Clear vinyl vs. regular black vinyl

Hi Sokogear
We heard the revived Steely Dan in the Sporting Club Monaco, a very intimate venue, some 15?? years ago.  It was a great concert.

My wife flew to London the next morning and the Dan were in the lounge.  Fagen was sitting with the girl singers and my wife went over and thanked him for the concert.  He was very outgoing and they talked for some minutes.  It is well known he and Becker had fallen out bigtime a long while before.  Presumably the concerts were just a commercial thing.  Becker spent the whole time sitting in a corner by himself with his coffee.  Pity.

@clearthinker - It was revived a while before that, but of course the smaller the venue, the better.

I went to Fagen's book signing (interesting book) a few years back and he wasn't the warmest and fuzziest when he was leaving. I asked him if he'd take a quick photo and he just shook his head to walk towards a car waiting for him. No manager, entourage or even assistant. He just acted like a regular Joe.

In his interview, he complained about how he's been ripped off so many times, which may have to do with the lack or reissues on Royal Scam and Pretzel Logic. 

Becker had a pretty tough life and got into drugs big time in the nineties. He had a hot and cold relationship with Donald, but they continued as business partners, and I believe had involvement with some of each others solo projects.

2020 was the first year I didn't see him at least once in quite a while. Hopefully he wants to get back on stage soon, and luckily I am not too far from NY where he lives, so he can play a gig (usually does 2 or 3) down here in Philly ASAP.

@Clearthinker said: "Clear vinyl started off as a gimmick. Does anyone have evidence that its make-up confers advantage over the black recipe with carbon? The few I have don’t sound better."


I have various "audiophile" records from the ’60s that used clear vinyl. When Classic Records was still in operation, there was a fair amount of written material M. Hobson posted claiming that the conductive properties of carbon black interfered with the sound, and that the Clarity compound eliminated that as a factor. This was at a time when Classic was having trouble pressing 200 g records at RTI and moved to that Finebuilt press. Most of that material disappeared from the web a year or two after Classic folded.
I could hear a difference between the Quiex and the Clarity, but not something that would be determinative for me. I have records from the low point in vinyl in the U.S.- thin pressings on Segue Records for example, of Nathan Davis after his return to the States--that sound marvelous.
I think it is real tough to determine what role the compound itself plays in the final product, but we have almost no control over that- occasionally, with new-ish records, you can opt for a non-US pressing over a U.S. one that comes from a iffy plant, but for older records, you are pretty much at the mercy of whatever they did back in the day. Most of the older records I listen to were never marketed as "audiophile" and many of them sound superb-- you can hear the ambience of the room where recorded, and surface noise is minimal. Obviously, the big variable, apart from mastering and pressing quality, is condition.