Michael Fremer's Analog Laboratory. Mr. Fremer demonstrated a Furutech LP demagnetizer. After using the demagnetizer, vocals had so much more texture, bass definition and clarity of every nuance of the recording was vastly improved and there was more low level information than we had ever heard in the recording.

Why did the demagnetizer had the sonic effects on a record? Very simply the carbon black that is ADDED to vinyl for LP manufacture contains trace metals that become randomly magnetized and interfere electrically with the cartridge hanging overhead during play. So... if carbon black and the trace metals contained therein caused playback distortion in the cartridge then why not take out the carbon black altogether? Classic Records Clarity SV-P II Clear Vinyl is the answer!

Clarity Vinyl represents the ultimate in vinyl formulations because it is comprised of over 90% percentage of the highest quality co-polymer available - a key component in vinyl pellets used for manufacturing vinyl records. Further, Clarity Vinyl has no carbon black additive, common in vinyl formulas for LP's. Carbon Black contains trace metals that become magnetized and cause "electrical distortions" in cartridges during playback that smears the sound. By taking out the Carbon Black, Classic Records is able to dramatically reduce the "electrical distortions" and thus bring more "Clarity" to the playback process, providing a more realistic musical experience to the listener and LP enthusiast."
 
Hey elcoholic,

I started a similar thread back in July. Click here to read the feedback. I haven't listened to any color vinyl yet but I do have the picture disc for the Lost in Translation soundtrack (Japanese pressing) and it sounds excellent! :music:
 
similost said:
I've got several coloreds and picture disks.. all of them sound great except for one, which is made up of lots of different colors. I can't remember right now who it is, but everyone else that has it here has said theirs are very noisy too..
Click to expand...

Yeah, coloured vinyl is fine if you can hold it up to the light and it has no visible imperfections. Marbled vinyl or 'splatter' vinyl is another matter. The splatter effect comes from the fact that records like this are made from loads of bits of recycled coloured vinyl melted together at the plant, most likely offcuts from freshly pressed records. Lots of old punk releases came out on independent labels that were run on a shoestring budget. While the labels were able to market these albums as limited edition multi-coloured 'collectors items' and make them desirable to...um...people like me, the truth is that they probably cost less to get pressed as they were on vinyl that would otherwise have been thrown away. That said, I'd love to get hold of a splatter copy of Nirvana's 'Bleach'. Mint copies of this go for silly money, yet it probably cost bugger all to make. Ironic, isn't it?
 
ranf1970 said:
Hey elcoholic,

I started a similar thread back in July. Click here to read the feedback. I haven't listened to any color vinyl yet but I do have the picture disc for the Lost in Translation soundtrack (Japanese pressing) and it sounds excellent! :music:
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
flat_spin said:
Yeah, coloured vinyl is fine if you can hold it up to the light and it has no visible imperfections. Marbled vinyl or 'splatter' vinyl is another matter. The splatter effect comes from the fact that records like this are made from loads of bits of recycled coloured vinyl melted together at the plant, most likely offcuts from freshly pressed records.
Click to expand...

This is the trouble with my yellow pressing of "The Velvet Underground & Nico". There are some random 'spatters' of lighter and/or darker yellow and once the stylus hits each mark, there's a crackle. It's only during the frist 15 to 30 seconds of each side so it's not too bad. But still.

However, my picture disc of "Sgt Pepper's" sounds much better than the 1994 reissue. And both versions of the "Monkee Business" picture discs sound great- except side one of the 1986 issue has some crackles during "Porpoise Song". Funny thing is, even with the crackles it sounds better than the same track on Rhino's "Head" reissue. (As an aside, the Japanese Arista "Head" LP sounds breathtaking!)
 
jbrainey said:
I recently purchased Pink Floyd~The Division Bell on transparent blue vinyl. The vinyl has defects you can see if held up to a light and is so noisy I can't listen to it.
Click to expand...

How bad are the imperfections? I bought a few copies when they came out. I just checked mine, and it is clear blue with no imperfections at all. Did you buy a fake? Even though this is not that valuable, I wouldn't be surprised if they are knocking it off. Maybe you got a shitty one, but I have seen fakes with other records not related to this record with bad imperfections. Hot Stuff by the Stones is a classic fake. Very hard to find originals.
 
I just looked up Division Bell. I am chuckling at the prices that folks on Epay are paying. When I bought mine I paid 8 bucks a piece I think. I still have a couple sealed copies. Now I feel old. :tears:

I paid 10.99 a piece. Still have a display sticker card that states 7500 copies pressed in the US. Sorry. I did not mean to hijack this thread.
 
Wow! thanks evryone for all your great answers , i just learned a lot about how all this stuff was made , i never knew it started out clear & then they added ........ I do actually have some clear singles i should give a spin .
I rememeber in the early 80's i bought a lot of Red vinyl that sounded awfull , probably just low quality pressings as i gave my red Vinyl Hendrix a spin last night & was very impressed with the sound quality all around .


Hey "Drybasement" is that Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (blue vinyl) the one from the Boxed set or can you buy it seperate ? I saw the new Boxed set with the dvd & 2 cd's the other night (about $89) & was wondering if it was worth it & if you could by the blue vinyl seperate ??
 
I just picked up the red vinyl 1978 canadian pressing of The Who: "Who are You" yesterday for $2. It's very clean, but not the best version in terms of SQ that is out there. It looks cool though.
 
I have lots of colored vinyl. Not that I seek out colored vinyl but most of the new stuff I buy from allthatisheavy.com is colored. I notice more noise on black vinyl that colored or raw(clear). I have a buddy that dislikes colored vinyl because he thinks that its inferior to black. Can't convince him otherwise. I still think the LP demagnetizer is complete BS though.
 
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