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New Pressing Technology

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This is a very cool article. The thing about vinyl is that you can't really duplicate it. You can't burn a copy of it or store it on a thumb drive. You can't even shoplift it very well.

Well, you can rip it to digital, but not in economies of scale. It's even more time and effort consuming than home taping was back in the day.

For an industry that's been scratching it's arse ever since they started putting CD burners in home computers, this vinyl resurgence ought to be seen as a bloody windfall.
 
Very cool article! I wish them the very best of luck in their endeavors! :thumbsup:
 
I posted about this new venture several weeks ago. :)

I laughed at DOP's shoplifting comment above. I've seen it done, even in bulk. While working at Sam The Record Man a few decades ago we caught them occasionally. One huge guy we intercepted at the door had 13 inside his coat!
 
I say that's good news!

The price seems pretty reasonable, perhaps attractive enough that existing plants will opt to replace their ancient presses as they break down rather than repair them. Being fully automated, they should reduce the number of potential defects. There's still plenty that can go wrong though, so we'll have to see if the difference is even noticeable.
 
DustyOldPile said:
This is a very cool article. The thing about vinyl is that you can't really duplicate it. You can't burn a copy of it or store it on a thumb drive. You can't even shoplift it very well.

Well, you can rip it to digital, but not in economies of scale. It's even more time and effort consuming than home taping was back in the day.

For an industry that's been scratching it's arse ever since they started putting CD burners in home computers, this vinyl resurgence ought to be seen as a bloody windfall.
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I recall in the late 70's, recording artists were complaining about the use of cassette recorders and there impact to record sales.
 
The unfortunate reality is that,in all likelihood,these poor guys will invest a huge amount of blood,sweat and tears (not to mention time and money!) in developing these new presses,and within a couple of months after they sell the first one,it will be in China being reverse engineered.
You'll probably be able to buy one at Costco or Wallymart for $199!! We'll all have a pressing plant in our garages,and the designers will be applying for unemployment.
 
arts said:
The unfortunate reality is that,in all likelihood,these poor guys will invest a huge amount of blood,sweat and tears (not to mention time and money!) in developing these new presses,and within a couple of months after they sell the first one,it will be in China being reverse engineered.
You'll probably be able to buy one at Costco or Wallymart for $199!! We'll all have a pressing plant in our garages,and the designers will be applying for unemployment.
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But first the USA manufacture's workers will have to train the replacements to do the jobs they are taking from them :O
 
The real question would be how long will the vinyl renaissance last? A lot has to do with timing and how long something stays popular. If vinyl is just a fad and ends quickly the investors and the manufactures will find themselves with a warehouse of brand new presses with no buyers. Time will tell. What needs to be done is make vinyl a fad in China, if that could happen your going to find a huge increase in sales.
 
Ken Boyd said:
The real question would be how long will the vinyl renaissance last? A lot has to do with timing and how long something stays popular. If vinyl is just a fad and ends quickly the investors and the manufactures will find the What needs to be done is make vinyl a fad in China, if that could happen your going to find a huge increase in sales.
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When that happens, I hope everyone here has there shelves stocked with all the used LP's they want now. I doubt you would be able to find a copy of "Hooked on Classics" or a Barbara Streisand LP.

Heck, a few of the Half Price Books stores in Houston and San Antonio, TX are out of decent selections. All that's let are mediocre adult contemporary from the 70's going for $3.99 and less.
 
Ken Boyd said:
The real question would be how long will the vinyl renaissance last? A lot has to do with timing and how long something stays popular. If vinyl is just a fad and ends quickly the investors and the manufactures will find themselves with a warehouse of brand new presses with no buyers. Time will tell. What needs to be done is make vinyl a fad in China, if that could happen your going to find a huge increase in sales.
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Wondering out loud here - How long does it take for the vinyl comeback, renaissance, resurgence, et all to be credible such that the "F word" no longer comes up in the discussion? It seems to me the only growth and money being made in the physical media realm is vinyl and that's been going on for a good 5 years now, maybe longer. Perhaps the fad stage is behind us. When I go record shopping these days I see a lot of old farts like myself and a lot of regular, non-hipster, young buyers. When I strike up a conversation they seem to be knowledgable music lovers. I take that as a very good sign.
 
I think that, at $160,000 a pop, it might still be a difficult sell to some of the currently established plants like United or QRP. A refurbished SMT press is automated and reasonably reliable. Some folks have even added modern computer controls to them. This can be done at far less expense than the projected cost of these new ones. While current sensor and actuator technology, coupled with the right custom software, may take some of the art out of the process and enable much less experienced operators to churn out good records it doesn't seem like a huge savings on an already fairly low-margin business. I wish them luck in this endeavor, and I hope I'm wrong. New machines certainly are sorely needed.
 
Yes, but new machines that can operate accurately and quickly surely must be an advantage over 30 or 40 year old technology that might be breaking down and requiring custom repair work or constant tweaking. As far as the "art" in the process, I'd prefer the art be in the music and the technology be in the tools. :)
 
Saw the video that the pictures came from....

Give the record industry two years and all the old presses will be gone !
 
I think that already, with the number of people who have invested back into vinyl or for the first time, something is going to have to come along that's a lot 'better' -- and not the false promise of digital, because we've already been down that rabbit hole -- in order to dislodge the vinyl resurgence. Just what 'better' means, I have no idea. 'Better' may well just mean better records, better turntables, better cartridges, if the industry gets to the point where today's technology is utilized rather than the technology mostly developed in the 1960's and applied in the 1970's. These presses may be the first step in that direction.

I, for one, am very happy to see young people starting to advance instead of regress as far as their preferences in sound reproduction go.
 
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