Music => Vinyl Grooves => Topic started by: BSD2000 on May 09, 2012, 09:16:32 PM
Title: Record club pressings
Post by: BSD2000 on May 09, 2012, 09:16:32 PM
Once in a while, I come across sealed copies of LP's at the record shop that are branded 'CRC', 'Columbia House' or 'RCA Music Service' and I always wondered whether the sound quality is equal to the original pressings, or if they are inferior, mass produced junk.
So far, my luck with them has been mixed, but mostly positive. I picked a sealed copy of AC/DC Flick the Switch for $1, which was marked 'Manufactured by Columbia House Under License' and the sound quality was not so good. I also picked up a sealed copy of The Cars - Panorama for $3, which was manufactured by RCA Music Service and the sound quality is excellent.
I also picked up a mint copy of Led Zepplin's Houses of the Holy for $10 - manufactured by Columbia House and the sound quality is fantastic. It's so good in fact, it puts the recently released Zepplin 'Mothership' box set to shame.
Flipping through my records, I'm actually surprised how many record club LP's I own. The majority of them are marked Columbia House or CRC.
Do you have any record club LP's in your collection? How would you rate the sound quality?
Title: Re: Record club pressings
Post by: BSD2000 on May 12, 2012, 05:44:26 PM
Title: Re: Record club pressings
Post by: GoodVinylLover on May 13, 2012, 11:19:31 AM
"...and remember: it's our secret" LOL!!
They took their time in advertising, nowadays it's not the same :-\ I wish I could live back those years for awhile ;D I can hardly remember, as I was born in the mid seventies. But I do remember my aunt playing records at any day time during the late seventies. These videos bring me back those memories and make giggle too ::) Those were magical moments with my aunt and it represents my break into the vinyl world.
Thanks for the videos ;)
RIP Dick Clark :'(
Title: Re: Record club pressings
Post by: BSD2000 on May 13, 2012, 04:24:26 PM
Title: Re: Record club pressings
Post by: GoodVinylLover on May 14, 2012, 04:02:39 PM
Thanks for sharing your story! ;D
I was born in the mid seventies and I started to buy my own records and cassettes in the early eighties. At that time I had already a handful of vinyl records that were given to me as a gift by my aunt. All of them were hits compilations that we used to listen to together in her room 4/5 years back. BTW, I don't know the exact model but the turntable where my aunt used to play her records looked like this one:
[attach=1]
I still have 6 of those records, in fact I am lucky to have kept the majority of the records I collected throughout my life 8) Here's a picture of the 6 I mentioned:
[attach=2]
I think it was in 1983 when my father bought an Amstrad Tower System TS-33 like this one:
[attach=3]
God, I must confess that turntable was awful ;D But I managed to persuade my parents to buy a portable cassette player so I could listen to my cassettes (commercial and vinyl transfer) in my room :P From 9 to 15 years of age I collected about 150 records. It was in 1987 when I bought my first CD and soon I could afford to buy my own Sony Hi-Fi system 8) That represented a BIG change ;)
You know what? I feel like you do: CDs lack something. I don't really know what it is, but I feel It's true. Or should I say: vinyl records have something extra that CDs can't deliver. Generally speaking, of course.
During the 90s I bought a lot of CDs and a few records...CDs were very easy to find and vinyl records were starting to disappear. A few years ago I decided not to buy CDs anymore because I was fed up of paying for something that sounded so dynamically compressed=crap >:( and I unpacked my records, cleaned them, played them... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!