Gramophone record

The most primitive prototype of a phonograph record can be considered a music box, in which a metal disc, on which a deep spiral groove is applied, is used to pre-record the melody. In certain places of the groove, point recesses are made - pits, the location of which corresponds to the melody. When the disk is driven by a clockwork spring movement, a special metal needle slides along the groove and “reads” the sequence of points applied. The needle is attached to a membrane , which makes a sound every time a needle hits the groove.

The oldest recording in the world is considered to be a recording that was made in 1860. Researchers from the study group of the history of sound recording First Sounds discovered it on March 1, 2008 in the Paris archive and were able to play a sound recording of a folk song made by French inventor Edouard Leon Scott de Martenville using a device called the “ phonoautograph ” in 1860 ^[3] . Its length is 10 seconds and is an excerpt from a French folk song. The phono-autograph scratched sound tracks on a sheet of paper blacked out by smoke from an oil lamp ^[4] .

In 1877, the French scientist Charles Croet for the first time scientifically substantiated the principles of recording sound on a drum (or disc) and its subsequent reproduction. In the same year, namely, in mid-1877, a young American inventor Thomas Edison invented and patented a phonograph device in which sound is recorded on a cylindrical roller wrapped in tin foil (or paper tape coated with a layer of wax) using a needle (cutter) associated with the membrane; the needle draws a helical groove of variable depth on the surface of the foil. For playback, a bamboo needle was used, which could be sharpened using special forceps. His phonograph with a wax roller was not widely used due to the difficulty of copying the recording, the rapid wear of the rollers, and poor playback quality.

In 1887, Emil Berliner , an American Jewish engineer, suggested using a disc-shaped recording medium. Working on his idea, Berliner first built and tested the Charles Croe instrument, proposed 20 years ago, using a zinc plate instead of a chrome one . Emil Berliner replaced the rollers with disks - metal matrices from which copies could be duplicated. With their help, gramophone records were pressed. One matrix made it possible to print a whole print run - at least 500 records, which significantly reduced the cost of production, and, accordingly, the cost of production. This was the main advantage of Emil Berliner records compared to Edison wax rollers, which were difficult to replicate. Unlike Edison’s phonograph, Berliner developed a special apparatus — a recorder — for recording sound, and created another, a gramophone , to reproduce sound, on which the patent was received on September 26, 1887 ^[5] . Instead of Edison's in- depth recording, Berliner applied a transverse one , in which the needle left a winding trace of constant depth. In the XX century, the membrane was replaced by microphones that convert sound vibrations into electrical ones, and electronic amplifiers ^[6] .

In 1892, a method of galvanic replication from a positive zinc disc was developed, as well as a technology for pressing ebony gramophone records using a steel printing matrix. But ebonite was quite expensive and was soon replaced by a composition based on shellac - a wax-like substance produced by tropical insects from the family of varnish worms that live in Southeast Asia. The plates became better and cheaper, which means more affordable, but their main drawback was their low mechanical strength - they were similar to glass in fragility. Shellac plates were released until the middle of the 20th century, until they were squeezed out by cheaper and unbreakable ones - from vinylite (a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate), the so-called vinyl records ^[7] . The name of the polymer caused a widespread misconception that the plates were made of pure polyvinyl chloride. This is not so - pure polyvinyl chloride in terms of mechanical properties (hardness and wear resistance) is not suitable for this.

One of the first true phonograph records was a record released in 1897 by Victor in the USA ^[6] .

First Revolution

The first production plates had a diameter of 6.89 inches (175 mm) and were called 7-inch. This oldest standard appeared back in the early 1890s. Records are indicated as “7 ″”, where “″” is the inch sign. At the beginning of their evolution, the records had a high rotation speed and a wider track, which significantly reduced the duration of the sound - only 2 minutes on one side.

Double-sided records began in 1903, thanks to the development of the Odeon company. In the same year, the first 12-inch (12 ″) records appeared with a real diameter of 11.89 ″ (300 mm). Until the beginning of the 1910s, they mainly released excerpts from the works of musical classics, since they fit a total of up to five minutes of sound.

Third was the size of 10 inches (10 ″), or 250 mm. One and a half times more material was placed on such plates than on a standard 7-inch one. By 1940, this size became the most popular. The speed of the usual, generally accepted plate at that time was 78 rpm, the track was the right ^{[* 1]} Archimedes spiral and the plate rotated clockwise ^[8] .

The fourth format (in the USSR was used until the mid-1960s for the production of conventional and long-playing discs) - 8 inches (8 ″), or 185 mm.

The three main standard sizes of the plates - 12 ″, 10 ″ and 7 ″ - are traditionally called, respectively, “ giant ”, “ grand ” and “ minion ”.

There was also a 16 ″ plate format (approx. 40 cm). These were the discs for playing recordings on radio stations, the so-called Transcription disc. The rotation speed of such disks was 33⅓ rpm. They began to produce them back in the 30s. By 1940, they were used to accompany sound films ^[9] .

The "life" of the first records was short-lived - the pickup weighed more than 100 grams and quickly wore out the track. Steel needles had to be changed after each side play, which was sometimes neglected, and when using already played needles, the plate deteriorated even faster. Sometimes, in order to extend the life of your favorite works, the same track was recorded on both records on some records.

In the late 1920s, the first revolution in the world of recording took place, when instead of the method of recording through a speaker, they began to use the electro - acoustic method - recording through a microphone. Due to the reduction of distortion, the frequency range expanded from 150-4000 to 50-10000 Hz .

In the 1930s, records were released with one composition on one side, and often one concert by one artist was sold with a set of records in several pieces, usually in cardboard or, less commonly, leather boxes. Due to the outward resemblance of such boxes to photo albums, they became known as record albums (“albums with recordings”).

Second Revolution

In 1948, Columbia , the largest at that time and one of the oldest record companies in the USA, first released the so-called long - playing record , or Long Play (LP), designed for a rotation speed of 33⅓ rpm ^{[* 2]} . Ways to increase the duration of the sound were made before - for example, during the Second World War , "V" discs were produced in the United States. The release of long-playing records was dictated mainly by the competition with magnetic audio carriers . To compete in price with tapes or not to lose in sound quality, a new material was invented - vinylate . This innovation made it possible to significantly expand the range of recorded frequencies up to 50 - 16 000 Hz, completely preserve the sound timbre , as well as increase the dynamic range of the recording to 50-57 dB, reduce noise and significantly extend the quality sound.

LP LPs were intended only for electro-acoustic reproduction with the help of electric players and electrophones. It was the appearance of electric pickups that worked with the amplifier that significantly reduced downforce (to 1..2 g for high-quality magnetic heads, slightly more for piezoelectric heads) and made it possible to make the needle thinner, as a result of which it was possible to reduce the width of the groove and reduce the speed disk rotation and plate wear.

Forty Singles

In 1949, RCA developed its own alternative record standard with a diameter of 175 mm with a central hole of 38.24 mm (1.5 ″) and a rotation speed of 45 rpm. They found the greatest application in jukeboxes and were distributed mainly in the USA. Such records were often made with a standard hole with a diameter of 7.24 mm (for ordinary players) and with cuts in diameter of 38.24 mm. On these cuts, it was possible to break out the central part and get a large hole. As a rule, a Soviet adapter included an adapter - a “washer” worn on the axis with an outer diameter of 38.24 mm.

The names Single , Maxi-Single or Extended Play (EP) were used for the 45 rpm records depending on the contents.

In the USSR, the first long-playing records came out with rotation speeds of 78 and 33 rpm. The increase in the duration of the first was achieved by narrowing the tracks, which were no longer designed for the gramophone membrane, but for a light electric pickup, but still the playback time of one side did not exceed 7 minutes. In the USSR, the first long-playing record of 33⅓ revolutions was released in 1951 (D-1-2, P. Tchaikovsky. Suite No. 1, Op. 43 (A. Gauk) ^[10] . In the same year, long-playing records appeared in the world by 33⅓ rpm with a variable recording step, which allowed to increase the playback time by another 30% (in relation to long-playing records by 33⅓ rpm with a constant recording step) .In the USSR, long-playing records by 33⅓ rpm with a variable recording step (and at the same time a narrower groove) began to be produced since 1956 ^[11] .

With the advent of long-playing phonograph records with a rotation frequency of 45 and 33 стали rpm, the circulations of conventional gramophone records (78 rpm) began to decline, and by the end of the 1960s their production was finally phased out (the last gramophone record was released in the USSR in 1971 ).

In the USSR, from the beginning of the 1950s to the mid-1970s, the grand was the most common format of a long-playing record. Matrix numbers of long-playing discs, unlike regular ones, found the letter index “D” (“long-playing”) - used for monophonic discs) with a designation of playback speed (33D, 45D). After 1956, previously released records were reprinted from new matrices and marked with the index "ND" while maintaining the old number. With the advent of stereo discs, they were assigned the index "C" (33C, 45C). According to the numbering of the “vinyl” catalog adopted before 1975The WASH “ Melody ” (and its predecessors since 1951 ) was assigned a number in the form XXD (C) —XXXXXX, giant disk — XXD (C) —0XXXXX, record 8 ″ —XXD (C) 00XXXXX, minion — XXD (C ) —000XXXXX. Until the early 1970s, the production of the same records was practiced in parallel in two versions - mono and stereo. Then they stopped making individual mono-disks, and until 1975, stereo records produced with improved compatibility with mono players were indicated by the “SM” (stereo-mono) index.
For discs from the second quarter of 1975, the indexing principle has been changed. According to the new system, the first three characters of the plate number carried the following semantic function:

• index "C" or "M" - stereo or mono;
• the second index (numbers from 0 to 9) symbolized the genre of the record;
• the third index (numbers from 0 to 2) was used to indicate the format of the record: 0 - giant, 1 - grand, 2 - minion (production of long-playing 8 ″ disks was discontinued in the mid-1960s).

However, by this time the “grand” format was almost supplanted by the more capacious “giant” and was used only for children's recordings.

Present

Towards the end of the 20th century, a decline in the production of phonograph records and players began, not least because of the development of the market for music CDs . In the USSR, the use of phonograph records continued until its collapse; Until the mid-1990s, the records were produced by the former branches of the state-owned company Melody in the former Soviet republics, which were completely transferred to commercial structures, although in much smaller quantities. The latest mass circulation of records on the territory of the former USSR dates back to 1993-94.

In certain areas, vinyl long-playing stereo phonograph records with a diameter of 30 cm ( English LP ) are still used:

• for DJ work and experiments in the field of sound;
• fans of this type of sound recording (including audiophiles );
• lovers of antiquity and collectors.

On modern records intended for DJs , about 12 minutes of music are “cut” on one side - in this case, the distance between the grooves is much larger, the record is more wear-resistant , not afraid of scratches and careless handling. In addition, special records are issued for scratching , on which not sound is recorded, but a special clock signal that is supplied to the computer, which allows expanding the DJ's capabilities - for example, using sound fragments recorded directly during performance.

The Voyager-1 spacecraft carries a gramophone record with the sounds of terrestrial civilization along with a phonographic capsule and a needle for playing back the recording. The choice of this method of sound storage is dictated by its reliability and naturalness. The simplicity of the device gives it reliability.

Production Growth at the Beginning of the 21st Century

The development of the industry was unexpectedly continued at the beginning of the XXI century ^{[12] [13]} . According to the RIAA , vinyl sales after a decline in 2005 again show a fairly steady increase ^[14] .

Since 2006, sales of vinyl records have been growing every year: for example, in 2007 sales grew by 37%, and this was against the background of a 20% decline in CD sales in the same year. According to estimates of one of the largest American research companies Nielsen SoundScan, in 2009, only 2 million vinyl records were sold in the United States alone ^[15] ; In 2012, there were already sold 4.6 million phonograph records, which is 17.7% more than in 2011 ^[16] .

In 2013, sales in the United States amounted to 6.1 million records. In addition to the United States, the effect was noticeable in the UK and Australia ^[17] . In 2016, more than 3.2 million records were sold in the UK (in 2007, with the least popularity of vinyl, a little more than 200,000 records were sold in the country) ^[18] . Records still make up a small part of the music recording market (2% in the US in 2013 ^[17] versus 57% for CDs).

Both nostalgia (the 2010 Beatles' Abbey Road album was the sales leader) and other obscure factors play a role in record sales: the first two places in 2013 were taken by the new albums Random Access Memories ( Daft Punk ) and Modern Vampires of the City ( Vampire Weekend ). Theories of the new popularity of phonograph records include both the desire to hear a richer and warmer sound, as well as the conscious denial of the digital world ^[17] .

In addition, an important role in the “vinyl renaissance ” is played by the urban legend that modern cheap CD players do not reproduce sound well ^[19] . In fact, the 16-bit quantization used in compact discs significantly exceeds the quality of phonograph records (equivalent to about 11 bits for the highest quality stamping ^[20] ).

Record as an element of culture

Bartmansky and Woodward ^[21] explain the continuing appeal of phonograph records to non-technical reasons:

• the variability of meaning, allowing different groups of listeners to put their associations in the plates;
• feelings of continuity, authenticity and “ coolness ” ". So, since a large number of albums significant for audiophiles were originally released on records, listening to them in this form creates a sense of ownership;
• non-ideality and non-mass following from the processes of production and storage of phonograph records. The fragility of phonograph records becomes their advantage if interpreted as purely human weakness, in contrast to impersonal digital recordings that can be copied or deleted by pressing a few keys;
• mechanical limitations of players encouraging group and ritualistic listening.

Hard plates

The term “rigid” is rarely used in relation to phonograph records, because usually phonograph records, if there are no clarifications, are meant exactly like that. Early phonograph records are most often called “ shellac ” (according to the material of manufacture), or “ gramophone ” (according to the common device for playing them). Shellac plates are thick (up to 3 mm), heavy (up to 220 g) and fragile. Before playing such records on relatively modern electrophones , you need to make sure that their tonearm is equipped with an interchangeable head or a rotary needle marked “78”, and the player's disc can rotate at the appropriate speed.

Gramophone records are not necessarily made specifically from shellac - as technology developed, they began to be made from synthetic resins and plastics. In the USSR, at the end of the 1940s, 78 rpm records appeared, on which were marked “PVC” and “Shellless”. The last “beating” shellac record was released at the Aprelevka Plant in 1971 ^[11]

Typically, vinyl records are meant later, designed for reproduction on electric players, rather than mechanical gramophones , and for a rotation speed of 33⅓ rpm or (less commonly) 45 rpm.

Flexible plates

There are rare records-applications that were invested in computer magazines in the late 1970s and on which computer programs were recorded (later, until the mass distribution of floppy disks , compact cassettes were used for these purposes). This plate standard was called Floppy-ROM ; up to 4 KB of data fit on such a flexible plate at a speed of 33⅓ rpm.

Flexible records on which pop music was recorded were widely distributed in the USSR. They were small in size and usually contained only 4 songs - 2 on each side. Such records with music recordings were also often issued as an appendix to youth magazines and nested between pages. The most famous example of such a publication is Krugozor magazine, in each issue of which a flexible record was released until 1991 ^[22] .

Flexible records are also old x-ray recordings.("Music on the ribs").

Flexible cards were also previously issued. Such souvenirs were mailed and contained in addition to writing handwritten congratulations. They met two different types:

• Consisting of a flexible plate of rectangular or round shape with one-sided recording, fastened with a printing base card with a hole in the center. Like flexible records, they had a limited operating frequency range and playing time.
• The tracks of the plate were imprinted on the lacquer layer covering the photo or postcard. The sound quality was even lower than on flexible phonograph records (and postcards based on them), for a long time such records were not stored due to warping and drying of the varnish. But such records could be recorded by the sender himself: there were recorders , one of which can be seen in the film “ Carnival Night ”.

Souvenir and decorative plates

The usual color of phonograph records is black , but multi-colored are also produced. There are also phonograph records, where under the transparent layer with tracks there is a colorful layer that repeats the drawing of the envelope or replaces the information on it (as a rule, these are expensive collection editions). Decorative plates can be square, hexagonal, in the form of a circular saw blade, in the form of animals, birds, etc.

Handicraft records. “Music on the Ribs”

In the 1950s and 1960s in the USSR, enthusiasts who made a home-made record recorder recorded music that was not officially distributed by Melody due to the lack of a license for the reproduction of musical material that Melody did not acquire due to the refusal of art Council of “Melody” in approval for the purchase of a license and the duplication of music in the USSR, for ideological or political reasons, was considered incorrect. Artisanal plates on large - format X - ray films were recorded ^[23] . From here came the expression “Jazz on the bones” (also such “home-made” records in everyday life were called “ribs” or “records on ribs”). In those years, the recordings of many Western singers and musical groups could be listened to only on such underground records. Selling such records was considered speculation. Today, selling improvised recordings of your own is considered "piracy."

Due to the drying of the emulsion of the film, such plates curled over time, and were generally short-lived. To combat twisting, such a record should be stored in an envelope with a regular gramophone or vinyl record.

Such an original way of sound recording was also reflected in art: for example, in Viktor Tsoi ’s song “Once you were a hipster” there are words: “You were ready to give your soul for rock and roll, extracted from a photograph of someone else’s diaphragm”. Also in the song “My Old Blues” by the leader of the Moscow acoustic group “Bedlam” (late 1990s - 2002), Viktor Klyuyev contains the words: “The record“ on the bones ”is still intact, but there is no way to understand individual phrases. The very process of recording “on the bones” was demonstrated in the film “Hipsters” (the original name is “Boogie on the Bones”) of 2008.

As soon as affordable tape recorders appeared on sale, the artisanal record almost disappeared.

Sizes

Three main standard sizes (in diameter ) of the plates:

• 12 ″ (300 mm) - “ giant ”
• 10 ″ (250 mm) - “ grand ”
• 7 ″ (175 mm) - " minion ".

with an average duration of sounding on one side (at 33⅓ rpm) of 20-24, 13-15 and 7-8 minutes.

Earlier, in the 30s and 40s, there was a 16 ″ plate format (approx. 40 cm) with a rotation speed of 33⅓ rpm, the so-called. Transcription disc, for playing recordings on radio stations.

Monophonic records

Historically, monophonic records (one audio channel) were the first to appear. The vast majority of such records had a transverse, or Berliner record, in which the pickup needle oscillates left and right. However, at the dawn of the record era, records were also issued with a deep (“ Edison ”) record, where the needle went up and down. Some gramophones had the ability to rotate the head with the membrane 90 °, which allowed them to play both types of records.

The first monophonic plates of serial production had a rotation speed of 78 rpm, then there were plates rated at 45 and 33 и rpm (for music) and 16⅔ and 8½ rpm (for speech).

Monophonic records produced by the USSR were marked with a triangle or square sign. On early records and turntables, the value of the rotation speed was written inside the geometric figure. Sometimes only rotation speed was indicated, without marking.

Stereo Records

In monophonic records, the profiles of the left and right walls of the V-shaped sound track do not differ, and in stereo (two sound channels for the right and left ear ), the right wall of the track is modulated by the signal of the first channel, and the left by the signal of the second channel. The stereo pickup head has two sensing elements (piezocrystal or electromagnetic coils) located at an angle of 45 ° to the plate surface (and at 90 ° to each other) and connected to the needle by the so-called pushers. The mechanical vibrations that the needle perceives from the left or right wall of the sound track excite an electrical signal in the corresponding sound channel of the player ^[24] . Such a scheme was theoretically justified by the English engineer Alan Blumlein back in 1931, but received practical implementation only in 1958. It was then that the first stereo records of a modern type were first demonstrated at the London exhibition of sound recording equipment.

According to the patent, the signal for the left channel is reflected in the profile of the left wall of the groove (the one closer to the axis of rotation of the disk), and the signal for the right channel in the right wall, while the resulting movement of the needle parallel to the plane of the plate reflects the sum of the left and right channels, and the movement the needle vertically reflects their difference. When playing a monophonic phonogram, the needle moves mainly parallel to the plane of the plate ^[25] .

Stereo players can play monophonic records, in which case they perceive them as two identical channels.

In early experiments on recording a stereo signal on one track, they tried to combine a more traditional transverse and deep recording: one channel was formed on the basis of horizontal oscillations of the needle, and the other on the basis of vertical ones. But with this recording format, the quality of one channel was significantly inferior to the quality of another, and it was quickly abandoned.

Most stereo records were recorded at a speed of 33⅓ rpm and a soundtrack width of 55 microns. Earlier (especially in a number of countries outside the USSR) plates with a rotation frequency of 45 rpm were widely produced. In the USA, their compact versions intended for use in jukeboxes with automatic change or record selection were especially popular. They were also suitable for playback on household players. To record speech programs, records were produced with a rotation frequency of 8⅓ rpm and a sound duration of one side up to one and a half hours. In the USSR, such records as, however, jukeboxes were rare.

There are three diameters of stereo records: 175, 250 and 300 mm, which provides an average duration of sounding on one side (at 33⅓ rpm) of 7–8, 13–15 and 20–24 minutes. The duration of the sound depends on the density of the cut. Up to 30 minutes of music can fit on one side of a densely chopped record, but the needle on such records can jump and will generally be unstable. Compressed records also wear out faster due to narrower groove walls.

Quadraphic Records

Information on four (two front and two rear) audio channels is recorded on quadrophonic records, which allows you to transfer the volume of a musical work. This format received some, rather limited, distribution in the 1970s. The number of albums released in this format was very small (for example, a quad version of the famous Pink Floyd album “ Dark Side of the Moon ” in 1973 was released), and their circulations were limited - this was due to the need to use them to play rare and expensive special players and amplifiers for 4 channels. By the 1980s, this direction was curtailed.

In the USSR, the first and only experiment in the development of four-channel sounding took place in 1980 , when the album of the Yabloko group was recorded and released under the name Country Country Folk Rock Band Yabloko (KA90-14435-6). The record was more expensive than a regular record - 6 rubles (a giant stereo record with pop music then cost 2 rubles 15 kopecks, issued under a foreign license — somewhat more expensive), and the total circulation was 18,000 copies ^[26] .

Sound using special equipment is converted into mechanical vibrations of the cutter (most often sapphire ), which cuts a spiral sound track on a layer of material ^[27] . At the dawn of the recording (at least until 1940), the tracks were cut on a wax - like substance ^[28] , subsequently on a phonographic foil coated with nitrocellulose, later the phonographic foil was replaced by copper foil. In the late 1970s, developed the DMM technology ( Direct Metal Mastering ), according to which the tracks are formed on a thin layer of amorphous copper, covering a perfectly smooth steel substrate. This made it possible to significantly increase the accuracy of the recorded signal, which led to a noticeable improvement in the sound quality of phonographic recordings. This technology is applied to this day.

From a disc thus obtained using electroplating in several consecutive stages, the necessary number of nickel copies is obtained with both positive and negative (when the grooves with the sound track look like protrusions above the surface of the disc) with a mechanical phonogram display. The negative copies made at the last stage, which serve as the basis in the process of pressing vinyl records, are called matrices ; all intermediate nickel copies are called originals.

The manufacture of originals and matrices is carried out in a galvanic workshop. Electrochemical processes are carried out in multi-chamber galvanic plants with automatic stepwise regulation of electric current and nickel build-up time.

Mold parts are manufactured on CNC machines and are brazed in vacuum furnaces using special technology. The molds themselves provide a high uniformity of the temperature field on the forming surfaces, a low inertia of the temperature regime, and hence high productivity. With one mold, tens of thousands of records can be made.

The material for the manufacture of a modern phonograph record is a special mixture based on a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate with various additives necessary to give the plastic the necessary mechanical and temperature properties. High quality mixing of powdered components is achieved using two-stage mixers with hot and cold mixing.

In the press shop, a heated portion of vinyl is fed into the press with labels already glued on top and bottom, which, under a pressure of up to 200 atm, spreads between the two halves of the mold and after cooling forms a finished record. Next, cutting the edges of the disk, control and packaging.

The first phonograph record, made after installing nickel matrices on the press, and then each one specially selected from the circulation, is carefully checked for dimensional characteristics and listened to in specially equipped sound booths. In order to avoid warping, all pressed phonograph records undergo the necessary temperature exposure, and before packing into an envelope, the appearance of each phonograph record is checked additionally.

Cover

Reproduction of vinyl records has a number of features related to both the physical nature of this medium and the technical features of reproducing vinyl sound and its amplification. So, for example, an obligatory element for electrophones with a magnetic pickup head is an amplifier-corrector ( phono stage ).

There are two main markets for phonograph records: primary and secondary.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the main buyers in the primary market are DJs and audiophiles who prefer music on analogue media. It is the pace of development of this segment that is most interested in record companies, its statistics are presented above.

Dear collection records are made on the so-called “heavy” vinyl, such a record is really heavy and weighs 180 grams, such records provide a greater dynamic range . The quality of the stamping and the material of such plates is higher than on ordinary vinyl.

The secondary market is the sale of used vinyl. In this segment there is a trade in collectibles and private collections of vinyl. Currently, the cost of especially rare records may exceed several thousand dollars.

Special attention of collectors is traditionally enjoyed by the first issues (first press) of records (for their sounding best), as well as limited edition records, various collectibles. The main trading venues are online auctions , as well as local stores of used music products.

Since now a significant part of the trade is conducted via the Internet , and the buyer cannot directly assess the quality of the offered goods (which both the sound quality and its price extremely depend on), sellers and buyers use several different systems for evaluating vinyl records .

• Aprelevka Gramophone Plant
• The electronic
• Radiola
• Format war
• Floppy-rom

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• Vasiliev G. A. Sound recording on celluloid disks. ( Mass Radio Library , issue 411) - M.-L.: Gosenergoizdat, 1961
• Regirer E.I. Gramophone record. Sound quality, technology, general information. - M. - L .: State Scientific and Technical Publishing House of Chemical Literature, 1940. - 756 p. - 1,500 copies
• Arshinov A. Flexible phonograph records // Radio No. 6, 1965, p. 36
• Degrell L. Turntables and records . Translation from Hungarian V. K. Piskarev edited by Yu. A. Voznesensky. - M.: "Radio and communications", 1982.
• Dominik Bartmanski, Ian Woodward . The vinyl: The analogue medium in the age of digital reproduction . // Journal of consumer culture (2013). (eng.)

• History of Russian and Soviet records // oldradio.onego.ru
• The world of Russian record on russian-records.com
• Sizes and types of vinyl, gramophone and gramophone records (+ photo)
• LJ - Ribbed Records
• New and old formats: HD-vinyl and DIY-records // geektimes.ru, November 4, 2016
• d / f "Music on the" ribs "" , 2007 ( video on YouTube )
• d / f Turn the record over , 2016 ( video on YouTube)