u/Scary_Fault_6519

Found in a record sleeve, no other signs of bugs, but now I’m getting paranoid. The ”thing” is around 1.5 mm.

Near mint Sade and some obscure folk and singer songwriter stuff from the 60s/70s, jazz fusion, forgotten soul/RnB, Journey, and perhaps my favorite find: Donna Summer's Bad Girls featuring Giorgio Moroder's catchiest synth work. Great value.

A $5 bin at a rural flea market in the middle of nowhere was, surprisingly, not filled with only the usual useless stuff this time, but with early/first pressings of some great ’60s/’70s records. Most records appear to be in surprisingly close to NM condition.

P.F. Sloan – Songs of Our Time and Twelve More Times (1965/1966 German RCA Victor pressings), probably the best finds here.

Emitt Rhodes s/t (US first press, 1970), with a really nice Beatles-ish sound.

Obscure ’60s psych rock: Terence – An Eye for an Ear (original US Decca pressing, 1969).

Also picked up Simon & Garfunkel (first UK press, I believe), Tony Joe White (first US press), Michael Parks, Fats Domino, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cat Stevens (Numbers in nice condition with the booklet), Lee Hazlewood, Andy Kim (Rainbow Drive, dreamy 60s psych-pop), and the Alice’s Restaurant soundtrack by Arlo Guthrie.

I did not expect two P.F. Sloan rarities (I guess) in VG+/NM condition to show up in a $5 bin at a rural thrift store in the middle of nowhere.

Found at least five surprisingly interesting records in the same bin. Lucky day driving around in the rain.

Never heard Gene Ammons before but picked up this record (1963 original US stereo release) just based on the cool cover, early Prestige etc.

Pretty cool record, moody atmospheric soul-jazz, especially the more restrained and mellow tracks like The Prayer and You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Reading about Gene it seems he lived a pretty hard life (even compared to the other jazz guys), spent most of the 60s in prison. Makes the gospel/church theme fitting, like he’s playing the sax like a man trying to save his soul.

Was looking for some saudade Astrud Gilberto stuff and ended up grabbing some modestly priced Getz records. Perhaps most interesting here is At the Opera House, which seems to be an 1957 OG pressing, record itself looks pretty pristine.

Invested 20€ in a dozen absolute dollar bin gems.

The Stylistics - Fabulous (1976)
The Stylistics - Once Upon a Juke Box (1976)
The Stylistics - You Are Beautiful (1975)
Fabulous is a gem, fat well-produced sound, funky reggae-influenced soul track It’s So Good is cool.

Mike Oldfield - Crises (1983)
I probably only listen to the track Foreign Affair on this album, but I really dig that track, sounds so fresh and clean with that signature Fairlight CMI synth sound. Nice cover artwork as well.

Randy Crawford - Nightline (1983)
Very cool, super slick 80s synth productions on this album. The title track kind of brings back nostalgia from playing Out Run as a kid at the arcade.

Bobby Vee - Do What You Gotta Do (1968)
Dollar bin legend and former bandmate of Bob Dylan’s 60s pop rarely disappoints. The title track is a real banger.

Oscar Brown Jr. - Brother Where Are You (1973)
Oscar Brown Jr. - Fresh (1975)
Fresh is one funky album, some tracks have a similar sound to Gil Scott-Heron's Reflections. And his hit The Lone Ranger on the former album is one cool track.

Aretha Franklin - Aretha (1986)
1€ for a near mint copy is a pretty good value for money, also kind of gives an idea of how insanely many copies of this record were pressed

The Midnight Voices - Is That All There Is (1969)
Needed a second copy of this cheesy but hypnotic easy listening epic as the other one was played to near death.

Four Tops - Yesterday’s Dreams (1968)
One of my favorite Motown releases, features really nice versions of Sunny and Never My Love

Hugo Montenegro - Others by Brothers (1975)
Just picked it up as the cover is pretty cool, but sounds pretty cool as well, like if Jean-Michael Jarre would make a funky 70s porn soundtrack.

Testing new pair of vintage speakers. Zachry EM 12A 12” woofer, Japanese Coral drivers. NAD 3020 amp, Beogram 1900.

Bought a pair of Zachry EM 12A, 70s speakers made in Sweden. Very big speakers by my standards. Looks to be using high-end drivers by now long gone Japanese speaker brand Coral. 12” woofer. I don’t think I really have space for these beasts but at 20 euros I couldn't resist (I have no idea if they are in working order though). Seems very well built, enclosure-wise. I have not had time to try them yet though. Does anyone have any experience with these speakers or the Zachry brand?

Not that wild maybe, but almost. In Tangier.

Bud Powell (vol 2), Fats Navarro (vol 1 & 2), Zoot Sims quintet with Sonny Rollins (Jazztone, compilation I guess?) and Art Blakey et les Jazz Messengers (featuring a very cool photo of the man himself behind the drum set). All Made in France, in the 80s (I believe).

My father gave me a pretty much near mint 1970 German second pressing of Ummagumma, the records appear as if they’ve never been played, but there is a thin high-gloss plastic film, like a laminating film on the cover that’s coming loose (second image), beneath the print still looks kind of glossy. I wonder if this film is part of the print coating or some kind of protection film added later.

Recent soundtracks that I picked up. I have not seen Alfie but it features some of my favourite Sonny Rollins tracks. Sinoia Caves feverish synth score for (the very Kubrick-inspired) Beyond the Black Rainbow could just as easily have worked in 2001. The Lost in Translation soundtrack plays like a curated playlist of liked tracks, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sebastien Tellier etc, Kevin Shields original score is pretty cool as well.

Which other soundtrack LPs are worth looking for?

“A bad m*therfucker” of a record this one. Teenage Shuggie Otis and his father banging out some badass funky rhythm & blues tracks that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tarantino movie. Perhaps my best random thrift store find of the month. I’d never heard this one before.

The Johnny Otis Show Featuring Mighty Mouth Evans & Shuggie Otis – Cold Shot!
1969 UK Sonet

Not widely regarded as Jefferson Airplane's best work maybe but the first three tracks on side A is absolute bangers: When the Earth Moves Again, Feel So Good, Crazy Miranda. Dig the fish as well, looks fierce.

Hi, I got hold of a Revox A77 MK3 2-track 7 1/2 ips a while ago. Cleaned it and found that the heads are in surprisingly great condition, looks barely used. Bought the first pre-recorded 2-track tape I could find for testing. Not exactly cheap for what it is maybe, but a nice hi-fidelity recording, Flamenco by bossa nova legend Laurindo Almeida.

Realized it’s pretty hard to find vintage pre-recorded 2-track reels at online auctions in the EU. Most tapes are 4-track for natural reasons, or very expensive audiophile 15-ips versions. But maybe I’m just terrible at searching for reels? Apart from ebay etc, are there any specialized online stores that sells vintage pre-recorded reels, with a larger selection of regular speed 2-track or mono?

Somewhere in between Monica Zetterlund and Astrud Gilberto there’s Lill Lindfors. This lush dreamy Scandi-Bossa nova record is just too cool. Lill with Swedish jazz legend Bengt Hallberg ’Mellan dröm och verklighet’. Swedish 70s midsummer night vibes pressed onto vinyl, maybe not everyone's cup of sill but Lill needs some love.

Lill Lindfors - Mellan dröm och verklighet (Between dream and reality, 1970):
https://youtu.be/xAs8xgtajIk?si=ZJLle8YvluHenHqg

Never listened to Moody but picked up this record only because of the cool cover design by Michael Reid, but listening to it now and it’s great (recorded “live” at The Jazz Workshop in San Fran 1961). Super smooth sax work and a very nicely mastered wide and lush stereo image. Might need to listen to more stuff by Moody now.

Speed shift is happening occasionally on my Beogram 4002, pitch dropping rapidly and then it seems to stabilize. Is this behaviour likely due to oxidized speed trimmers and failing capacitors in the servo circuit or does a DC motor with dry bearings show this erratic behaviour? Motor runs pretty silently, no obvious friction noise. Same behaviour with original and new belt, and cleaning the subplatter and motor pulley did not help. I would like to think dry motor bearings would leave the motor running constantly out of speed or be mechanically noisey.

Drastic short drop in speed happening mid-video, after 9-10 sec.

Is it likely an electrical or mechanical failure? Or maybe a combination?