Increasing Quality Control Issues With New Vinyl

Many of my very best old LP's seem to be USA-pressed WB and Columbia.

I recently pulled out my 70's copy of Rainbow On Stage (Polydor/Oyster) and surprisingly it still sounds very good! I was expecting to have to replace it.

 

I happen to have a Canadian Polygram NM copy of this album, and surprisingly to me it is also a good pressing (lots of quiet bits in there)...

 

Probably 80 percent of the new LPs I buy -- and I generally buy one to four new LPs a week -- are new releases on indie labels, and 180-gram pressings are comparatively rare. I dunno, maybe 25-30 percent? I don't have anywhere near the problems others claim to find with warping, off-center presses, non-fill, or other playability issues, but I'm not sure there's a direct link there.

I never would return an LP because of visual or sleeve issues that don't affect playability. Since 1957, there have been between two and eight cats in this house at any given time. (The current number of three is the lowest in decades.) Sleeves will not remain pristine in a house where 3 of the 5 residents have claws.

 

IIRC correctly every single LP from this artist (Bon Iver) supposedly has major QC/QA issues. Not sure why that this (crap plant I'm guessing). I haven't really followed the artist very closely but I do remember discussions around vinyl quality. I liked the first album, that was one I picked up on CD specifically due to the issues discussed.

 

But it would have that certain ineffable something that only vinyl can bring to your shower singing. If you put it on color vinyl, sheeeeeit, fuggedaboutit.

 

It's a 1000g rosy pink cylinder. Only $100.

 

In my experience, the last year of new vinyl has had much lower QC issues than the year before. Perhaps pressing plants are finally getting their act together.

 

At the risk of getting punched in the nose for being pedantic, it's AN absorbitant. Absorbent refers to the quality of being able to absorb and absorbitant is the agent that absorbs.

Now, back to quality control issues-------

 

I suppose that's one way to put it, yes.

 

While this thread started with a complaint about the new Bon Ivor vinyl, I'll bracket it with a happy ending.

The replacement vinyl I received from Amazon for "22, A Million", while slightly warped, sounds VERY good. Dead, dead quiet. Which is important because there are a lot of dynamics on this record, including very quiet passages. And although this is a very digital recording, embracing all sorts of tools and effects, the vinyl version provides a different take as compared to the digital download that came with it. While the latter is bright and ultra-present, the vinyl has a vintage Kraftwerk feel to it that suits it perfectly. It's a very different experience that isn't interchangeable.

Top this off with the arrival of NotBadRecords' clear vinyl take on "The Zombies" mono comp, which was perfect in every way, and what you have is a fine ending of a fine day.

Just count me as a battered vinyl fan who keeps coming back for that unique slice 'o heaven

 

I recently bought the Reprise reissues of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Time Fades Away, and On the Beach. I also picked up a copy of the Analogue Productions reissue of Heifetz's performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

Every single one had problems. That's right. Every single one. I've gone through FOUR copies of Rumours now with no end in sight, THREE copies of Fleetwood Mac (before I realized the entire batch has the same problems), TWO copies of Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and I'm about to return Time Fades Away and On the Beach for the first time.

That's 11 records in total. 9 of them are defective. The remaining two that aren't defective are the Fleetwood Mac copies which have inherent flaws in every single pressing. So if you want to get technical, 11 of the 11 records I bought recently were flawed in some way.

100% of new records I have bought in the last month have been defective. One hundred percent. My relationship with online retailers is steadily starting to sour because of all these returns.

Will record plants start tightening up on quality control or will they allow this vinyl resurgence to die in a sea of returned records?

 

What was wrong with them?

 

I'm in a similar place, starting to worry about being able to return for obvious defects, and at the same time just frustrated that
if i buy a sealed record there is a very high chance it's going to be warped. I returned two titles of the same recent Neil Young reissues,
for warps and off center, and those are pressed at Pallas! that's surprising. I've found someone with a Furutech vinyl flattener
and a Audio Desk ultra sonic cleaner, so i'm going that route now with my purchasing.

 

My first and third copies of Fleetwood Mac had thumping before "Blue Letter" and after "Rhiannon," and the second one had those problems as well as scraping noises intermittent on side 2.

My first copy of Rumours was sonically perfect, but it had a rather severe dish on side 1 and a hill on side 2, and I figured eventually that kind of fault would cause problems after a few hundred plays. I returned it for a second copy which had crackling noises all throughout side 2. The third one also had crackling noises throughout side 2 but worse. The fourth one has a very tiny dish on side 1 and a hill on side 2 which causes a swishing sound after "You Make Loving Fun."

Time Fades Away and On the Beach both have non-fill issues. On the Beach was so frustratingly close to being perfect, but it has two distinct instances of non-fill in the first 20 seconds of side 2. Time Fades Away has it intermittently throughout the entire disc which was endlessly frustrating.

The first Mendelssohn disc had four very light thumps in the beginning of the second movement. The thumps got louder and louder. The second Mendelssohn disc is crackly and noisy all the way through.

These are not anal nitpicks. These are very audible faults that jumped out at me when I listened to these records for the first time. I'm not going to pay the premium price for new records (especially not the premium prices for Analogue Productions discs) and accept any kind of major pressing faults.

 

Interesting - the quality of new vinyl purchases for me has actually improved a little in the last couple years. I've had fewer off-center pressings, warps, surface noise issues, etc. That said, I still do encounter new vinyl with these problems, just fewer of them and sometimes the problems are less severe or noticeable than in the past. Maybe it's just dumb luck, but at least that's what I've been finding. In some cases, it seems like certain labels are now avoiding the biggest quality control offenders (Rainbo, United) in favor of plants like Optimal and others, which seem to have a better track record.


And this is kind of interesting: I made a list of all the newly released LPs I've bought over the last 10 years. There were 46 in total (I buy mostly used LPs, and I get a fair amount of new releases on CD, hence the not super high number; I'm also not counting newly released vinyl that I happened to find used). Out of the 46, 41% were off center, 13% were warped, and 20% had surface noise beyond a few random light pops or ticks (and some were a combination of two or three of these problems).

In total, 33% were more or less flawless, while 67% were defective in some way. Out of the defective LPs, 58% were minor I-can-live-with-it problems, while 42% were serious, returnable offenses.

At any rate, the fact that nearly half the LPs were off center is really alarming. That by far is the biggest problem I've encountered with new vinyl.

 

I definitely recommend getting a VinylFlat. A little pricey, but so worth it if you wanna take care of these warps. What are you cleaning the records with?

 

Unfortunately I don't have a record cleaner at the moment. I just wipe the dust off with a lens cloth before each play.

Keep in mind of course that I've bought plenty of new records in the past two years and had very good luck. For example, in 2015 I got the Beatles in Mono box set, and every record is flawless.

 

More crap new vinyl this week..
Sleaford mods - TCR 12"
Crackly and a nasty warp, managed to remove the crackle after a few cleans on the RCM and thankfully my ortofon 2m blue isn't phased by most warps or off centre pressings, no idea who pressed it..

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway (Ltd. Pink vinyl)
The translucent pink vinyl records were covered in black pvc bits upon opening, cleaned them up on the RCM but one disc had a nasty deep scratch
20161027_133029_HDR~2.jpg »
Not exactly difficult to spot, is there no quality control anymore at all?
I thought Pallas was one of the better pressing plants?
This is something I'd expect from united, plain or GZ...

 

http://www.qualityrecordpressings.com/

 

PALLAS USA | ABOUT US »

 

I play records before declaring them defective! The only records I return as defective have visible or invisible audible scratches (continuous ticks (not 3 or 4)) or significant warping usually edge warps that won't clamp out and persistent crackly or swooshing sounds that won't clean out. I don't return for inaudible manufacturing 'scuffs' (which are not caused by inner sleeves as some insist) or slight off-centre or even a slight dish (fruit bowl shape yes). That's about the same reject criteria I always have had and there have always been a fair few defective records coming my way (say 1 in 10 at least). More often than not these days I get a super clean pressing and some with spectacular sound that no CD or digital source could dream of delivering.

 

Your experience coincides with mine, I think. I consider Pallas to be the worst offender for 'non-fill', at least of the records I buy, avoiding all Rainbo and URP product that is!

Pallas doesn't seem to be able to press a vinyl LP without 'non fill' in recent times. My Box Set copy of 'On The Beach' has major 'non-fill' on Track 1 Side 2. As one OP commented it is perfect but for this track, major pity in my book as it is my favourite Neil album. Pallas also made a mess of 'Harvest' in the first Box Set (in 2009) which also had 'non-fill'. Optimal is a better plant by far but even at that, I am sure they produce duds as well.

I recently came across 'non-fill' issues on K.D. Lang's 'Hymns of the 49th Parallel' which was pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands. I got a really nice copy of Norah Jones 'Day Breaks' (pressed at Optimal) and that cheered me up. I have however taken a break from buying lately as I am a bit 'sour' over some of the bad records I have got in the past 3 months. Good luck with the Furutech and the Audiodeske, 2 essential accessories I think, although admittedly very expensive. You can fix many of the problems yourself (warping, pressing residues, off centre issues) but 'non-fill' is a permanent fatal flaw.

 

My standalone copy has minor non-fill during the beginning of that track. Maybe it's an entire bad batch? It would be a shame, as the rest of the disc sounds bloody amazing.

 

I've stopped buying new vinyl, and I'm a guy who started buying around 1954-5. My address is a magnet for defective lp's. Prior to 13 years ago I've returned exactly 2 lp's - 10,000 Maniacs Blind Man's Zoo - all the albums in the store had the same skip - and the Prairie League album Bustin' Out - all the albums in the store were badly warped. How do I remember this? Returning defective records was very, very rare for me - only 2 out of thousands!. The record companies used to get a lot of my money; they don't anymore! In the past 13 years I've returned just about everything, and, by the way, I'm not a picky person.