The Quality of New Vinyl.

kavanafl

Has anyone noticed a variance in the quality of new vinyl releases lately? In the last month I have purchased a number of new items shrink wrapped from various retailers including Amazon US, and a variety of shops. This is all virgin vinyl, but the quality of the product is poor on a few of them. Sleeve's with bad folds, centre hole not quite big enough, a few warps, and particles to beat the band back in the groove.

I saw a review of a chap recently stateing he purchases internal poly pockets for his LP's when he unpacks them, and I thought he was a bit anal, but I think i will be following his advice.

The best quality of the recent purchases is The War On Drugs. Very clean and well put together. You noticed the difference in quality paper, and card.

lewisdhead

It can be a bit hit or miss, although I have been lucky, or else I can't tell the difference. Nothing I bought recently has been really poor. I bought on Record Store Day last year Husker Du-Candy Apple Grey, it was poor. Music On Vinyl re-issues are generally good, Rhino too(although they did Husker Du). Not an expert but some re-issues are just digital files transferred to vinyl, but new artist releases should be mastered for vinyl.

With the upsurge in Vinyl sales, a big problem is quality control. There isn't enough pressing plants and the ones going are running flat out. One in Germany apparently runs 24/7. Presses are at full capacity and if they break down repair parts are not easy to find. Investment will be needed to buy new presses, but I'm not sure sales are at that height yet to justify the investment, a bit of a dilemma for pressing plants.

All that said, I love vinyl. I do still buy cd's and I'm not a snob or a vinyl purist. Only thing I will say is try buy local or at least at an independent record shop. I buy at Rollercoaster Records in Kilkenny or Ben O'Neills in Dungarvan Waterford.:cool:

noby

Lewis is spot on. For re-releases especially, the label can tell a lot. I don't have it to hand, but someone compiled a list on another forum of the reccommended ones. Do a search for it. From memory the likes of MOV, Sony Legacy Rhino etc. are usually good. Others, like Plain etc. just master from digital files, or sometimes from the cd.

With my crappy turntable and crappy speakers I probably wouldn't notice the difference, but I would sooner give my money to the labels that are doing it right

I also use Ben O'Neills. Great to see their vinyl section growing.

Red Wolf

Interesting article from a while ago http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/07/-sp-vinyls-difficult-comeback. Maybe this is were lewisdhead read About the plant in Germany
?

lewisdhead

Red Wolf wrote: »

Interesting article from a while ago http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/07/-sp-vinyls-difficult-comeback. Maybe this is were lewisdhead read About the plant in Germany
?

Yep, definitely read that article before.