"Behind the tech that makes vinyl so special", Not again... Options

[Canar]

http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/9564/be...nyl-so-special/

This was reposted on Boing Boing.

Ugh. Not again... The same tired subjectivist tropes: Talk to "authorities" instead of doing science.

[woody_woodward]

This quote from the article threw me:
"...there is one format that attracts fanatical devotion above and beyond any other– vinyl. For over a century, music lovers have held it dear..."

Vinyl records in 1912? I'm rather skeptical.


Woody

[mzil]

Vinyl records in 1912? I'm rather skeptical.


Woody

Well there were flat rotating mono records of various materials, speeds, and sizes, even going back to before 1900, but if you insist on the first 33 1/3 rpm, stereo (45/45 or Westrex system), 12 inch, RIAA equalized, LP made from "vinyl" material (as opposed to lacquer, shellac, hard rubber, celluloid, wax, etc), the system "we" still use, then the first one was put out by Bel Canto in 1957. Hear it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAjM7HqQXFM

I suspect when the article said "vinyl" what they really meant was "flat round discs read by a needle", as opposed to Edison's wax cylinders which were too bulky, but coexisted for some time until they got phased out in the 1920/30's.

There were some flat, round records made of vinyl in the 1930s but the material was considered too expensive at the time and production was stopped in preference to less expensive materials. It was reintroduced decades later.

This post has been edited by mzil: Nov 11 2012, 06:03