RCA Dynaflex vinyl - really that bad?

I don't remember RCA's older vinyl formulation being especially quiet, but back when they initially switched to Dynaflex Vinyl I thought it surface noise got especially bad. Our radio station was getting early promotional pressings, and it really was astonishing how bad the surface noise was on these records compared to promotional pressings from other companies.

 

There are several David Bowie Dynaflex pressings that are great. Heck, those sound a lot less noisy than plenty of other things I've heard from the same time period.

 

Dynaflex, for the uninitiated, was RCA's great new technical breakthrough of the early seventies. It was an 'ingenious' way to use a fraction of the vinyl and still get something roughly resembling a record out of the equation.
Maligned by audiophiles of the time, there were oodles of urban legends about it. "Shows signs of serious wear after only five plays" was one of them. (This doesn't take into account that many records do, whether we like it or not.)
So here I sit with a first press copy of "Nilsson Schmillson" on the turntable and it's blowing me away!
Some of the quietest vinyl I've ever heard, outside of the Optimal Beatles mono set. Fantastic sound with very little distortion.
Not bad for a forty year old record that would supposedly disintegrate after a work week of heavy playing, no?

 

Will it play on my MiniDisc machine?

 

I have many ultra-thin RCA records from that period, and they all sound fine to me. Sure, they are VERY flimsy when holding them! But sound quality luckily seems OK.

 

I'd flip it on it's head and point out that a lot of the "Living Stereo" pressings are subpar. I was working at Wherehouse records when Dynaflex issues appeared, we did get a lot of returns due to warps. But the mastering of the Dynaflex pressings were of a higher standard than the mastering of the Dynagroove days. And considering the coloration of the Westrex cutting head used for a lot of Living Stereo issues and the vinyl being used back then sometimes being iffy, the Dynaflex pressings look like a better deal as time goes by.

 

The biggest problem I had with Dynaflex was that on some pressings the record surface would describe one plane and the label area another. Most warped records are affected at the edge, but with Dynaflex you can get a record that's warped at the center! Probably if you use a weight or clamp you'll get better results from Dynaflex. I think it's true that they are quieter pressings than their RCA predecessors.

 

My copy of Van Cliburn's "My Favorite Chopin" (W. German Teldec pressing) is sonically awful. No high end whatsoever. :sad:

 

If you use a heated scissors, you might be able to cut them down to the required size.

 

NO. Not at all

 

Some were better than others, just like any record.

 

Doubtless mastered from a dub of the master. Decca/Telefunken had an arrangement with RCA. But back when Teldec was pressing RCA product overseas I doubt they had access to the best tapes. I used to go by the assumption that the best sounding LPs were imports from Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. As regards surfaces and surface noise they are the best. But when it comes to mastering, not always.

 

I believe most (maybe all?) mentioned on the back that they were mastered specifically for Dynaflex in some ultra safe way (likely meaning removing all the low and high end).

 

I have that same disc....I agree it does sound pretty great.

 

Nope. You're thinking of Dynagroove. Those "White Dog", or "dead dog" as the late Ron Pendorff would say, pressings had curtailed low frequencies and added compression to make them more 'trackable' on the playback equipment of the time.

 

All of the Dynaflex records I own play and sound fine.

 

Some Dynaflex Lou Reed at home and they sound just fine and quiet to me ! I don't believe in heavy vinyl since a long time....

 

I've got an old stereo sampler that touts Dynagroove and the 'wonderful' RCA console stereos optimised for playing it.
I still use the 'puker' narrator proclaiming "Realism that rivals the concert hall!" on mix discs.

 

Dynaflex seemed ridiculous and a joke at the time but in hindsight sounds better to me than the thick noisy vinyl RCA was using just prior.

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/rca-dynaflex-vinyl-really-that-bad.112880/

 

They sure feel flimsy, but most of my Dynaflex LPs sound ok or better.

 

I like how you can hold the rims and wiggle it to make it sound like a cartoon sound effect.

 

Indispensable for playing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" if you can't find a proper wobble board.

 

Me, too! Wait! We're still talking about records here, right?

 

One of my best sounding LPs is B.W. Stevenson's My Maria. My Kinks Muswell Hillbillies sound good too. No issues with the Bowie titles today.