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RCA dynaflex vinyl

ryson2

ryson2

Active Member
What the heck is this stuff. I picked up a copy of Waylon's "Good Hearted Women" today and was suprised to find some sort of flimsy disc RCA used for "improved sounds and playability"?

Ive never seen these before, anyone have any?

I dont think a ride on the RCM is a good idea with this one....
 
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Early 80's vinyl? About 90-100 grams, I estimate. Do you use a record clamp? I use a SOTA I-Clamp. It helps with these.

That LP will survive a ride on your RCM, no problem. At least, they don't seem to mind my VPI 16.5
 
Dynaflex came out in the early 70's. RCA tried to market it as an improvement, but it was nothing more than a way to skimp. I used to refer to them as "Evatone Soundsheets". (The old timers will know to what I'm refering to.) ;)
 
Celt said:
Dynaflex came out in the early 70's. RCA tried to market it as an improvement, but it was nothing more than a way to skimp. I used to refer to them as "Evatone Soundsheets". (The old timers will know to what I'm refering to.) ;)
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I don't get that at all.
I know it will ruin the joke but explain please?
 
I first saw such a thing used...

for an old album "Elvis' Love Letters" when I was a 6 year old. Even at that age I suspected it was a cheaper quality record but like all kids I thought if it is newer than the previous styles it must be better! Now I understand that new usually means "rip-off" in one way or every other.
 
Some of them can sound surprisingly good anyway. It is hard to ruin good recording and mastering. I have a wafer-thin Reiner Tannhauser/Magic Fire Music on Victrola that somehow sounds better than the original shaded dog LSC.
 
Come to think of it I have a "floppy copy" (hehe) of Sheherazade that is on par with an audiophile copy I own.
 
Pre-CD era.
Eva-tone sound sheets were paper-thin "freebie" promotional phono records put into magazines and mailers that sometimes required additional weighting with coins to play without slipping on the turntable. Give-away promotional CDs, DVDs, and ROMs are the modern equivalent but without the inherent performance compromises of the sound sheets.
S.B
 
kodawaru said:
I don't get that at all.
I know it will ruin the joke but explain please?
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http://www.evatone.com/AboutEvatone_History.aspx

A "soundsheet" was an extremely thin vinyl record that was usually inserted in to magazines, envelopes, etc. as a way to sell a product. Music magazines sometimes had interviews with artists or groups on soundsheets and when I was growing up, every few month Readers Digest (or similar) would use them to demonstrate record sets they were selling. Somewhere I have a stereo soundsheet for an HH Scott stereo FM tuner from the early sixties. What did they sound like? Sheet.
 
Omigod...Eva Tone! The factory was in St. Petersburg, Florida. One day we took a tour of the place because we wanted to release our first punk record on flexi (that was around 1979?). They treated us like royalty...but it came to naught. Wow, I still love those things. Remember Flexi-Pop magazine? Every issue had a cool New Wave flexi!
 
Celt said:
http://www.evatone.com/AboutEvatone_History.aspx

A "soundsheet" was an extremely thin vinyl record that was usually inserted in to magazines, envelopes, etc. as a way to sell a product. Music magazines sometimes had interviews with artists or groups on soundsheets and when I was growing up, every few month Readers Digest (or similar) would use them to demonstrate record sets they were selling. Somewhere I have a stereo soundsheet for an HH Scott stereo FM tuner from the early sixties. What did they sound like? Sheet.
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Gotcha.
Because knowledge is power!
 
As others have stated, Dynaflex records were first released in the early seventies around the time of the first oil "crisis" (although it was actually a bit before this).

RCA advertised them as being actually less likely to warp than thicker records. There were variations in the thickness of these just as there is with other records.

Some of them can almost be bent in half and will return to their normal state when released whereas most are a little thicker than this.

Regardless, they really aren't any better or worse than any other mass produced record, especially sound quality-wise.

Of course, RCA touting the superiority of Dynaflex may now be cynically viewed as a cover for their efforts to cut costs, and it may be true, but there you have it.

EDIT: "Dynaflex" is very often confused with "Dynagroove" which dates from the early sixties and they are two entirely different things.

Doug
 
My orange label copy of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" album is pressed on "dynaflex" vinyl and it sounds quite good (to my ears). My biggest complaint is how flexible it is. I've seen some later RCA pressings with the black label on dynaflex vinyl.

On Eva-Tone soundsheets: There was another use for them. Talking books for the blind. The library of congress issued books and magazines on 9" flexible disc recorded at 8 RPM. They could only be played on record players issued by the library of congress.
 
The thing RCA didn't think about was how the Dynaflex albums were going to play on the millions of BSR mini-changers in the marketplace. Mini-changers had tiny 7" platters and most tracked at upwards to 10 grams. End result was the edge of the album drooping down and scraping against the plinth and in the best case, horrid mistracking due to improper angle. Granted, those who played their records on mini-changers probably didn't care about their care anyway.
 
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at least it's not a Red Label...
 
Some Dynaflex LPs are not bad. As pointed out above, "Ziggy" is pretty darn good. That being said, the UK, non-Dynaflex vinyl "Ziggy" is a revelation.

Dynaflex has a higher noise floor than virgin vinyl, but for many great recordings (Lou Reed's "Transformer"), if you want the original pressing, you have no choice.
 
One my favorite albums from that era was Paul Kantner & Grace Slick's "Sunfighter". It was on RCA's "Grunt" label and has to be the thinnest album I've ever owned. That being said, it's a decent sounding pressing (given its original production values).
 
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