What is a Dynaflex record?

Have you ever picked up a vinyl record and thought “this is way too light and bendy to be real”?

Well, you may just have been holding what’s known as a Dynaflex record. These special types of records were the brainchild of the record label RCA in the late 1960s and were created to be a cheaper, more efficient alternative to regular vinyl-pressed records.

 

Throughout the 1960s, the cost of producing vinyl records was skyrocketing – namely due to the massive increase in demand for more ‘portable’ music, but also because of oil prices at the time, as vinyl records are oil-based products after all.

RCA as a label and company were all too aware of this and wanted to do something about it. So, they created their much thinner, lighter, and cost-effective alternative by starting from scratch with their manufacturing technique. They concentrated their production formula so that records could be produced using much less vinyl material, resulting in substantially thinner pressings. The benefits of producing records this way just kept on coming…

Image by getgoa on Wikipedia

Reduced shipping costs, less area needed for storage, and saving money in production all kept RCA happy with how their new operation was going – that is until public opinion began to become divided. The quality of Dynaflex as a product is debated by record lovers to this day, as many discredit it as a viable method of listening to music due to its generally poorer audio quality and lack of long-term durability.

RCA knew full well that Dynaflex would never outright replace the original, comparatively heavier vinyl pressings – and so continued to manufacture ‘regular’ records on the side of the Dynaflex project whilst simultaneously sounding out public opinion. It was this decision that led some audiophiles to believe that RCA had released Dynaflex solely as a cost-cutting measure, without giving enough care and attention to the quality of the pressings; despite the label arguing to the contrary.

These days, Dynaflex records are something of a collector’s item, with production having been subtly halted by RCA in the late 70s. Albums from the likes of Elvis and David Bowie continue to be bought in their Dynaflex form from fans all over the world, although whether the people buying them today are doing so for the audio quality or the flexible novelty of the record will continue to be a mystery.

 

The term ‘Dynawarp’ was coined by some Dynaflex owners throughout the mid-’70s, in reference to how apparently easy it was for these bendy records to permanently warp out of shape. Some owners even claimed that their Dynaflex records would begin bending whilst in their original, unopened shrink-wrapped packaging!

See also: RCA, RCA Victor