wylton
Naim and Mana member
I have been on a long-term project to clean all of my records & finished it earlier this year. In the process, I've replaced all of the inner sleeves; like Tony, I have kept any inner sleeve that I thought would add to the historical value of the record & have used Nagaoka's inside them, though the Nagaoka's are a PITA, as another contributor said. Plain paper sleeves, I have junked. I use Mobile Fidelity sleeves for all of the others. The PVC issue is serious; luckily for me, it mostly affected my 7"45's, as some of them came in PVC sleeves. The chemicals can leach right through paper or cardboard. Most of these I have replaced from Discogs. It's not just that the vinyl loses it's sheen, it has a disastrous effect on SQ too.
Some labels like PAN, for instance, use PVC outers with artwork on. Luckily, mine have been ok, because I have junked all of the paper inners, and the chemicals seem not to be able to penetrate Nagaoka or Mobile Fidelity sleeves.
The other maintenance issue worth remarking on, is the poor sound quality of some albums, particularly those that have sold a lot of copies. One example is 10cc - Bloody tourists; checking on Discogs, I find that there were 49 different versions for this on vinyl. Mine is a US, RCA Music Service Club Edition release. I'll have to look out for a better copy. Likewise, some of my earliest, treasured LP's have covers that have seen better days. Finding LP's, sleeves or inners to make up a better set is often pot luck. One such example was Warm Dust - And it came to pass, 2 x LP, 1970. This was one of the few records that I have managed to scratch; I can't remember what happened, but it ended up with a long scratch across side 4. One day, I was checking something out on Discogs, and I found a copy with a wrecked sleeve & wrecked disc 1, but disc 2 was VG+. The Russian seller couldn't believe that I wanted to buy it, and sent me a message asking me if I was sure that I wanted it! So, it made up a set that was worthwhile having.
I quite like the idea of putting my LP's in good quality outers; I've seen some on You Tube that are very good, though it will be quite expensive.
The other issue with 7" singles is that often, they don't get put back in the correct sleeve; this has been the case with a lot of singles that were given to me over the years. In cleaning these, I have put any that didn't have the correct sleeve into a good quality generic one; they are all in anti-static inners too. I have kept all of the sleeves that are in good condition, and at some point, I'll try to mate them with their matching record.
It's all good fun & it never ends; all part of the hobby!
Some labels like PAN, for instance, use PVC outers with artwork on. Luckily, mine have been ok, because I have junked all of the paper inners, and the chemicals seem not to be able to penetrate Nagaoka or Mobile Fidelity sleeves.
The other maintenance issue worth remarking on, is the poor sound quality of some albums, particularly those that have sold a lot of copies. One example is 10cc - Bloody tourists; checking on Discogs, I find that there were 49 different versions for this on vinyl. Mine is a US, RCA Music Service Club Edition release. I'll have to look out for a better copy. Likewise, some of my earliest, treasured LP's have covers that have seen better days. Finding LP's, sleeves or inners to make up a better set is often pot luck. One such example was Warm Dust - And it came to pass, 2 x LP, 1970. This was one of the few records that I have managed to scratch; I can't remember what happened, but it ended up with a long scratch across side 4. One day, I was checking something out on Discogs, and I found a copy with a wrecked sleeve & wrecked disc 1, but disc 2 was VG+. The Russian seller couldn't believe that I wanted to buy it, and sent me a message asking me if I was sure that I wanted it! So, it made up a set that was worthwhile having.
I quite like the idea of putting my LP's in good quality outers; I've seen some on You Tube that are very good, though it will be quite expensive.
The other issue with 7" singles is that often, they don't get put back in the correct sleeve; this has been the case with a lot of singles that were given to me over the years. In cleaning these, I have put any that didn't have the correct sleeve into a good quality generic one; they are all in anti-static inners too. I have kept all of the sleeves that are in good condition, and at some point, I'll try to mate them with their matching record.
It's all good fun & it never ends; all part of the hobby!