Jody Thornton wrote:

Paul Jeffries wrote:

One thing I noticed about small-holed 45s is that they were less prone to per-revolution wow and flutter. This is usually caused by a 45 that's not centered perfectly on the turntable platter, causing the tonearm to bob back and forth slightly as the record spins, thereby creating that pitch deviation. I often found with big-holed 45s I would have to experiment a little bit and figure out what side of the hole needed to be pushed against the adaptor to minimize that. (Usually there was a tiny bit of space between the hole and the adaptor). With small-holed 45s that was generally less of a problem, assuming it wasn't pressed off-center. If it was, you were pretty much out of luck. At least the big-holed 45s gave you some wiggle room to work with.
PJ

I have two bad offenders in this area,  My 45-rpm disc of Rocky Burnette's "Tired of Toein' the Line" was BADLY pressed off-centre.  I returned it, and bought new disc but it exhibited the same issue.  I got a good dub of it by playing it without the spindle.  That took some patience.  Remember, I was ten in 1980 - what a nerd!

Now this next one saddened me, simply because in 1999, ANY records were hard to get.  So when I was able to go to Stardust Records in east Hamilton, and get Cher's "Believe" on a 45-rpm single, people who knew I was a vinyl fanatic couldn't believe their eyes.  But alas, it was just off-centre enough to ruin the experience, especially since CDs and digital were so much more common then, and free of wow and flutter, the 45 stuck out like a sore thumb.

I still have some 45s from my youth with little tiny arrows penciled in near the center hole to indicate which side should be pushed against the adaptor for the best play. 

Speaking of really bad wow and flutter...I remember one time listening to CKOC during the mid-80s and they were playing "Even the Score" by Toronto. It sounded like the jock had misplaced the adaptor and slapped the 45 on the turntable, hoping for the best...and losing that gamble. 


PJ
 

Jody Thornton wrote:

But alas, it was just off-centre enough to ruin the experience, especially since CDs and digital were so much more common then, and free of wow and flutter, the 45 stuck out like a sore thumb.

Jody, as into audio as you clearly are, you might be well familiar with Michael Fremer and The Absolute Sound. I was actually just watching this one the other night and it may interest you:

"DS Audio's ES 001 Eccentricity Stabilizer uses lasers and computer control to read record grooves in real time to help you center even slightly eccentric records to remove even the smallest traces of "wow" on your records. Once correctly centered whatever residual "wow" you hear is either from your turntable, the mastering lathe or even the tape playback machine."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Mr4rLx3Xk
 

Found two interesting requests or direction on those 7 inch discs I posted earlier.

On the Flex-disc it asks that a coin be placed at a certain place for the disc to play properly and on the Beach Boys EP they ask to "Please listen in the Dark."

Last edited by Fitz (November 18, 2022 2:42 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Then there were the real long playing records - 16 rpm. I can only remember ever seeing one of them. It was somewhere in my parents' record collection a long, long time ago. I can't recall if I ever actually heard it, but I've read that the sound of these discs were terrible and they were pretty much restricted to spoken word recordings only. Did anyone here ever play one? What did it sound like?

Have you ever heard an FM station with a "local/distance" switch engaged?  It dullens the highs a tad.  Or try rncoding an MP3 at 32 kbps.  It isn't anywhere near as bad as AM radio, but it's missing the timbre and top end.  Consonant blends and cymbals are audible, but not really "present"

Edit: Why didn't I think of a better comparison?  Think 8-track cartridge quality.
 

Last edited by Jody Thornton (November 18, 2022 4:02 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Then there were the real long playing records - 16 rpm. I can only remember ever seeing one of them. It was somewhere in my parents' record collection a long, long time ago. I can't recall if I ever actually heard it, but I've read that the sound of these discs were terrible and they were pretty much restricted to spoken word recordings only. Did anyone here ever play one? What did it sound like?

16 rpm extra-long play records with music were released in South Africa for a while, sometime around the mid-60s, I believe. Some of them are available for sale on Discogs.com, too.

Here's a couple of demonstrations I found on YouTube. They actually sound pretty decent, I think.









PJ