Picture discs

[boonie]

Was just wondering what people's experience's with picture discs are, especially new ones. Do they have decent sound quality and hold up to normal lp's or are you paying for the gimmick and not much else?
Anyone like to share?

 

[gthang]

Picture discs are fun and nice to look at but as a means of listening to high quality music forget about it.

imo all coloured vinyl sounds poor compared to the black stuff, I purchased a copy of Madonna confessions on a dance floor (for my Mrs) on pink double vinly and it sounded dull, distorted and limited in the frequency extremes most noticeable in the HF, as do a few other picture discs I have.

 

[chard306]

I just bought a 20 year old one Beatles SGT. Pepper, It was still in the orginal wrapper. It has a disclaimer on the back stating that the sound is not as good as the orginal recordings. I played it once and I agree, the sound was bad, it is mostly for decoration.
Chard306

 

[kermit z]

I don't have experience with the picture disc. I have heard they are not up to the same listening levels as black vinyl but I don't know. They are alot higher priced and I really love the music so I have not picked any up. I will say however, color disc that I have sound just as good as black disc. I have Steely Dan's Can't Buy Me A Thrill on Yellow/Gold vinyl that sounds great. Also REMs Imitaion of Life on orange vinyl and it too sounds great

 

[Sansui Louie]

Please do a search. This comes up weekly.

 

[Arkay]

Not sure about weekly, but this certainly has been discussed here before. Some threads have pics, too.

I pick up picture disks when I think they look good, or might have 'collectible' value, or when they happen to come along in bulk buys, but I never expect them to sound good. In fact, most of my picture discs I never even play!

My favorite is probably the glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters LP. That basic red, black, and 'glow' off-white just looks very cool on any black-plinthed TT, and you always know where it is at night!

 

[Greene Deere]

I'd wondered the same thing. I bought a new Steppenwolf picture disc that really sounded lousy and wondered if it was the disc or the live recording that was poorly done. My son had a CD of the same live recording that he thought was excellent.
No more picture disc unless I want to put them on the wall!
Thanks!

 

[Edriz]

Picture discs are just that, pictures and are not meant to sound good but are for collecting.

Now for colored vinyl, that's a different story. After all, black vinyls is colored vinyl, as is red,gold,yellow. I think, but I'm not sure but actual vinyl is white until colored black?

And yeah, this topic has been covered many times.

 

[Guest155]

i had 90% bad experiences with picture discs and colored:

distorted highs starting at 2000hz, cracks, pops, i would buy it just for collecting

10% good experience: 12" translucent blue vinyl, superb sound quality, same as black records.

 

[BigManAndy]

i have 3 LP picture discs. 2 i bought brand new, 1 used. of the 3, one sounds amazing. the other 2 are noisy as hell. i don't buy them anymore, i just buy the regular LP counterpart which is usually cheaper too.

as for colored vinyl, i don't see how that can effect anything. as i type this im playing a double LP, 1 is plain black, the other is a creamy white. no difference, both are quiet and excellent.

from now on, all i buy is plain vinyl, no more picture discs for me, unless its cheap/rare there nice decoration, or to show off. ha

but i won't pass on a record because its yellow, or red, or see thru green, those all sound the same as black to me.

 

[boonie]

Sorry for going over old ground.