We’ve teamed up with Vinyl Pursuit to give one lucky grand prize winner a chance to win a $250 USD gift card to spend on used records. The lucky winner will receive $250 USD in credit to spend at vinylpursuit.com (a premier used online record store curating a wide range of vintage and collectible records). All albums are ultrasonically cleaned, … Read More
Best Ultrasonic Record Cleaners for Super-Clean Vinyl
Ultrasonic cleaning for vinyl records has grown immensely in popularity over recent years. The practice is a mainstay of the jewelry industry, favored for its ability to clean intricate, small crevices at a microscopic level. Ultrasonic works by using high-frequency pressure sound waves to agitate a liquid, producing tiny cavitation bubbles. Lots of tiny bubbles produce forces that help to … Read More
Best Gatefold Album Covers – Iconic Classics
First introduced in the mid-1960s, gatefold album covers greatly increased the creative possibilities of album cover design. Effectively doubling the canvas size, both inside and out, cover designers could showcase seamless artwork, or extend a theme beyond what is initially seen from the front cover alone. As the popularity of gatefold album covers grew throughout the 60s and 70s, many … Read More
Types of Vinyl Records: An Easy To Understand Guide
Have you just inherited a record collection? Or perhaps, like many, you’re rediscovering vinyl records for the experience and unique sound quality. There are many different types of vinyl records, and some of the terminologies can get quite confusing. So if you’re looking to understand what’s in that dusty box in the attic, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll … Read More
How to Use a Record Brush – Avoid Damage!
The humble carbon fiber record brush is an essential accessory for any turntable. If you don’t already own one, you should change that pretty quickly and start incorporating one into your daily playback routine. It’s good practice to use one before and after each play, as this will help to prevent dust and dirt building up into a bigger problem … Read More
Win a Six Month Record Subscription
We’ve teamed up with VinylMoon to give one lucky grand prize winner a chance to win six months of FREE subscription to their record club. The lucky winner will receive one ultra-deluxe VinylMoon record every month for six months. VinylMoon releases are some of the most beautiful records showcasing up-and-coming artists we’ve seen, with some highly-creative visual art to match. … Read More
Album Covers and Art: Does it Still Matter?
Designing an album cover has been a well-respected job throughout music history, often considered just as important as the music itself. Many of the best examples are as familiar to the eye as the music is to our ears. In the days when vinyl was the primary music medium, getting the album cover just right was essential to commercial success. … Read More
Phono vs Line: What’s the Difference? – Vinyl 101
The terms “phono” and “line” are often misunderstood, particularly by new record collectors. Understandably, phono inputs can confuse music enthusiasts as they use the same RCA connectors as the inputs and outputs labels as “line” or “aux” on turntables and amplifiers. So what’s the difference between phono and line signals? Fortunately, it’s easy to boil this question down to a … Read More
Moving Magnet Vs Moving Coil Phono Cartridges – What’s The Difference?
When it comes to choosing the right components for your turntable, your phono cartridge is, well, pretty important. After all, this is the device that makes direct contact with your records. In most audio systems, inputs are almost certainly more important than outputs; to put it frankly—shit in, shit out. There are two main types of phono cartridge available: moving … Read More
How NOT to clean vinyl records
Great vinyl records are clean vinyl records, that much is well understood. But with so much advice available on the internet, how can you determine which cleaning methods lead to vinyl nirvana, and which ones lead to frustration and regret? We’ve covered plenty of tried and tested cleaning methods at Sound Matters, but this article is different. This time, we’ll be … Read More