Luxurious new inner sleeves

garylkoh · Oct 23, 2013

The moment I laid eyes on these, I had to get some. During RMAF, I cornered Todd Garfinkle in his room before the show started and managed to get 20 sleeves from him. Since then, I've bought 200 pieces, and I'm re-sleeveing my best vinyl after I re-clean them on the Klaudio ultrasonic record cleaner. I currently use a mix of sleeves from Mobile Fidelity, Nagaoka, QRP, and SleeveCity.

These new ones feel absolutely luxurious, and I'm sure that being softer and slipperier they also coddle my LPs more. Todd is a good friend and frequently gives me free recordings and his test pressing discards, so take this next statement with a bit of salt - I think that these are the best sleeves possible for my valuable LPs - bar none. They breathe and won't trap humidity so I think that they would work far better than all my existing sleeves especially considering that Seattle currently is fog-bound all day.

Todd has now set up a website to sell them here: http://lpinnersleeve.com/

Bruce B · Oct 23, 2013

They look like a woven Tyvek

MylesBAstor · Oct 23, 2013

Have some here and just writing them up for PFO.

garylkoh · Oct 23, 2013

Bruce B said:
They look like a woven Tyvek

It feels softer than Tyvek and is not as tear resistant. Todd explained that it is a combination of two different fibers. It reminds me of the original rice-paper sleeves from the early '80s but it is a lot tougher. Todd said that one of his key requirements was that it wouldn't dissolve in water, shed fibers, and be tear resistant enough that dropping an album into the sleeve would not result in the album falling out the other side - all problems with the real rice-paper.

MoFi's "rice paper sleeves" are not made of rice paper!!

XV-1 · Oct 24, 2013

Are you sure Gary

IMO, anything woven like that will eventually break down and do worse to your beloved LP's.

Plain simple plastic round bottom inner sleeves work perfectly and have for 30 years now. The Covers33 poly lined curved paper sleeves (the ones used on Speakers Corner lp's) are great for lp's that do not have the cardboard lyric sheet

mofi, nagaoka and alike are a waste of $$ imo - YMMV

garylkoh · Oct 24, 2013

Only time will tell.....

I don't like paper because the fibers are sharp enough to scratch acrylic. I manufacture a 6-foot tall loudspeaker made of acrylic. Wipe it with a paper towel and it leaves a haze behind. Wipe it with this material, or soft cloth and it shines. I learned many years ago not to try to use a paper towel to shine a car!

While I like to keep the inner sleeves from old albums if they have printing, lyrics, etc. I change out every paper sleeve.

hvbias · Oct 24, 2013

I don't think the paper used in Mofi, QRP, Bags Unlimited sleeves is abrasive. I did a test a few years ago- I took a new 180g LP that was defective (noisy) and inserted it and removed it from a Bags Unlimited Mofi knock off sleeve many times. Using the super bright fluorescent lights in my basement I couldn't see any marks on the vinyl surface. Those lights will make Ebay sellers graded NM records look VG.

On the hand I think the cheap paper sleeves that resemble basic office A4 paper can leave superficial marks on the vinyl (just a theory, I have not tested it). But there are a group of people that think these are the safest sleeves long term since they are the least likely to cause chemical reactions with the vinyl surface.

MylesBAstor · Oct 24, 2013

hvbias said:
But there are a group of people that think these are the safest sleeves long term since they are the least likely to cause chemical reactions with the vinyl surface.

But that's not correct either because of the chemicals/acids used in the treatment of the pulp.

garylkoh · Oct 24, 2013

No, the paper used in Mofi, QRP, etc. sleeves are just to add stiffness to the plastic bag, so are under the inside layer of plastic. So, they will not touch the LP at all. I started moving to the 4-layer version from SleeveCity that have paper on both sides, and the paper is die-cut so that you can read the label. However, I just love the feel of these new sleeves by Todd. It's a sensuous thing. Take it as my subjective preference I am sharing, not an objective measure.

XV-1 · Oct 24, 2013

garylkoh said:
Only time will tell.....

I don't like paper because the fibers are sharp enough to scratch acrylic. I manufacture a 6-foot tall loudspeaker made of acrylic. Wipe it with a paper atowel and it leaves a haze behind. Wipe it with this material, or soft cloth and it shines. I learned many years ago not to try to use a paper towel to shine a car!

While I like to keep the inner sleeves from old albums if they have printing, lyrics, etc. I change out every paper sleeve.

Agreed, paper sleeves are the worst. I guess lp manufacturer's still use them as it is part of the automated packing process?

lasercd · Oct 24, 2013

The sleeves I really don't like are the premium pink tinged polyethylene sleeves from RTI. They seem to leave a bit of "bag rash" on the vinyl.

Johnny Vinyl · Oct 24, 2013

lasercd said:
The sleeves I really don't like are the premium pink tinged polyethylene sleeves from RTI. They seem to leave a bit of "bag rash" on the vinyl.

I actually like those a lot and have not found there to be any issues.

Johnny Vinyl · Oct 24, 2013

From looking at the pics on Todd's site it looks like they are an extremely tight fit. Also, do you know if they have a lip on those sleeves (one side shorter than the other ).

garylkoh · Oct 24, 2013

Johnny Vinyl said:
From looking at the pics on Todd's site it looks like they are an extremely tight fit. Also, do you know if they have a lip on those sleeves (one side shorter than the other ).

I think that the sleeves are just barely small enough to fit easily into the jacket, but large enough for the album. I haven't had a problem using them - but I've only re-sleeved about 40 albums so far.

There is a slight lip (see pic below) which makes it easier to put an album in than the thin Nagaoka un-lined sleeves.

I need to get Todd to come here again and answer these questions

Johnny Vinyl · Oct 24, 2013

Thanks for that pic...it tells the story of the questions I asked. Seems like like is enough room to easily insert an album, and thankfully they have a lip as well. Not only is it easier to insert an album when you have that lip to assist you , but it's also easier to find the open side IMO.

carolkoh · Oct 24, 2013

I was sooo disappointed. It was a record shaped box. It was from MA recordings. *cue air of excitement* When I opened it, it was record sleeves.

Johnny Vinyl · Oct 24, 2013

carolkoh said:
I was sooo disappointed. It was a record shaped box. It was from MA recordings. *cue air of excitement* When I opened it, it was record sleeves.

Haha!

Bruce B · Oct 24, 2013

carolkoh said:
I was sooo disappointed. It was a record shaped box. It was from MA recordings. *cue air of excitement* When I opened it, it was record sleeves.

Digital files don't fit into record sleeves!

garylkoh · Oct 24, 2013

Bruce B said:
Digital files don't fit into record sleeves!

She was hoping for the final production versions of all those test pressings I got from Todd

Great music on this Sera una Noche LP.

MA Recordings · Oct 25, 2013

Bruce B said:
They look like a woven Tyvek

Hi Bruce and sorry for the silence.

You are NOT the first person to make that observation. It is true that one of the two fibers is the same as in Tyvek: Polyethylene. The other is PET. I do not know what % of each is being used. My manufacturer purchases the material in very large rolls, cuts and forms them with laser optics according to my specs. The same manufacturer used to make something similar for Laser Discs (see image)

from one substance only. To the best of my knowledge, it is less common to find a blend of materials, but I cannot give you a reason why. I am sure there must be one. The material used in the sleeves is exactly the same used in modern Japanese Shoji Screens and on windows. It is of course, much stronger than paper, will not fade and deteriorate from sunlight as will real rice paper. Because of this, one would think that it would maintain its characteristics inside an LP jacket where no sunlight exists......

Thanks!

todd

Luxurious new inner sleeves

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