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From: mtorringa
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  • i know 16 rpm discs sounded lousy, but i bet they would still sound far better than the finest dvd audio disc

  • Sounds great - thank you!

  • 16 RPM records were intended to register narrative productions due that was no necesary high fidelity in solo-voice recordings but music requires more speed to register with accuracy, low and high frequencies, with the advent of cassetes wich can record for more time, the manufacturers of turntables abandoned the 16 RPM speed and they kept the 33 1/3, so it was pretty enough to fulfill the relationship between speed / frequencies issues and playtime.

  • Sounds great! thanks for the upload

  • Comment removed

  • Some 16 2/3 RPM records are 16 hours long. Question is, would those be considered early podasts? lol jk

  • this is neat!i was kind of wondering what a 16 2/3 record was like.with great sound like that,why they didn't sell well?

  • This guy is awesome. Such good quality

  • Love herb alpert

  • Музыка классная!

    Music is cool!

  • Truly unexpected find !. Till now I had only seen english courses on 16 rpm. Truly valuable video !

  • Too bad Seeburg couldn't get this quality sound on their 16-2/3 r.p.m. records.

  • Nive turntable, and that record sound amazingly well. Thenks for posting this!

  • Amazing, thanks for posting! I used to have a Garrard turntable in the 60's. It was part of a component system, and had no speaker of it's own. I also used to have 33's 45's and even 78's, and a 4-speed turntable, but I have never seen an actual 16 RPM record.

  • I suggest you play more songs from that album!

  • @wilkes85

    Hi Vince,i have another song from this album,and if you're

    searching on youtube for "winniefred attwell 16 rpm",you'll see it!

    Greetings from Holland:-)

    Marc

  • Most of the record players we had has this 16 rpm setting but this is the first record I ever heard in that format. We only had 45 rpm singles and 33 1/3 rpm LP's. It is odd to look at.

  • Apparently these 16s hold 40 minutes per side. Hot damn.

  • That is correct!

  • 16 rpm records can hold approximately 40-60 minutes per side.

    Actaully, the very last song on one side of a 16 rpm record sounds pretty good: watch?v=xYO7BZskko0

  • If a 12 inch 16 rpm record can hold 40-60 minutes per side, maybe a 16 inch record (used for radio transcriptions) can hold 90?

    Because 16 inch records are larger, the sound quality at 16rpm on the outer edge would probably be like that of a 12 inch at 33 1/3 rpm - I'm just guesting.

  • I was always of the belief that 16 2/3 rpm was only for spoken word recordings because it didn't have the frequency range for music although this sounds pretty good.

  • Hello!

    DOES ANYONE FIND THIS CREEPY? ...I MEAN HOW SLOW THE RECORD SPINS

  • I was shopping for a tape recorder in the late 1950s and one shop was selling a "Pye Record Maker" it used a magnetic disc running at 16 rpm with plug in heads for magnetic and normal discs

    Thanks for posting this video

  • probably a mono record. It would be interesting to see the dynamic range on this,

  • i LOVE this song.. there's a great consignment shop up the road from me but I couldn't find many Herb Alpert LP's of 45's. The ones I did didn't have this song.. But I picked up a 45 with "Flamingo" and "So What's New".. can't complain too much :)

  • Comment removed

  • My grandmother has one of those floor stereos from the 1970s and it had the 16 speed in addition to the 33, 45, & 78. But I didn't know what it was for.

  • what is the song's name?

  • @marianoperez86 "A Taste of Honey."

  • @wannawatchu66 thanks

  • @marianoperez86 Anytime!

  • 16 2/3 RPM was mainly used for transcription. i.e. The spoken word. There was a HiFi version made but it lost out to the Philips compact cassette at the time.

  • Was this record in stereo or mono?

  • Watching this turntable move is what i imagine quaaludes must have been like...lol

  • I still think 16 RPM should have been used more. Double LP sets could have been released on one 16 RPM disc! And about the sound quality; well this sounds damn good to me. The main reason why LPs sound like crap towards the end is because of people who don't think they need to ever replace the stylus. And people who never replace the stylus deserve the resulting sound quality and damage to their LPs anyway.

  • Now I have learned:

    1. They actually released music in 16rpm records, and didn't just use them for recording for the radio.

    2. Playing records that slow seems too slow to be natural...

    3. Herb Alpert really is rather cool.

  • Actually, radio transcription discs were 16 inches, not 16 rpm. The 16 rpm format was used mostly for spoken word records because the sound quality was worse than normal LPs.

  • @OldMusicOnVinyl1 Doesn't sound all that bad to me.

  • Quality is surprisingly good.

  • Wow, a great song and a rare opportunity to hear a 16rpm record! Great! Thanks a million! :D

  • I've never even seen a 16rpm record, how common are they?

  • I have a record of Billy May's Orchestra playing this.

  • catchy

  • Muito boa essa música.

  • The 16 rpm speed + quality is good.. But I'm going to have this song stuck in my head for quite some time. *Thump thump thump thump thump thump thump Buna dun. Dunna dun. Dun dun dun DAAAAAAA dee doo dun*. Very catchy.

  • A Taste of Honey, yeah stuck in my head, too

  • only rthing i could remeber having was readers digest books on 16 rpm records

  • I think 16 rpm disks were the same size as 78 rpms, so they held about the same as a 33 1/3 disk.

    78 rpms put so much physical energy into the needle that there was no need for electronic amplification - you could just attach the needle directly to a big horn and get a respectable volume. Once vac tubes & electronic speakers became affordable, high speed was no longer necessary, and 16 became possible.

    16 2/3 x 2 = 33 1/3. I don't know how 45 & 78 fit in. I bet patents were involved.

  • Are you sure 78 rpm are more 'energized rpm' than 45 33 or 16? I think NO, The Shellack Support (Oldies 78) needs more Speed because at more speed the friction noise is minor than a low speed. When the support becomes vinyl the speed was lowered to 45 33 and 16.

  • Actually, the reason for 78 speed is that back in the very early days of flat records (1900 or so) the commonly and cheaply available wind up motor just so happened to spin at around 80 rpms. 78 was developed as the standard a little bit later. 33 1/3 was developed in the 30s but didn't take off til later. 45 was RCA's answer to Columbia's 33. The RCA engineers were basically told to come up with any speed... 33+45=78. Interesting, huh? There's a great book that goes into detail about this

  • PJDooWop, can you say me what's the name of this book, i'm very interested in this matter. Tranks a lot !!!

  • The book is called Audio and Visual Systems - Principles, Maintenance and Troubleshooting by RG Gupta. Pages 78-87 go into great detail on the subject. You can preview the book (and these pages) for free on Google

  • Well it is basic physics - more speed = more energy to move the needle. It's not surprising that a thicker needle would be needed to deal with all the energy of a disk moving at 78 rpm. As for the RIAA curve, I don't know if there is any way to do that if your player is just a needle connected to a horn, so that would be why that was only done once electronic amps became the norm.

  • As far as the 78 goes, yes it exerted a lot of energy but that was due to the weight and reproducing mechanism more so than the speed. Another thing to consider is the RIAA curve. Bass frequencies are cut to about -20 db (or more) and high frequencies are boosted when the record is cut. When it is played back the opposite occurs within the pre amp. This is why acoustically recorded 78s sound like crap played on modern equipment.

    This wasn't taken into consideration until about 1926

  • Later gramophones don't need the big horns- my late grandma's one doesn't have a horn and even with so-called "soft tone" needles it's beeping loud!

  • yea the later gramophones had the horn built into the cabinet. I totally want one of those things, but they're litterally impossible to find lol

  • Been on eBay lately? I found a few models of gramophone, even a Japanese company that sells build-your-own kits new, but not sure exactly what you're after.

  • So can a 16 rpm hold more songs than a 33 1/3 rpm? Is it the same size?

  • I'm no expert, but from what I've could find, the "Super Long Playing" 16's were the same size as a standard LP (12 inches) but had about 30 minutes of playing time per side.

  • Yes, it can. The difference exists in the speed it is played back at. It is the same size as a normal 33 1/3 rpm LP.

  • What a beautiful turntable! I love all Garrard =]

  • an aunt of mine had this same LP. she lived in south africa for a while in the early 1970s.

  • 16 RPM records are rare?

  • Yes, indeed! In fact, most of them are spoken word records!

  • maybe the slow speed had less surface friction so the sound was better.that said this sounds great!

  • 16 RPM. It's a very strange speed I think. All my vinyl records are recorded at 45 or 33 1/2 RPM.

  • I like 78 rpm, for the oldies :-)

  • What good sound in 16-2/3rpm. one of the worse speed in LP due slowleeness...

  • gracias por mostrar 16rpm no conozco a los 16rpm

    solo 33,45 y 78rpm

  • I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 16 RPM record till I purchased an old Cabinet HiFi from Goodwill yesterday.

    I got a few Herb Albert LP's myself. My favorite has to be Whipped Cream & Other Delights, simply for the album artwork.

  • For those who haven't gone through all the old comments: The song is "A Taste Of Honey" By Herb Alpert and the Tijuana. It was a major hit in the USA in the fall of 1965 (especially among adults), and won the "Record Of The Year" Grammy award that year. 16 2/3 RPM records saw very limited use in the US. LP (33 1/3) phonographs were already ubiquitous in the US, but 16's did see use in a mobile record player (which did not sell well) and talking book records.

  • I wonder what the last track at the end of this side sounds at 16 rpm.

  • It probably sounds awfully distorted.

  • Actually sounds pretty good. watch?v=xYO7BZskko0

  • This song is so great. i heard at a red mango and i cant remember the name. can you refresh my memory?

  • "A Taste of Honey" by Herb Alpert.

  • @OldMusicOnVinyl1 cheers :P

  • what about an album at 8 rpm that would be even better

  • Your Garrard is a very sexy turntable! 

    Like others here, I cannot understand why 16's never got traction as a preferred format - the audio quality seems to be very good, especially considering the audio equipment available at the time. 42 years old, and I've yet to ever lay eyes on a real 16 rpm record, and I've looked earnestly. Sure I could just buy one off the internet, but where's the excitement in that? Hehe :P

    Great post! ^.^

  • Sears carried them in the 1960s only for talking books, though. I never saw one until now. I used to play 33s and 45s at 16 rpm, but that's another story in itself.

  • I'm with Trance88 I never see a 16 RPM record and I have been looking all the time. They sound pretty darn good and can give hours of music. Thanks for the post. I don't why they were not made more common.

  • Groovy tune. I've never seen a 16 RPM record in person. Nice turntable for sure!

  • the turntable itself is a rim drive and has a motor assembly/rim drive very similar to the Garrard 301 and 401...which are highly expensive these days...the only real drawback is the tonearm and some low level rumble.. but if you mount the whole thing on a large enough thick wooden plinth(which stops the rumble) you can mount a second tonearm on the other side or back and have a really good turntable set up.

  • Of course it's impossible to tell with YouTube audio, but it doesn't seem to sound all that awful. I only recall hearing one 16rpm vinyl that sounded like ass! :-) Great vintage Garrard you have. Thanks for posting.

  • I also own a Garrad 4HF on the same base it looks great and sounds great too, and im restoring a second unit too.

    Nice Video thanks for putting it on here to show

  • I've never actually seen a 16-2/3 rpm record before. It looks like it's crawling! I'm surprised the audio quality is as good as it is.

  • Out of curiousity ... what's the name of this song? It's insanely catchy!

    By the way ... 16 rpm discs are supposed to have low fidelity - but this one sounds pretty good!

  • The name of the song is "A Taste Of Honey"

  • Thanks so much for this video. You got me to listening to Herb Alpert! I can't believe what I've been missing all these years!

  • Love it!

  • That's Herb, all right! I know the difference between the "Tijuana Brass" and their many "sound-alikes", 'Chris'...the "Fiesta Brass" NEVER sounded this polished!

  • I love this song! Thanks for sharing!

  • In response to Circle 61, I have a few RCA Victor LPs of Mancini and Paul desmond, which boast of eliminating the inner groove distortion, period. These were made around 1963, and they are the best sounding records that I own.

  • This is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass? It sounds more like the Fiesta Brass. In fact, it sound exactly like the Feista Brass recording of "A Taste of Honey" off of their album "Viva Tijuana."

    Hmm...

  • It's Herb Albert. I Have his Whipped Cream Album and it sounds exactly the same as this song.

  • Try Herb Alpert!

  • I believe that faster, better sound quality. 45 rpm discs can be heard much better than those of 33 rpm, but not those of 78 rpm, as other material.

  • It would be interesting to hear the sound quality of the inner tracks compared to the outter tracks of that speed. On some of my 33rpm records that stuff songs up close towards the center limits, the sound quality of those inner tracks can sound crappy compared to the outter tracks.

  • In Colombia there are'nt longplays from 16 rpm

  • Equally in Peru, it happens the same.

  • whoa man that's awesome!!! I never seen a 16 RPM album; I've heard very little about them. I've also never seen a record player with the 16 RPM speed either. AWESOME!!! Records of this speed would really come in handy for 2 album sets. it would be good for both the manufacturer and the consumer. If they sound a little bad, that's OK, because [in my experience anyway] 45s all sound like absolute crap.

  • This song "A Taste of Honey" was very popular in the early 1960's - the Beatles also did a cover of it.

    A turntable that played at 16 speed was very hard to find back then as most popular models played the 3 standard speeds of 33-45-78.

  • wow my parents still have this same exact turntable!!its the last piece of technology they ever bought :)

  • whoops! Thanks intersonus! As a stereo buff AND Mac user, I should know better! Sucks getting old.

    Isnt it interesting that we listen to highly compressed music in real life, but long for analog and have to watch what we USED to have thru a tiny little 2" x 2" window, with audio thats even more compressed. Respect for those who have real analog at home!

    jon

  • This is simply NOT true! You cannot compress a vinyl recording that extreme way as you can do this with digital (pop) recordings, otherweise the needle would pop out of the record!

    GLADLY THAT IS THE PHYSICAL LIMITATION!!! Imagine they had the possibility to destroy music that insane way in vinyl times! NO!

  • Very cool, especially considering that the first song on a 16 RPM has the same fidelity as the last song on a 33 RPM - but I'll bet the last song on that 16 RPM sounded pretty bad! Thanks for running the audio direct so I could hear how it really sounded - great job!

  • I really liked that tune.

    I have one of the last Magnavox consoles with 16 speed but no 16 speed records.

    I do have several 33,45 and and 78's.

  • ...In addition, that Garrard is in beautiful condition - if there were any idlers worn, etc, you'd hear the "wow" (wavering), but it is rock solid- a great piece of American industrial engineering, and in great shape. And how about that sweet, fat analog sound! Play THIS thru a Macintosh amp and a pair of klipschorns - bada-BOOM!

  • Garrard was English.

    McIntosh (not to be confused with Macintosh) is American (technically Japanese as it's owned by Denon and Marantz Holdings but McIntosh is still made the same way as before in the U.S.).

    And, of course Klipsch is also American.

  • there were 2 kinds of record "plastic"- a styrene blend, and vinyl. The styrene was stiffer, wouldnt bend/flex as easily, and was notorious for surface noise. Virgin vinyl was blacker, glossier, and more pliable, and very silent-no needle noise. 16 rpm really shows surface noise during quiet passages. Judging by how amazingly clean this lp sounds, my guess is that it was pressed on virgin vinyl.

  • In Italy this song was used to introduce "Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto", in English: "All football -or soccer if u're American- minute per minute", a popular transmission of Radio RAI. What is the name of the song?

    BTW, compliments for this rare and very good record :)

  • Hi Cayman,thanks for posting and for the compliments:-)

    The name of this song is:A taste of honey,and it was a big hit in 1965.

    Grtz,

    Marc

  • One side of a 16RPM is about two sides of 33RPM. A double LP (33 RPM, four sides) is on a single record (two sides) in 16RPM.

  • I'll bet it's extremely hard to find a 16rpm player!

  • well actuly not many record players from the 50-60s have the 16rpm speed i have a old RCA from the 50s that has 78, 45, 33, and 16 rpm that i did get for cheap at

    a flea market.

  • It's pretty weird to have a video of a record being played... but I think it's cool.

    I had a 16RPM record when I was a little kid. I think it was 10" and it had spoken stories for little kids.  I was always amazed at how long it would play.

  • A Taste of Honey from the album "Whipped Cream ... and other Delights"

  • WOW! I have a Herb Alpert LP called Viva Mexico but 33. I've never seen a 16, I have to show this to my dad! If you're dutch, bedankt!! That's the only word I know in dutch though... Are 16 rpm mono or stereo?

  • This music is pretty neat.

  • Same here - in over 50 years of collecting, I've never come across a 16rpm record. Great stuff! John.

  • Amazing analog recording is the best!!!!

  • Unbelievable sound! Considering it was recorded, pressed to vinyl, re-amplified on a record player with a needle, and then uploaded digitally, compressed and made into flash, then sent to me via a dsl phoneline, I'd say that sounds F*CKING PERFECT! And they said records wouldn't survive the test of time? LOL (PS: Despite the experts, CDs DO SKIP!)

  • That is pretty much the same thing I said (about the sound), and it a 16 2/3 RPM record which sounds as good as a 33 1/3 RPM record. They did say records wouldn't survive, but they were wrong. Not to mention CDs age too :-)

  • Cool, someone has a 16 2/3RPM record like me. i got A 16 2/3 story single baried in 1000 records i have. Mybe i will find again someday. Awsome video, LOL.

  • Someone told me that the 16 RPM record shown in the videeo and that we're listening to, is actually a bootleg. I believe him.

  • The Beatles did a version of this song.

  • Maybe I'm showing my age, but I've repaired quite a few turntables in my time that were capable of playing 16 RPM records (they were all 4 speeds (16, 33, 45 and 78 of course), but I've never actually seen nor heard a 16 RPM record before. Impressive!

  • I pretty much said the same thing. After doing research, I read that the record on the Voyager spacecraft was cut @ 16 2/3 RPM. Nonetheless, like I said, it sounds as good as a 33 1/3 version.

  • Song is called Taste of Honey

  • I love this tune. I use to listen to it as a kid. CD's are missing the extra harmonics that albums had.

  • OMG, the sound is as good on a 33.3 RPM version of this song.

  • Very nice. And what you (WinterHaven) have said about vinyl is so true. CDs sound as if they are lacking sounds heard on vinyl recordings.

  • Actually the quality of this record is BETTER than a CD. Digital signals break music to binary code and sometimes cannot comprehend tiny nuances that records-the recordings and reproduction of actual SOUND WAVES (a remarkable invention when you think of it)--that old fashioned records can get because they are actual recordings of the sound waves and not binary representations of them. If you get what I mean.

  • WOW!!!! 16 rmp? That's ultra rare. Actually the quality is quite excellent. I wish I had a record player like yours. I have a lot of 78s and I LOVE THEM!!!! I LOVE OLD RECORDS!!!!

  • Thanks for the info. I had always heard that most 16rpm were radio broadcast sent overseas for American military radio or something, the idea being that they could put on many hours of programming easily. I once met a guy who's limo had an old Teac reel-to-reel deck. He'd record stuff at slow speed and the music would play for many hours, cool!

  • From what I've heard,16rpm record tend to be of lo-fi but its not the case from what I can here this video. The quality is rather decent.

  • Any 16 RPM dealers on eBay? I'd love to add some to my vinyl collection!

  • Not sure if there are true 'dealers' but I've found a limited selection there before.

  • sounds as good if not better than a cd

  • At that speed it is probably MP3 quality.

  • I just put this video in my favourites. This is the first time I have seen a 16 rpm record playing.

  • this would be my first time actually seeing a 16.66 rpm record ever before

  • wow! this would be the very first time ive ever seen a 16.66 rmp before.

  • I heard the 16 RPM record has bad quality.

    Is it true or not?

    (Sorry, sometimes I have bad english because I'm from Hungary :) )

  • It all depended on the record label. I had some that sounded great and others not so. Not like today.

  • 16obr super jakość!!!

  • WOW! I have NEVER watched a 16rpm record in action. And I never thought they put music on 16's, just audiobooks. Interesting. Five stars and favorited!

  • I had a 16 rpm long play from the 50's. What I got in time I lost in quality. Anyway, the sound of this album is very good. Have you ever made a research for the value of this album ? Great song ! "A Taste of Honey" with Tijuana Brass.

  • Sweet

    ;)

  • Great for first time in my life i see something like that. Anyway,did you know that recording songs 16 2/3 rpm can not record high frequences because they are just "overwritten".

  • Wow I never knew there were any records realased at 16rpm. I could never understand why record decks had that speed on them as there were never any records of that speed in the UK.

  • How long this record?

  • Hi hellblazer,i think this record is totally (a+b side)

    between 75 and 80 minutes.On each side there are 15 numbers!

  • If 16 RPM records were normally THAT long, then why didn't they ever really take off?? That's as long as some CD's running time! Would think you'd get more bang for your buck with a 16 record. Thoughts?

  • There was some loss in fidelity at very low speeds, so the few 16 rpms that were produced were usually spoken word productions.

  • Most spoken word records or "talking books" for the blind were pressed on 10" records which played at 8 1/3 RPM! My grandmother, who was legally blind, listened to them on a special phonograph especially made for playing spoken word records. These special low speed record players had only 2 speeds: 8 1/3 and 16 2/3 RPM.

  • Yes, that sounds like the record players issued by the US Library of Congress back before the 1980s for the visually impaired. They later phased those out with a special cassette player instead, that played back LoC-issued cassettes at 15/16 ips (as opposed to cassette's standard 1 7/8 ips), as well as using 4 separate monaural tracks (each selectable for listening on the player) on a cassette to extend its length even more...

  • I saw one for sale at Goodwill, it was in a small plastic green suitcase housing, but was missing the cartridge in the tonearm. It said 'property of the U.S. Government' or something like that, specifically made for the blind. It had a built-in speaker and only 16 2/3 & 33 1/3 speeds to choose from.

  • That was REAL interesting!!! Who Else was on that album???

  • I only knew 78 rpm,the heavy ones,33 1/3 and 45 rpm records

  • I also have a 16rpm album from Jim Reeves (made in South Africa on the RCA label)

    But 16 rpm album's are very hard to find!

  • I'll say... I have 15000+ records and only two of them are 16 2/3 RPM.

  • So simple but its music makes me remind my youth and the firs time I saw a nude woman it was unforgetable.

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