[Redcarmoose]

I’m dating myself, and.....I didn’t do it that often, but 4 track reel-to-reel tape players were primarily popular due to attempting to record off FM. Reel to reel (pre-recorded) stereo retail tapes of course did actually become a thing for a while but never took off like the LP. All those 4 track owners were not singer songwriters recording at home. As a recording artist Led Zeppelin created their entire tapestry around sequencing songs in an order so LPs would not get boring for being so long in time frame. Floyd was the same way with the LP being engineered to take interest for a full one time at a time listening experience. This is why the song variations and different pace tempos were put in. They had competition with the old 45 rpm way of life. It wasn’t until the CD that arraignments went out the window and monstrous play times were inflicted upon the masses.

FM recording was a hobby.
This style of an audiophile is actually long gone. But if you go back and truly indoctrinate yourself into 1970s music, albums were super super expensive and rare. If you had a band you were into.........the event of them playing a live radio studio broadcast was a big deal. These events were advertised long in advance, and in those days people would arrange their lives around a specific stereo live broadcast. The music was rare. FM tuners had a freaking multitude of wild enhancements. I’ve actuality forgotten the names of it all but it was cutting edge technology to get these special FM tuners which would parlay the very clearest FM radio signal so you could make a 1/4 inch tape of it all. That tape was precious and rare at the end. Same as cassette recording only cassettes were not at audiophile level. If you were to see all the reel to reel machines around, the other reason was people would get a new record and make a tape of it and save the record only to study the jacket.

The pure scarcity of media from that time is not fathomable today.

 

[The Jester]

I’m dating myself, and.....I didn’t do it that often, but 4 track reel-to-reel tape players were primarily popular due to attempting to record off FM. Reel to reel (pre-recorded) stereo retail tapes of course did actually become a thing for a while but never took off like the LP. As a recording artist Led Zepplin created their entire tapestry around sequencing songs in an order so LPs would not get boring for being so long in time frame. Floyd was the same way with the LP being engineered to take interest for a full one time at a time listen experience. This is why the song variations and different pace tempos were put in. They had competition with the old 45 rpm way of life. It wasn’t until the CD that arraignments went out the window and monstrous play times were inflicted upon the masses.

FM recording was a hobby.
This style of an audiophile is actually long gone. But if you go back and truly indoctrinate yourself into 1970s music, albums were super super expensive and rare. If you had a band you were into.........the event of them playing a live radio studio broadcast was a big deal. These events were advertised long in advance, and in those days people would arrange their lives around a specific stereo live broadcast. The music was rare. FM tuners had a freaking multitude of wild enhancements. I’ve actuality forgotten the names of it all but it was cutting edge technology to get these special FM tuners which would parlay the very clearest FM radio signal so you could make a 1/4 inch tape of it all. That tape was precious and rare at the end. Same as cassette recording only cassettes were not at audiophile level. If you were to see all the reel to reel machines around, the other reason was people would get a new record and make a tape of it and save the record only to study the jacket.

The pure scarcity of media from that time is not fathomable today.

Same here,
some of my Vinyl collection from the late 60’s on I bought brand new,
Reel To Reel was a high end option back then as it was possible to buy some albums on a 5 1/4” reel that sounded better than Vinyl with the right machine, back then if you had a good Akai deck it was the same as owning DCS digital gear now ....
way out of my league ...

 

[Redcarmoose]

Same here,
some of my Vinyl collection from the late 60’s on I bought brand new,
Reel To Reel was a high end option back then as it was possible to buy some albums on a 5 1/4” reel that sounded better than Vinyl with the right machine, back then if you had a good Akai deck it was the same as owning DCS digital gear now ....
way out of my league ...

The window for swanky FM tuners to make a comeback like vinyl did, has come and passed.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Same here,
some of my Vinyl collection from the late 60’s on I bought brand new,
Reel To Reel was a high end option back then as it was possible to buy some albums on a 5 1/4” reel that sounded better than Vinyl with the right machine, back then if you had a good Akai deck it was the same as owning DCS digital gear now ....
way out of my league ...

5 and 1/4 inch tape?

 

[The Jester]

5 and 1/4 inch tape?

Sorry,
5 1/4” reel vs the more normal 7”” and the pro deck 10.5” diameter reels ...

 

[The Jester]

Looking at a current online catalogue and there’s a big difference with some new release Vinyl vs CD ...
same album ... CD $18.99 ... double Vinyl album $69.99
when CD was released it was the reverse ... Vinyl was under $20 and new release CD was close to $30
thinking way back new release Vinyl was $5.99 ... but remembering how much that was .. around 10% of the average wage,
and why I bought relatively few albums back then ..

 

[Redcarmoose]

I always thought that finding first pressings was an interesting challenge to learn about. In my late twenties I actually worked at record stores just to learn and be around vinyl. But typically record stores all had personalities. Like you had a jazz store which only had focus on jazz records. You had a Pink Floyd store which always had Floyd British pressings. The people who owned or worked there knew the business and knew what to buy and how much to sell it for. Often the records were not where you would think they would be. Meaning they often were not out in the racks. The only way you could get them was by being cool and spending time, then the owner may look down and bring up the fact that they had a small box under the counter so dicks never found the good records. Other places would specifically have rare Beatles records. I was working at a store once when a Beatles Butcher cover came in. That was the magic..........that the album had a different cover layered on top and if you knew you could find them.

And of course the regular rare records like the Velvet Underground’s first album with the unpeeled banana cover. There was places too that had stacks of Classical which always had electronic experimental music mixed in. That was always a strange contrast to me........subtle and well done Classical music living side by side with basically “noise”. Lol

 

[The Jester]

There’s exclusivity around today still,
several companies selling $10-14k playback only reel decks, and selected recordings painstakingly transferred from original master tapes at $450 each ..puts the $69.99 Vinyl album into perspective

 

[Redcarmoose]

Looking at a current online catalogue and there’s a big difference with some new release Vinyl vs CD ...
same album ... CD $18.99 ... double Vinyl album $69.99
when CD was released it was the reverse ... Vinyl was under $20 and new release CD was close to $30
thinking way back new release Vinyl was $5.99 ... but remembering how much that was .. around 10% of the average wage,
and why I bought relatively few albums back then ..

The point the pendulum started to swing was around 1996. Up until then maybe peoole were not sure CDs were going to stick. So you had audiophiles in 1986 buying CDs but the players and CDs were expensive. In 1996 CDs were mainstream and the records started to be dumped from collections. In fact the mid 1990s was America getting rid of like 30 years of records.

 

[Redcarmoose]

There’s exclusivity around today still,
several companies selling $10-14k playback only reel decks, and selected recordings painstakingly transferred from original master tapes at $450 each ..puts the $69.99 Vinyl album into perspective

Yes, I’ve seen those. My reel to reels had better sound than my LPs at the time. It doesn’t even have to be one of those fancy boutique reel-to-reels to get good sound. Though I didn’t have a nice LP player either.

And that’s the thing. Even having reel to reels I used them for home recording as there was no tapes to buy. But yes, I’ve seen that, they have reintroduced the whole package again, tapes and Gucci machines.

 

[Redcarmoose]

There’s exclusivity around today still,
several companies selling $10-14k playback only reel decks, and selected recordings painstakingly transferred from original master tapes at $450 each ..puts the $69.99 Vinyl album into perspective

His Goldfinger Cartridge is 16K.

 

[The Jester]

Luckily in the late 60’s I was living in a capital city with several record stores with a great selection,
one large store had turntables behind the counter setup to play 45rpm singles to headphone booths along the wall ..
no sampling before you buy for albums though, they were too expensive to play to teenagers ... Lol

 

[The Jester]

Must be nice to win the Lottery ...

 

[Redcarmoose]

Luckily in the late 60’s I was living in a capital city with several record stores with a great selection,
one large store had turntables behind the counter setup to play 45rpm singles to headphone booths along the wall ..
no sampling before you buy for albums though, they were too expensive to play to teenagers ... Lol

I became a fixture at a record store before I was married and it was some of the best times of my life. We would make evening runs to record stores in downtown LA, and basically lived in a record store in Orange County. The going to record wholesalers and buying collections was fun. There was also an interesting learning curve to fully start to grasp what people were into as influences and interests. Basically people would have three or four main genres and within those genres you could start to go over artists and LPs. There was always what they had and what they wanted to find. There was a table in the store and yes.......it became broken all the time. But it was near a college campus so that was the public coming in. With-in the store it specialized in only a few genres but was considered an underground record store as everything they sold was not on major labels. Probably better called an Independent Record Store as those were the labels. The fun part too was seeing what the kids liked. And because there was mostly records for sale...........there was always an eclectic mix of new and super old records to find.

 

[matthewhypolite]

great reading the last few posts on the history of music playback and you guys varying experiences. I'm quite new to this so appriciate the info. great points on modern information overload and the intamcy of vinyl. I've been to my first record store in February, just a random store in the middle of no where in Orlando, the experience of just walking around browsing records, seeing something interesting and spinning it up was great. the intimate and tactile experience of just being in the store was in of itself an experience. that's where I just happened upon an original 1979 pressing of a Japan Mozart import (otmar suitner conducting nhk symphony orchestra) . I'm not sure if the store knew what they had, but I paid about $20 for it.

I also picked up these other 2 in the same store for not much more :



have not even listened to those yet but I will later today