[sigtau]

For those of you who pay attention to the WHIYL thread, you already know about all of this.  For those of you who don't (or you aren't the tl;dr type), I'm now interested in collecting vinyl records (LPs, demos, and the like).  The local record stores just stockpiles these classics, because of the sheer number of 60's, 70's, and 80's-born people living in town wanting to digitize their collection.  All of the albums in the following image are original presses (Dark Side of the Moon being off of the first press).



Top row: Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" // Boston - "Boston" // The Police - "Ghost in the Machine"
Bottom row: The Eagles - "Hotel California" // Rush - "Moving Pictures" // Marvin Hamlisch - "Soundtrack to 'The Spy Who Loved Me'"

My reason for creating this thread is both to log my progress as a part-time collector (even though these probably don't have a terrible amount of value, vinyl sounds better) and to ask you guys--Which vinyl/LP albums should I be on the lookout for?  I'm taking recommendations now, so please do voice your opinions if you have any recommendations.

[Herra Tohtori]

Well... as an "out-of-box" suggestion:

Try to find the Double LP Original Soundtracks for the Star Wars films. They are excellent music, probably the best thing in the films overall, and part of cultural history. Having them as LP's would be quite awesome.

With a short search I could find these, but I have no idea if there's any guarantee of the condition of the records...

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Original-Soundtrack-set/dp/B000Q19C20
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Strikes-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B001AWOPS0/ref=pd_sim_m_1
http://www.amazon.com/Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack-Return/dp/B001TAK94C/ref=pd_sim_m_1

I own the double CD versions, but I would be very, very interested in listening to high quality, lossless vinyl rips of them (something like 96 kHz 24bit FLAC would be cool) to compare with the CD audio (44k16b PCM WAV standard), if the LP's are in good condition of course.


I don't really collect records, though... I don't have LP player (would have no place to put it in), and my speaker setup is a total hackjob, but I do appreciate good sound quality and my headphones are quite decent.

[LHN91]

Hmmmm... I have... one of those XD. Boston. Excellent album.

I do have an LP player, mid 80's Akai with a 50$ Audio-Technica cartridge. Nothing special, honestly picked up the player at a Value Village. Use it fairly regularly, though I don't have your luck at finding such excellent stuff at that kind of prices......

As for recommendations, to be honest, start off with stuff you'll actually listen to. You probably already are, considering what you have.

Believe it or not, two of my favourite albums are the Nat King Cole Greatest Hits Double LP and the Nat King Cole Live at the Sands album. Neither one is particularly collectible (as far as I know) but the newer compilations did too much "cleaning up" and sounds thin and hollow in comparison to the LP.

And yes I know I'm a hopeless sap 

[swashmebuckle]

If you are interested in learning about the SW Trilogy soundtrack, I'd recommend checking out this document:

www.malonedigital.com/starwars.pdf

The special edition double-CD releases are of excellent quality and pretty much the only way to get all the music in one place, though they are quite compressed if you're the type of person who is bothered by that.

[sigtau]

Add a newer vinyl--Incubus's "Monuments and Melodies" greatest hits compilation--to the list.  I'll be receiving that one on Friday as a gift.

I have to admit, this is fun.

[LordMelvin]

this thread makes me wish I had stronger shelves.

Yes, that's related. See, there's shelves by my desk, and on the lowest shelf sits my stereo and turntable, while the shelf directly above is just tall enough to fit vinyl, but not quite strong enough to hold it up properly. I replaced the broken needle that resulted when the shelf gave way, but the drive speed and pitch controls are pretty much shot, so that my (for example) vintage '70s era Floyd platter of Wish You Were Here or my much newer Tom Waits' Alice (newer 'cause it's only been out for like seven years)  both sound more like Alvin and the Chipmunks than their respective performers...

I am bummed.

Or I would be if looking through my vinyl collection right now didn't remind me that I've also got the Original Trilogy on Lazerdisc. Because that's just cool.

[Davros]

HAWKWIND"SILVER MACHINE/SEVEN BY SEVEN"

RARE UK PICTURE DISC BY HAWKWIND, THE B-SIDE WHICH SHOULD PLAY "SEVEN BY SEVEN" ACTAULLY PLAYsTHE BEATLES "ASK ME WHY"

[LordMelvin]

THE B-SIDE WHICH SHOULD PLAY "SEVEN BY SEVEN" ACTAULLY PLAYsTHE BEATLES "ASK ME WHY"

This being gendisc, I feel obliged to ask, 'Why?'

[Davros]

"ASK ME WHY"  is the name of the song

[BloodEagle]

Me thinks you set that up. 

[Davros]

I do have the worlds first holographic single "Nearer" released by a local band called 3d
doubt its worth anything though and it was a limited edition, not sure how many copies

Edit: found it for sale £12 bah
http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=547082