Category Archives: Audio

How Vinyl Records Are Made

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record-labels

This picture, courtesy of a great article about how albums are physically made clears up one of the great mysteries of creating LPs, 12-inch singles and other records.

For YEARS I have always wondered how albums get those labels pressed on the album with absolutely no warping or other physical problems–even years after the pressing, the labels stay put in most cases. Now I know why.

My original theory was that it was some kind of super glue that held the record label in place, but it turns out that good pressing plants BAKE their labels before applying them to the record album. Baking the labels removes excess moisture that would cause warping or other problems. No water, no goofy labels.

Ingenious!

AKG K240 Headphones

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akg-k240-headphones1

I almost purchased these AKG K240 headphones on a whim at a not-to-be-mentioned retail musical instruments shop we all know. I wanted to experiment with a semi-open headphone configuration since I have tinnitus issues and don’t want to go stone cold deaf.

While I was looking at them I wondered if I could do better shopping online–the price was about $150 in the store and at the last second decided that there was probably a nice little markup in that notorious store. Yes, indeed. Priced at $99 online, I have placed my order and am excited to compare the AKG K240 headphones to Sony and Sennheiser. Which headsets give the best sound reproduction while giving me the least amount of hearing damage caused by extended headphone wear? We shall see.

The moral of this story is basically “shop around”. Especially in this economy! I did some research on the AKG K240s, and there’s a mixed bag but the positive reviews say what I need to know–good audio quality in spite of some issues with slippy wear. I can deal with that…

If you have any experience in this area, I’d love to get some feedback.Hearing damage vs. audio quality…the eternal tradeoff.

Heavy Duty Vinyl Record Album Case

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carpeted-vinyl-album-case

This is slightly pricey, but hot damn! This vinyl album case holds a whopping 200 albums, has a carpeted exterior and lid, and I hear you can stack these two and three high and even use the case as a makeshift stool if you’re in cramped quarters in some dingy club. You’re naturally spinning the good stuff instead of being what Mr. Automatic calls a “Craptop DJ”. I want several. I would imagine these to be a bit weighty when filled to capacity, but the lid is removable for easier access to the vinyl…never a bad thing.

Of course, I’d fill mine with dub platters, bizarre Icelandic new waver bands, Isaac Hayes records, Italian bachelor pad soundtrack music and a Goblin album or two. Those club kids don’t know what to make of me.

Numark TTUSB Turntable

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numark-ion-ttusb-turntable

The Numark TTUSB turntable is a nice tool for converting your vinyl to MP3s.  I like the plug-n-play ease of using this USB turntable. It’s inexpensive, simple to use and will give you plenty of fun rediscovering the old vinyl you haven’t heard in ages. No, this isn’t really designed to be used as DJ gear, but you can certainly pad out your MP3 collection with the Numark TTSUB. Call it a DJ tool for home use only. I own one…and if I wanted to play DJ gigs with my vinyl collection, I’d break out a Technics. Sorry, DJ hopefuls—don’t take this out of the house. Why bother? Just convert your tastiest vinyl tracks to MP3, drop em to a nice big external hard drive or MP3 CD-R and be on your way. And yes, you can always burn a redbook format CD to gig with, too.