[78-L] Glass versus Vinyl

[David Lennick]

Vinyl, Victrolac, whatever, was also used for pre-grooved discs made by Victor 
in the 30s and 40s. The playback CAN be of decent quality if you can find a 
stylus wide enough..these weren't intended for professional or broadcast use. 
Some other plastics like celluloid were used for home recordings..again, 
nowhere near professional quality. I know of one instance where fiber based 
Presto discs (16 inch) were used for a program to be shipped and broadcast 
overseas by the CBC, and presumably they just didn't want to risk breaking 
it..it was a Gracie Fields Christmas program recorded in Vancouver but to be 
broadcast via short wave from Ottawa. The quality 50 years later was excellent.

dl

On 1/6/2011 10:35 AM, David Lennick wrote:
> Two things are being intermixed here..glass replaced aluminum when it became
> unavailable during the war. Vinyl was used for pressings, and rarely for discs
> sold to consumers until it was economically feasible to use it and pickups were
> lighter by the mid 40s. I've seen vinyl soft cuts from the fifties and I think
> that's what's used today for "dub plates" but can anyone comment on the quality
> of the 50s vinyl soft cuts? Noise level? Frequency range? Durability?
>
> dl
>
> On 1/6/2011 10:29 AM, marimbamoods at comcast.net wrote:
>>
>>
>> just wondering - why were lacquer-coated glass-based transcription discs used well after the introduction of vinyl?
>>
>>
>> i recently encountered a damaged glass-based disc from 1945, though vinyl discs were in use as early as ten or more years prior to that. given the fragility of the glass type, why were those manufactured at a time when vinyl was readily available?
>>
>>
>> are the lacquer-coated surfaces somehow superior to the vinyl surfaces for fidelity or noise levels? that does not seem likely given the smoothness of vinyl, which continued in use for a half-century after its' introduction.
>>
>>
>> so, why deal with the delicate handling issues of glass-based discs when hassle-free vinyl was already in use?
>>
>>
>> best, david harvey
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