Vinyl lottery

Can't there be some standard or certificate regarding pressing quality? A to D, like with tyres or vacuum cleaner. Sometimes I pay high money and get bad sounding, off centred record with wow, next time I get good pressing for cheap. Do I realy have to pay absurd money to be 100% shure pressing will be good? I hope there'll soon be some progress regarding this problem.

Any recomendations where to order good records for acceptable money here in Europe?

 

Crap shoot at best for used. New, no idea in the country you live.

 

All of the pressing plants, even those that make the higher grade records for specialized audiophile labels (Mofi, AP, SC, etc.) are maxed out right now. Try to make too many records too fast to get things out the door and quality drops. It's just the situation with new vinyl right now. Roll the dice.

 

If shopping new, you want to look for pressings with the RTI, Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity or Pallas labels. Many records missing these labels may have been pressed at the same plants, but not to the same standard. If a disc is priced on the high end, that can indicate it was pressed with new vinyl rather than recycled bits or a mixture of recycled/new vinyl. Once in a while I luck out with an inexpensive LP that sounds phenomenal.

Used pressings can be a big risk because, unlike no-fill, damage caused by misaligned/worn-out styli, or damage caused by excessive plays is impossible to detect with the naked eye.

 

I can't speak for the others but I know AP was running a night-shift to keep up with demand but returned to a single shift due to quality concerns.

 

I agree with the others. New records are a bit of a gamble but if the store permits and if the albums is not sealed, you can at least inspect the records before purchasing it. Not a guarantee with respect to off-centred or noisy records though.

Even from reputable pressing plants, it’s not a guarantee that you’ll get a perfect pressing either. Your best bet is if the shop has some kind of return policy. Unfortunately, we’re all in this together.

 

Buying vinyl, new or used, is not for the faint of heart. And I mainly get vinyl pressed by reputable plants, used "NM" vinyl from Discogs, and used vinyl that I visually inspect in-person.

 

Some are good, some are not so good. I've got standard thin pressings from the 70s and 80s that are much better than recent 180 gram reissues even after having been played hundreds of times.

 

I find 180g or > pressings to be the most
inconsistent/problematic for some reason. I’ve had much better luck
with a standard 140-150g pressings. Also, never hesitated to return crap pressings of brand new records.

regards

 

You can forget certification. Who would give themselves a D certification? You best bet is to always do some research before you purchase. Even with new releases, Discogs tend to get updated immediately. The full information may not be there until a few weeks later, but, this is much better than it used to be. Back in the day, you got what the record store had. Today if the EU pressing is better than a US pressing, it's pretty easy for me to get one shipped to my home for not much more than a domestic issue.

 

Same. Even 180g pressings from acclaimed outfits like RTI that I buy are pressed slightly off-center or have small warps.