Is it just me or is vinyl QC getting a lot better?

Get quality up, establish market, ween them from the short runs. That's how to win.

 

I've noticed a change for the better also. Haven't returned an album in over a year.

 

My Beck Sea Change has one moment on non-fill on the first tune. It's still out there, but I'm as likely to find it in the used bins. That's something!

 

I'd say 9 of every 10 new vinyl purchases I've made have been pretty much flawless.

 

I have quoted three or four examples above, there have been many more. Too many. I would say a good 15% as a rough estimate of the records I have bought that were newer pressings, maybe even 20%. Some are probably thinking "no way" but maybe Phoenix is a dumping ground for the rejects, maybe I just had a bad run. But it's happened - too much.

Not just warps too - the dimpling also - a Queen Night at the Opera was full of pits. A JEMP Phish Picture of Nectar had big shavings in the jacket, wreaked havoc on one side from being shipped around with those shavings in contact.... and more.

We've had similar experience.

 

NOW That you mentioned it: Yes the quality has gotten better. Maybe because people will and have been returning crap quality records. I won’t buy from particular labels from previous bad purchases.
The Kinks Mono Box Set I got for Christmas is flawless except for tight spindle holes. Playing those records more will cure that issue.

 

Actually, after returning I was able to find a nice older pressing at Zia for a good price. Happy with that one, and not warped!

Don't get me wrong, that is the ONLY Mofi I ever got that was warped... you get what you pay for. But I don't have the money to buy all Mofi's, my expectation is that for the $30ish dollars for pressings, they should be good enough, and not warped. Doesn't sound like too much to ask!

 

I bought two this year that I was disappointed in, quality wise, but one was new old stock (and was, in fact, damaged by it's plastic inner sleeve).

 

Forcing a record onto the VPI 16.5 will generally bore out any tight spindle holes.

 

To answer the various questions about past defects, anything seen today was seen back then. It's just that they were rarer except with certain dodgy labels. The primary defect that I remember from the 60s and 70s were pits and blisters. It should be noted that pop records are quite a bit louder than classical records on average so they mask some defects that are more easily heard with a classical record.

 

Like someone said earlier, I think warps are caused by storage issues. I would think a robot can easily spot and kick out a warped disk. I saw a video where a robot kicks out green apples from an avalanche of red apples. How hard would it be. Soon I think these issues will be a thing of the past.

 

Most of the new vinyl I purchased this year was at least very good in the quality department. The only real clunker was the reissue of Dead Can Dance's The Serpent's Egg as I was never able to get a clean copy of that one.

 

I was going to knee-jerk-react and say that there were plenty of warped records in the '70s, but then I realized that wasn't true. Lots of thin wobbly LPs after the gas crisis, sure, but badly warped records weren't common.

 

unfortunately not for me. i'm running worse than ever- probably 60% perfect, 35% minor flaws that are tolerable (slight warps, occasional bad fill or noisy spots) and 5% need to be returned.

 

Hope not to jinx myself but I seem to have much better luck with new vinyl purchases than many here. But yes, over all I think the quality of vinyl being released, at least what I’m buying, is on the rise.

 

Out of 400 purchases in the last 2 years i have returned 3.

 

It's a process improvement if anything. They're not inspecting better/more and throwing away more, they have improved the process and first pass yield is better than before - i.e. they throw away less than before and probability of getting a defective disc is reduced.

 

The problem, is that the dopes working at the pressing plant treat $15. vinyl the same as $100. vinyl

 

Interesting experience with the Neil Young releases. I have 4 of them (Everybody knows this is nowhere, After the gold rush, Tonight's the night, and On the Beach) and they are flawless. A model of what a re-issue should be. I believe they are all AAA.

I also picked up Margo Price's previous record which was 3rd man also, and it is flawless.

 

Pretty good year for new vinyl quality.

Nonfill on one side of the War on Drugs album was the only real disappointment but it sounded great otherwise.

I think the only new record I returned this year was a noisy copy of Beck Mutations. The replacement was perfect.

 

Its just you. Optimal especially can’t press a record without no-fill, MPO warped most of the Pearl Jam reissues and United are, well, their usual.

On the plus, GZ are much better and heading in the right direction. When I get a new record from them now, it actually looks like a new record. RTI have been pretty good for me lately aswell.

 

Your experiences seem similar to mine...

 

As you buy a better deck and the SQ goes up, you will notice defects like no fill more in my opinion. Its not a popular thing to say but i think it’s true. Having 3 defects out of 400 is simply not realistic.

 

Oh? Did you read through the thread? Lots of folks with similar experiences to mine. Thanks for answering for everyone, though.

 

I would have to agree with you - but since many are not sharing what pressings they are buying, whether they are buying $80 pressings vs $20 pressings, or how many albums they buy anything is possible I guess. Plus, if you buy two albums in a year, making a statement that "all is well" is relative, and more buys might have elicited a different answer. So many answers are so vague and share so little detail as to what pressings, how many leave the "grain of salt" adage as appropriate.

For the "run of the mill" recent purchases (last 5 years 180g pressings by Columbia, others) my failure rate is more like 20 %, but with Mofi, other high quality audiophile pressings the number drops significantly (less than 5%). So "you get what you pay for" applies more than ever here.

So many one sentence answers, it is hard to glean any outcome - in previous posts I offered specific purchases and pressings to try and give context. The $20 - $30 category has been a major disappointment for me in the last 5-10 years, and it is not subtle.... sometimes it is laughable how warped or poor the pressing is right out the package.

Thus, I take most of the "everything is just fine" one sentence answers with a grain of salt, and have no choice but to conclude that they don't purchase many LP's, or they are spending up to the high dollar stuff where the problems are less. There is no other answer, as there is no way my experiences are a one-off experience - then again there have been a few that have matched my experience, so there is some support. Plus, there are a lot of online reviews and experiences that match mine.

I have been buying new LP's since the early 70's and have a lot of pressings from the mid 50's forward, and the number of poorly QC'd LP's made in the last 5 years I have opened in the the "middle class" category ($20 - $30) is very, very high. This is not a "small sample size" finding, and I can't imagine others are having different experience.