I recently discovered a label called business casual. Founded in 2013, they first specialized in Vaporwave but have since expanded to include a variety of electronic genres and styles. And they love to release their albums on cassette. I'm starting to focus more on that format since deciding to ditch vinyl, so I jumped on the sale and ordered a handful of tapes and a CD.

• Broadcasts by Sonnig 991 & Simple Syrup
• Twin Palms by GammaFlow
• Jewel in the Crown by Bart Graft
• In Place Of Power by Full Eclipse
• Lake Hiareth by Ghostmemory
• Rainbow Smears by maggie.wav

I also bought digital versions of a couple albums from Farfalla Records, a French label specializing in 70s and 80s Library music.

• Occhio Occhio by Eleven76
• Heatwaves by Pleasurewood

These are the first albums I've bought from either label and I look forward to exploring them.

I actually had to pare down my original cart for business casual – lots of interesting albums there.

I'll be playing the physical media on my Twitch stream hopefully soon.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 115) #music #libraryMusic #vaporwave #synthwave #electronicMusic #Bandcamp #physicalMedia #cassette #compactDisc

The seller said the CD player and cassette deck powered on, but hadn't been tested, and the receiver didn't power on. I offered $40 and he accepted. I figured if either the CD player or tape deck worked, it'd be worth it.

After bringing them home, I confirmed the receiver is dead. And neither of the players in the tape deck work.

The CD player works great. It's a model PD-5700, a couple years older than my other Pioneer CD player PD-102. They look similar, but have different button layouts. I will use both players for my Twitch stream. Now I can alternate between them and even do some radio-style DJ sets with them if I want to, playing specific tracks from CDs in my collection.

I was really hoping the tape deck would work, as the single cassette Sony player I'm using only sounds good playing tapes in the reverse direction. I have another deck in my closet that works and sounds ok, but it has a bit of interference noise that bugs me. It's also silver and doesn't fit with the style of the other equipment, which is black.

I don't know enough about electronics to attempt repairs myself, so I found a local electronics repair place. Their website says they repair audio equipment and consumer electronics, so I'm going to contact them and see if they will even look at these old systems. If so, and I feel their rates are fair, I might take a chance and see if they can get the tape deck and receiver working again. It'd be a shame to scrap them.

Mostly, I just hoped to have some redundancy in place if any part of my current HiFi stack failed. It's getting harder and harder to find good quality vintage HiFi components for cheap.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 109) #music #retro #nostalgia #hobbies #physicalMedia

Vinyl is Toxic

I knew vinyl should be kept out of landfills – that's one reason I justified collecting it. But after recently discovering a video by Ben Jordan from six years ago, I learned how toxic vinyl is to the air you breathe and how, with a few exceptions, the modern vinyl industry makes records pretty much the same way they have always been made.

You can watch the video on PeerTube or YouTube.

There is a lot of good info in the video, like what exactly vinyl is and why the vinyl in records is toxic. But the part of the video that really sealed the deal for me was when he got an industrial air quality monitor and stuck it next to a turntable. It showed that alarming levels of toxic particulates and gasses are released by vinyl records when they are played or even just handled.

It may just be a coincidence, but my allergies have been getting worse over the last two years, and wouldn't you know it, I started collecting vinyl records two years ago. At the very least, it's not helping. But this is just one of a few reasons I made this decision.

Vinyl is Expensive

Out of vinyl, compact discs, and cassette tapes, vinyl is the most expensive format. Of course it depends on the title. I've seen some rare CDs that are going for hundreds of dollars. But I've seen rare vinyl going for thousands.

New vinyl goes for $30-$50+ while new CDs go for around $15-$20. For the sake of my wallet, I'm focusing on CDs and tapes from now on.

Vinyl is Big

It takes up a lot of space and it's heavy. I can store 50-60 vinyl record albums in an IKEA Kallax shelf cube. But I can fit 120+ CD album jewel cases in the same space. By collecting CDs and tapes I can essentially double the amount of music I can store in my limited space.

Vinyl is Great and I'll Miss It

Despite all of this, it's difficult to give it up. I love each physical format for its unique quirks. Vinyl provides a delightful, intentional listening experience. Digging crates, and spinning and flipping records is something I will miss. But CDs have always been my favorite physical format for music and it just makes sense for me to focus on that again.

And so I've been sending vinyl mailers to my vinyl streaming friends on Twitch. I've also been taking stacks of 20 records at a time to trade in for store credit at my favorite record store and taking home twice as many CDs. It'll take a while to get rid of them, but I think it's a move that makes sense for me.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 104) #retro #physicalMedia #music #hobbies

Topics of Focus

#faith – thoughts related to my religion #tech – self explanatory

Other Topics

#100DaysToOffload #accessories #AI #automobiles #Bandcamp #books #business #cassette #charity #Christianity #Christmas #ChurchOfJesusChrist #climate #community #compactDisc #contention #COVID19 #decentralization #DigitalMinimalism #economy #electronicMusic #EveryDayCarry #eWaste #family #FOSS (free-as-in-freedom and open source software) #friends #gratitude #haiku #health #hobbies #HomeOffice #humor #intentionism #internet #laptop #LessConvenient #libraryMusic #life #Linux #loneliness #media #meditation #mentalHealth #misc #movies #music #news #nostalgia #physicalMedia #planning #poetry #politics #privacy #prophets #retro #smartphones #SocialMedia #synthwave #travel #TV #Twitch #unity (not the game engine) #Utah #vaporwave #writing