What percentage of new vinyl you buy is defective?

I am not talking about the odd tick, sleeve scuff or being off-center a bit. I mean serious warps or other playback issues. I mostly buy vintage used vinyl and only have bought a handful new pressings over the past few years. They were OK, mostly. Over the past couple of months, I have gone on a bit of a new vinyl shopping spree, mostly from well known on-line reputable dealers (with the few exceptions as noted), and these were the results:

Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off, Baby Rhino. Unplayable warp. Returned to dealer for credit, replacement not available.

Incredible String Band The 5000 Spirits Sundazed. Unplayable warp. Replaced by dealer.

Incredible String Band The 5000 Spirits Sundazed.
Replacement for the above. Occasional drop-outs/scratchy noise in left channel.

King Crimson Larks' Tongues in Aspic Discipline.
Playable dish warp, but most of the record is floating in the air when playing side 1.

Genesis Selling England by the Pound Classic.
Taco warp. Side 1 marginally playable. Requested replacement from dealer.

Genesis Selling England by the Pound Classic.
Replacement. Side 1 very ticky, with occasional strong clicking noises, crooked label covers runout groove. Side 2 fine. Ended up keeping both this and the original copy to be able to play entire album.

Genesis Selling England by the Pound Classic.
Tried another copy, this time from eBay. Unplayable undulated warp. Not returnable after opening.

The Who Live at Leeds Classic.
Another eBay purchase. Severe taco warp, very obvious without opening. Returned to seller for refund.

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin Atlantic.
Fine

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II Atlantic.
Scratches/scuffs causing repetitive clicks during intro to side 1. Bought locally - new vinyl not returnable.

The Soft Machine The Soft Machine Sundazed.
Playable hump warp. Several extended periods of repetitive clicks and noises due to bubbles/non-fill and embedded debris in vinyl. Will request exchange.


As you can imagine, this has sucked all enthusiasm for buying new vinyl from me. Is this typical? What percentage of new vinyl do you estimate that you have to send back for serious issues like that?

 

about 1 in 50.

 

Virtually none but I'm not very fussy

 

Not returnable after opening??? B*llocks to that! The seller sold a dud, you're out of pocket. I'd have been all over them for my money back! Surely you had some protection as a buyer not to be stuck with sub-par goods?

 

somewhere between 2 and 5% of all new vinyl I buy has something significant enough that I won't tolerate it. quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure this rate is any worse than it was 15-20 years ago. the primary difference is that not only am I purchasing vinyl much more frequently now but I'm also far more sensitive to potential defects on the playing surface.

 

All my buys have been good.

 

I would say around 10% to be honest. Maybe more. Some labels are definitely more prone to issues. For example I have had to return 3/8 of the flying nun reissues I have purchased, many of which were just terrible, noisy, badly warped, misplaced labels, multiple labels pasted at once, ingrained particles within the vinyl etc. I still have one with a bad off centre pressing where you can hear the wow slightly, didnt bother returning that. I would actually say that these Flying Nun reissues are amongst the worst I have ever come across. Shame as I truly love the fact they are reissuing these rare gems finally. MOV can also be a little prone to warping and surface noise, especially their first run coloured variants.

Warps are probably the most common problem all in all, my vinyl flat has sorted most of this bt if its a bad one and the record is brand new I almost always return them now! Big dollar records should be perfect.

 

70% for me over the past 6 or 7 years - yes, 70%!!! N0-fill is by far the most common problem. I'm now in my 8th month of no new vinyl.

 

Agreed. 3 out of 4 has had some issue, usually warped.

 

I consider being "off-center a bit" to be a serious flaw.

Most of the Numero Group vinyl I've bought lately has serious defects - scratches, scuffs, off-centeredness. They are pressed at United which must have laid off its quality control department a few years ago.

 

Very, very few issues. The vinyl being pressed today has never been better IMO.

 

Recent months I've returned to Amazon:
Rush - debut box - loads of surface noise
Temperance Movement - debut had clicking/scratch
Rival Sons - Western Valkarie - loads of surface scratches
Led Zep - Super deluxe box set - all vinyl was warped

Replacements came and were all fine… bad luck or poor quality??

 

It depends as I know that vinyl that I buy that is under $20 new does not have the same level of QC at the pressing plant that a $30 or more pressing does at say, QRP. As I get to $25 and up I have not had a bad pressing so far.

I have some that I have bought at $15 that is no perfect, but still plays, but in 2014 that is bargain vinyl that most likely has 15% regrind in it. It is not good to use customers for a pressing plants' QC department, but some chose to do that as they feel it is easier to deal with returns than stop the presses, literally.

I would think that many plants who market $30 and up vinyl do in process statistical sampling ans would pull a disc or 2 off the running production in every hour to spot check disc playback quality. How hard could it be to have a VPI Traveler and a set of Grado's on an audio/video cart and roll it by each press and test an lp? You wouldn't have to stop a press unless a problem was heard.

 

Probably about 1% and I'm saying that because I will buy a brand new album and not play it right away. One of the few that I have played right a way is a Classic reissue (200gm 45rpm) of Horace Silver that caused me quite a bit of pain.

1. Return the $60.00 album (cost of album + shipping + Ca tax)
2. Cost: $20.00 (postage + box + gas + time) For those prices I expect perfection in the physical medium.

M~

 

No warps for me except for Pure Prairie League Bustin' Out all those decades ago, and I started buying records around 1955. No-fill has been rampant on the records I've bought. I am really disgusted!

 

Sorry Jim, but I don't buy your price comparison argument one bit. If you look at many of the Sundazed titles and those Blue Note reissues that were selling for 2/$30 (in Canada) it becomes clear that price isn't the issue. I'm not saying it isn't a factor some of the time, but you're making a blanket statement that IMO cannot be supported.

 

The 180g stuff I get new is usually warped in some way. The only exceptions this year have been the Can "Tago Mago" reissue and the x3 Led Zepp.

Everything else has been warped. For example, it took until the 4th copy of Plaid's "Reachy Prints" album before I got one I could actually play. They where all warped so badly, shaped like a bowl.

Quality control is at its lowest since its heyday. Not bad for something that costs at least 2 to 3 times more than the nearest other physical edition (CD)

 

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As are you. If someone is dumping vinyl at 2/$30 THAT is what it is worth...$15 a disc and that has a different QC requirement. I would not expect the same level of care or the quality of the vinyl pellets to be the same. I would bet that there is a % of regrind in those discs. I don't care who markets the discs. If your QC is suspect then this is what you are going to get.

Vinyl will never be perfect, yet many expect it. Some is way better than others. A disc is really worth what you paid for it. My expectations for $15 discs is much lower. There is a reason Sundazed and BlueNote titles are selling for $15. They knew it and now you do.

 

I've had pretty good luck with new vinyl; I think my biggest problems came from buying standard issue stuff from Amazon before they improved their warehouse and packaging- a few years ago, the stuff I was getting was almost always warped. But, i gather Amazon, at least in the U.S., has cleaned up its act. Most of the 'audiophile' new stuff from the usual suspects, e.g. Analogue Productions from the Chadster/ MoFi from Music Direct, etc. fine. Given that most of the vinyl I buy these days is old, I'm not sure I'm the best survey subject, but there it is, for me. (Hi John!)

 

You obviously missed my point or what I was trying to say.

The vinyl of the two companies I mentioned have not been subject to any defects and sounds fantastic. Do they compare to a 45RPM MFSL? No, they don't, but their quality can't be denied. There is and was no suspect QC on those pressings. They may not be 100% virgin vinyl, but to cast aside pressings that aren't is severely limiting product selection.

The Back To Black reissues from UMG are horrendous. I bought 2 of the first ones they brought out and have vowed to never ever buy B2B pressings again.

 

I've experienced pressing issues with expensive vinyl far more than lower priced vinyl.

Now that could be because I was just buying more of the expensive releases for awhile but in my experience the smaller bands/labels seem able to get their lps pressed with far less issues than big bands/labels. We're all experiencing something different which leads me to believe that there really isn't much of a correlation between the price of vinyl and QC.

I agree though vinyl won't ever be perfect. I think we have to make a distinction between pressing faults that affect playability and those that are just cosmetic and not audible, but that's just the way I look at it.

 

Around 5%

 

For me the key to avoiding problematic LPs is spending the $$$ on audiophile vinyl (Analogue Productions, Classic Records, Cisco, MoFi, Speakers Corner, Music Matters, etc.). This doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of getting a dud, but it certainly tips the odds in my favour. Plus, you are usually getting the best mastering of the albums, which in IMHO is the reason to spend the $$$ in the first place: the best sound.

 

Domestic: about 1 in 5.
UK/EU: about 1 in 50.