16 rpm-The forgotten vinyl speed!

[Ian Thompson]

16 rpm — the forgotten vinyl speed • DJWORX

Vinyl comes in all speeds and sizes, and while the numbers 7, 10, 12, 33, 45, and 78 are still popular, what about 16? Do you remember it? I do vaguely.

djworx.com

Can anyone remember the long forgotten 16 rpm vinyl speed on your old record players/gramophones maybe and ever wondered what that 16 rpm vinyl record speed was for and what records where played at that speed. Maybe you knew or didn’t as that was the case for me. I didn’t know and records at that speed I never saw record in any shops during the period of the 1950’s/1960’s period. But with the advent of the internet and googling it has been possible to find such information. And I found out years ago through googling and of course the internet. Hope the link works!

 

[Ian Thompson]

The Elusive 16 RPM Record | OneTubeRadio.com

Another article i found via the internet. As the speed 16 rpm had always been a mystery to me. As for over 20 years that rpm speed was on lots of record players during the two decades mentioned by me in my first post in this thread. And also none of my relatives or friends during those two decades had any idea as well. So again I hope this link works!

 

[Ian Thompson]

And I found this 16 rpm vinyl record by Herb Alpert who was a well known musician from the 1960’s including getting into the top 20 during the 1960’s.

 

[nvingo]

Can anyone remember the long forgotten 16 rpm vinyl speed on your old record players/gramophones

We had two music systems in the 1970s that dad bought from Pye staff shop; one was a single piece deck/tuner/amp that had 33/45.
The other by Ecko which we had the separate tuner, amplifier and deck, had 16/33/45/78 rpm selectable by a four-position switch. We now inherited some 78s but the deck was long passed on - never had any 16s.

 

[Laureline]

I believe 16rpm was largely for spoken word.

The slower the rpm the longer a record plays for but the poorer the sound quality.

So Plays or Audio Books (particularly Audio Books for the blind) could be put on a 16rpm record

 

[Ian Thompson]

I believe 16rpm was largely for spoken word.

The slower the rpm the longer a record plays for but the poorer the sound quality.

So Plays or Audio Books (particularly Audio Books for the blind) could be put on a 16rpm record

And I’ve just found this short video of an extract from one of those 16 rpm talking books. Also I found out there where audio books on 16 rpm speed for the bible. These audio books on 16 rpm where for those who as you said had very poor sight and long before the internet. There where also a few music rarities as above in the link on an earlier post of mine by Herb Alpert

 

[Ian Thompson]

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Adult rock, Americana, classic rock, country, 60s oldies, and more

bloggerhythms.blogspot.com

This gives some detail of the audio 16 rpm vinyl records from the 1950’s/1960’s period.