I have been cleaning all my records and recently reached the landmark of having cleaned all the 12" stuff i.e. LPs and 12 singles. So, what's left now is the 7" singles; I haven't bought many, but over the years have been given quite a lot, to the point where I have over a thousand of them. It's all catalogued on the database, but the collection is a bit of a mystery, as I can't remember where most of it came from, but there’s some crackin’ good stuff in there! I didn't think that I would ever get around to cleaning them, but now I have time on my hands, I've decided to do so and it's been quite fun tbh! Each one is re-bagged into a Tonar Nostat 7” inner sleeve after cleaning
The collector side of me comes to the fore now, trying to match up the 7" to the correct sleeve and it's a real labour of love. It's the complete antithesis of streaming, having to get up every three minutes to turn the record over!
It’s a source of some regret, that during those heady Peel days of the mid to late 70’s, that I was an LP12 owner and couldn’t play 45’s! So I missed out on a load of good music.
I think, for me, this is what vinyl is all about; the physical product that you can hold in your hands. I have a Stanton ST.150 direct drive that I modified to take a Rega arm and I fitted a Rega Carbon cartridge, which is absolutely ideal to play 7” singles and I have it connected to a Rega mini-phono mm stage
So, for me, this is the bit that streaming can’t do. No doubt, most of the 7” singles I have are available for streaming at a higher fidelity and improved convenience, but that’s not the point!