"Insane" Record Collections
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
New vinyl collections are rising, some older ones are expanding...it's all great news for us all...analog music lovers on a higher caliber/cantilever rotating spin.
Today: http://depauliaonline.com/2017/11/13/vinyl-revival-sparks-record-store-day/
Yesterday: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/ente...a-should-go-the-vinyl-way_116741?profile=1116
Today: http://depauliaonline.com/2017/11/13/vinyl-revival-sparks-record-store-day/
Yesterday: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/ente...a-should-go-the-vinyl-way_116741?profile=1116
Last edited:
At 15K, my record collection has been pretty stable in size for a few years. Almost all classical (95%+). Starting over 50 years ago, while it college, there were two not entirely parallel purposes for my record buying. First was for expanding my knowledge and breadth of classical music. So I began trying to buy one version of the most popular classical pieces. This expanded to different interpretations, and then to recordings with great sonics. The second purpose became collecting for completeness, the collector obsession, rather than the music lover's obsession.
My first attempt at a real collection was started in the late '70's when I discovered The Absolute Sound, about issue 6. Harry Pearson (HP) was starting a lst of recommended recordings which quickly morphed into the famous TAS Super Disc List. Over the years he added and sometimes subtracted records from the list. Most were original issues, but many were reissues done by the labels releasing the records and some by later companies. At HP's death a few years ago, it had expanded to include 600 records which had at some point appeared on the list (some in multirecord albums). I started collecting and by the early 2000's I had collected all of the records that had ever appeared on the list. Including alternative and original pressings, it was about 1000 records.
Parallel to that I began collecting records of specific labels - mostly ones which appeared in the TAS list. Some were small labels, Lyrita, Sheffield, Reference Recordings, etc. which were fairly easy to find, many new, and others were biggies, RCA, Mercury, Decca and EMI. Of course, there were records from other labels purchased for their performances, their artists and/or their sonics. Starting about 20 years ago when we started visiting London regularly (almost annually), I concentrated on the two great British labels, Decca and EMI. I found I could buy original Deccas in London for about the same price as the London versions in the US, sometime cheaper. The EMI's also were much more plentiful and better sounding than their US Angel counterparts. With Decca there were also their partner labels Argo and L'Oiseau Lyre, all produced and engineered by the same team. So this did become an obsession and by a few years ago, I had completed my collection of all of the analogue classical Decca recordings (98% of them in early pressings) from their main series (SXL, SET, D, BB, SKL, HDN, ZRG, SOL, DSOL, PFS). In total it is about 4500 records. Similarly, I have about 3000 classical EMI records, not quite as complete (about 90%) from their main series (ASD both 3 and 4 digit, SLS, SAN, SAX, SCX), and random selections from their mid-priced HQS, ESD, SXLP, TWO series. Less complete collections of Mercury (about 400) and RCA (about 800) records complete the core of my collection.
At the peak, when there were many fine used classical record shops in and around London, I would (wity my wife's indulgence) bring home three or four large suitcases of records (when Virgin Air allowed 30 kilos per bag), each trip to London. Today, just about all of these shops - bricks and mortar and mail order, are gone.
In 2009, as high resolution digital files were becoming available and I had retired, my wife and I were discussing what to do with all the records. With her permission, I started a multiyear project to digitize the large majority of my collection. I worked with consultants to figure out the best available (and sometimes almost unavailable) equipment and software to use, and after 6 years, I had completed digitizing over 10,000 of the records, along with about 1500 prerecorded reel to reel tapes (another story), all in hirez (192/24).
Larry
My first attempt at a real collection was started in the late '70's when I discovered The Absolute Sound, about issue 6. Harry Pearson (HP) was starting a lst of recommended recordings which quickly morphed into the famous TAS Super Disc List. Over the years he added and sometimes subtracted records from the list. Most were original issues, but many were reissues done by the labels releasing the records and some by later companies. At HP's death a few years ago, it had expanded to include 600 records which had at some point appeared on the list (some in multirecord albums). I started collecting and by the early 2000's I had collected all of the records that had ever appeared on the list. Including alternative and original pressings, it was about 1000 records.
Parallel to that I began collecting records of specific labels - mostly ones which appeared in the TAS list. Some were small labels, Lyrita, Sheffield, Reference Recordings, etc. which were fairly easy to find, many new, and others were biggies, RCA, Mercury, Decca and EMI. Of course, there were records from other labels purchased for their performances, their artists and/or their sonics. Starting about 20 years ago when we started visiting London regularly (almost annually), I concentrated on the two great British labels, Decca and EMI. I found I could buy original Deccas in London for about the same price as the London versions in the US, sometime cheaper. The EMI's also were much more plentiful and better sounding than their US Angel counterparts. With Decca there were also their partner labels Argo and L'Oiseau Lyre, all produced and engineered by the same team. So this did become an obsession and by a few years ago, I had completed my collection of all of the analogue classical Decca recordings (98% of them in early pressings) from their main series (SXL, SET, D, BB, SKL, HDN, ZRG, SOL, DSOL, PFS). In total it is about 4500 records. Similarly, I have about 3000 classical EMI records, not quite as complete (about 90%) from their main series (ASD both 3 and 4 digit, SLS, SAN, SAX, SCX), and random selections from their mid-priced HQS, ESD, SXLP, TWO series. Less complete collections of Mercury (about 400) and RCA (about 800) records complete the core of my collection.
At the peak, when there were many fine used classical record shops in and around London, I would (wity my wife's indulgence) bring home three or four large suitcases of records (when Virgin Air allowed 30 kilos per bag), each trip to London. Today, just about all of these shops - bricks and mortar and mail order, are gone.
In 2009, as high resolution digital files were becoming available and I had retired, my wife and I were discussing what to do with all the records. With her permission, I started a multiyear project to digitize the large majority of my collection. I worked with consultants to figure out the best available (and sometimes almost unavailable) equipment and software to use, and after 6 years, I had completed digitizing over 10,000 of the records, along with about 1500 prerecorded reel to reel tapes (another story), all in hirez (192/24).
Larry
My vinyl collection is small, by the standards in this thread (2000), but all high quality. It is only stuff (with a few exceptions) that I listen to regularly.
I never quite got the "collecting for collecting's sake" gene.
I do have some very rare Italian prog-rock LPs, that are worth a lot of money, which I do not play. I do have recent reissues on vinyl of most of them, however.
For example, I own a first pressing of a LP from a band called De De Lind. They made one great record, then disappeared. It consistently sells for over $1500.
https://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?searchtext=de+de+lind&thumbs=&currsel=&sortord=&endfrom=&endthru=&ipp=&sdc=&x=16&y=13
I have quite a few more LPs that are also worth a bit of cash.
Vinyl is booming all across the globe:
° http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/one-album-everyone-vinyl/
° http://fortune.com/2017/11/13/young-adults-are-buying-more-vinyl-than-boomers/
° http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/one-album-everyone-vinyl/
° http://fortune.com/2017/11/13/young-adults-are-buying-more-vinyl-than-boomers/
Last edited:
Hi Jeff,
My previous response to this post appears to have been deleted.
I loved your response and it also made my day. Enjoy your records. And assuming you have some rugs, remember to only invite guests into your audio enclave that are "house trained".
Best,
dude
