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Is There a New Record Pressing Machine Out There?

I bought Wilco's newest Album "Cousin" yesterday and noticed something I have never seen before, the record has no lip. The label area remains raised but otherwise the record is dead flat. It is a very heavy record, probably 200 gm. I believe records had the lip to prevent the tonearm from floating off the edge with changers which were way more popular than manuals back in the 40s, 50s and early 60's. With manuals the flat record is easier to cue by hand. 

128x128mijostyn
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,222 posts
 

Another new one. Now what about lathes!

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,454 posts
 

The "no lip" LP is called a "flat profile", and was introduced back when Classic Records was in business. At least that is my understanding.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,222 posts
 

@bdp24 I recently recorded to hard drive the Classic Records 45 RPM Led Zeppelin box set. I do not recall the records having a flat profile, but maybe that came along after the set was published. There is an advantage to the flat profile and that is the record is nicer to cue manually. The stylus falls into the groove without skipping down the lip which sounds annoying. Since none of us use changers anymore the flat profile makes sense. The size of your mat would not matter either. 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,454 posts
 

I don't know for a fact, but VPI's choice to make their platters 11.5" in diameter may have been to prevent the lips of LP's to raise the outer portion of the groove (each LP side contains only one long groove) off the platter. 

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,222 posts
 

@bdp24 They are not the only ones that do that. The Mat on my Sota is 11.5" in diameter for just that reason. Beyond that is the soft lip which forms the seal when vacuum is running.

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