Vinyl

I got a second pressing of DSOTM from my local Oxfam shop today...

It was priced up at £3.99 - the cover's a bit worn and the posters and stickers are long gone (as usual...) - but the vinyl is PERFECT - not a crackle or pop. Being a second press, the sound is pretty close to the 1st, as DSOTM was so unexpectedly popular, the first press was a very short run, and the same mothers were used to make the second press stampers.

It sounds FANTASTIC - totally UNremastered, slightly raw, and with a presence that makes you feel like you're sat behind Alan Parsons on the mixing desk... I'm sure it must have been remastered for later pressings, as there were so many remasterings of this album - for Quad, for the Half-Speed audiophile pressings, the anniversaries, 5.1 DVD and so on... It almost sounds like a different album!

If you ever see one and the vinyl looks OK - BUY IT!; The sleeve only opens one side, and the outline triangle in the label is different (lighter blue and more solid looking). The matrix numbers end -3, as -1 was only used for the test pressings.

1973 2nd Press (note the apparent cracks around the center hole. This is quite normal for both 1st and 2nd press);

Late 1970s/early 1980s press: (Note the positioning of the word "Harvest")

1973 First Press (live in hope that you find this one!)

Check out some of the comments I left earlier - especially about feeling marks on the surface, looking out for tiny (2-3mm) marks that run ALONG the groove, and "spider" marks on the label. oliverstoned's comments about looking for the shine are very valid - but many late 1960s LPs could take a real punishing and still sound fine.

If you're planning on collecting seriously, you'll learn simply by buying one or two turkeys - there's no better teacher than experience - so start with cheap albums and inspect any that sound scratchy for tell-tale signs.

Oh - and come back here if you're out for First Presses - I might be able to help

An easy way to tell if it's been played a lot of times is to look at the centre of the record.

Generally, the label should still look practically new - if not, it's been mishandled or improperly stored (especially if it's peeling - that indicates damp). If the label looks suspicious, put it back, no matter how much you want the LP - there will be another one somewhere else some day!

White paper showing through the coloured label around the centre hole is an indication that the LP has been put thrown onto the turntable and snatched off a few hundred times - or generally abused (you're a bit stuck if the label is white ).

Next, you may see little spidery lines around an inch or so of the centre - look at any LP you own under bright light; compare one you've hardly played with one you've thrashed to death. There will be few and faint lines on the hardly played LP, and loads of "spiders" on the thrashed one.

Check this out for a clean spindle - note the excess plastic, indicating that this LP has probably only seen a turntable from its cover, or, if it has been played, then the owner treated it like it was made of eggshells:

This puppy'll set you back a few hundred quid at least

The main reason for buying vinyl is that First presses of albums up to the end of the 1970s sound absolutely amazing and blow their CD equivalents out of the water on a good HiFi.

The downside is, of course, that spotting scratched or defective vinyl is a bit of an art that you need to develop. Generally, if you can feel the mark with your fingers, it can cause either pops or skips, and it's the tiny ones that tend to be worst.

On (e.g.) Beatles' First Presses, the vinyl is so thick and robust that most surface marks do not cause a problem. However, there is still the problem of those really tiny (about 2-3mm) marks that are really deep and cause issues.

The Record Collector or Record Collector's Guild grading scales are a good way to guage records if you buy them from eBay - if you only buy records graded as Near Mint or Excellent, then you should never end up with a scratched lemon. If you do, you can leave the seller bad feedback - and most sellers will bend over backwards to avoid that.