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A genuinely broken record -[ HMM ]-
A 45-rpm single that did not survive the trip from Great Britain to the west coast of North America intact. I've purchased quite a few singles from England, usually shipped in thin, but amazingly rigid, mailers that protect their contents quite well. I vaguely recall this one was not packaged that well for the torturous journey.
What's worse, this one was made from polystyrene (styrene), not the usual polyvinyl chloride (vinyl). Styrene singles were cheaper to manufacture than vinyl, but were more prone to wear and breakage. A new styrene single, played on a decent turntable with an ideal tracking force setting, can sound fantastic over many plays; they wore out faster than vinyl, however, played on portable phonographs at home and in the classroom, record changers, radio station turntables, and the like. I suspect this record has enough wear to affect its sound quality had it arrived in one playable piece.
A genuinely broken record -[ HMM ]-
A 45-rpm single that did not survive the trip from Great Britain to the west coast of North America intact. I've purchased quite a few singles from England, usually shipped in thin, but amazingly rigid, mailers that protect their contents quite well. I vaguely recall this one was not packaged that well for the torturous journey.
What's worse, this one was made from polystyrene (styrene), not the usual polyvinyl chloride (vinyl). Styrene singles were cheaper to manufacture than vinyl, but were more prone to wear and breakage. A new styrene single, played on a decent turntable with an ideal tracking force setting, can sound fantastic over many plays; they wore out faster than vinyl, however, played on portable phonographs at home and in the classroom, record changers, radio station turntables, and the like. I suspect this record has enough wear to affect its sound quality had it arrived in one playable piece.