New vinyl -disappointing??

[Audioman]

David. It does sound that your Drum and Bass records are now from small labels that use poor sources and inferior pressing plants. There are a few that advertise this sort of service. I am sure the records from the 90's were distributed and pressed by the major labels. It does seem the market has moved away from 12" singles back to LPs possibly due to a drop in popularity of dance music and vinyl DJaying. Probably a factor in the demise of the SL1200.

Coloured vinyl and picture discs have always been problamatic though I have some coloureds that are very good including the new Norah Jones on white vinyl. In general I have found pressing quality to be improving after a dip 3 or 4 years ago. There are a number of labels and plants pressing high quality vinyl LPs including MOV, Speakers Corner, Warner, Mo-Fi, Analogue Productions and Pure Pleasure. Even Universal seem to have uped their game recently. Usualy the vinyl quality is acceptable to superb but source quality can vary. As long as they use High Res or Analogue sources rather than MP3 or CD masters the sound is fine.

[NRG]

Carbon black is the pigment used to colour black vinyl and it's not magnetic, not even a little bit...if iron oxide black pigment is used then yes it would be but that tends to be used in other applications like magnetic printing.

Its the carbon in the pigment that lowers the surface noise vs colour vinyl, some can be OK though which is weird but on the whole I find colour vinyl to be a bit more noisy than the black versions...

[Audioman]

Carbon black is the pigment used to colour black vinyl and it's not magnetic, not even a little bit...if iron oxide black pigment is used then yes it would be but that tends to be used in other applications like magnetic printing.

Its the carbon in the pigment that lowers the surface noise vs colour vinyl, some can be OK though which is weird but on the whole I find colour vinyl to be a bit more noisy than the black versions...

I don't know the exact technical issues but magnetism has been measured in black vinyl hence Furutech marketing their demagnetiser which was endorsed by Micheal Fremer. This was the reason Classic Records developed their 'Clarity' Vinyl. Given correct QC this can be very quiet (though not always in practice). Quality Record Pressings (Absolute Sounds) are about to reintroduce 'Clarity' vinyl so the results will be interesting. From experience the carbon does not lower surface noise as I have heard both dead quiet and noisy examples of both clear and black vinyl.

[Giubanix]

I honestly don't know why they bother pressing the majority of new vinyl releases on so called "audiophile heavyweight vinyl". Just a marketing gimmick as far as I can tell. I bought a few to replace some old or 2nd hand vinyl albums and half of them had worse surface noise than the ones they were supposed to be replacing.

When I was buying new vinyl back in the 70s and 80s, I very rarely bought something that had anything like the amount of clicks and crackles that seem to plague current pressings. Now I just look for an ex+ or near mint original rather than a reissue.

[Audioman]

I honestly don't know why they bother pressing the majority of new vinyl releases on so called "audiophile heavyweight vinyl". Just a marketing gimmick as far as I can tell. I bought a few to replace some old or 2nd hand vinyl albums and half of them had worse surface noise than the ones they were supposed to be replacing.

When I was buying new vinyl back in the 70s and 80s, I very rarely bought something that had anything like the amount of clicks and crackles that seem to plague current pressings. Now I just look for an ex+ or near mint original rather than a reissue.

Name the records you have issues with. You need to do research to determine the origin (pressing plant). Some US plants can't manufacture a decent disc if their life depended on it (and obviously don't care). Also some labels obiously don't check their test pressings or wave crap through. There are plenty of excelent new 180g and lighter titles out there. It is worth following the Steve Hoffman Forum for info on QC and audio sources used.

[NRG]

I don't know the exact technical issues but magnetism has been measured in black vinyl hence Furutech marketing their demagnetiser which was endorsed by Micheal Fremer. This was the reason Classic Records developed their 'Clarity' Vinyl. Given correct QC this can be very quiet (though not always in practice). Quality Record Pressings (Absolute Sounds) are about to reintroduce 'Clarity' vinyl so the results will be interesting. From experience the carbon does not lower surface noise as I have heard both dead quiet and noisy examples of both clear and black vinyl.

Yes, I've seen that product but remain skeptical, I'd like to see some evidence and if theres *is* a low level of magnetism present evidence that it affects replay...

Regarding noisy colored vinyl there may be another reason due to the length of the production run, coloured vinyl is likely to be made in a limited run, which may not allow the manufacturing/stamping process to be fully optimized in terms of temperature and timing...apparently its not uncommon to through away the first 10's of or first 100 of the production run before the quality gets to an acceptable point....with a limited run maybe due to cost they can't afford this luxury...

[Giubanix]

Name the records you have issues with. You need to do research to determine the origin (pressing plant). Some US plants can't manufacture a decent disc if their life depended on it (and obviously don't care). Also some labels obiously don't check their test pressings or wave crap through. There are plenty of excelent new 180g and lighter titles out there. It is worth following the Steve Hoffman Forum for info on QC and audio sources used.

A couple of the worst ones were "Get Back" reissues manufactured in Italy - "You" by Gong and Black Sabbath's first album. Both had one noisy side and one acceptable side. The Gong album even had something that looked like a small, fine feather, embeded in the vinyl. The Black Sabbath album not only had the surface noise, but had gaps between tracks that were supposed to segue into each other without a break!

I also got a very noisy U.S. Capitol reissue of Abbey Road, which I exchanged for a good quality U.K. pressing.

[Audioman]

A couple of the worst ones were "Get Back" reissues manufactured in Italy - "You" by Gong and Black Sabbath's first album. Both had one noisy side and one acceptable side. The Gong album even had something that looked like a small, fine feather, embeded in the vinyl. The Black Sabbath album not only had the surface noise, but had gaps between tracks that were supposed to segue into each other without a break!

These are actualy some of the earlier GZ vinyl produced titles (Czech republic). Sounds like the Black Sabbath uses the track breaks from the digital CD master. Fortunately GZ have improved since taking on many Universal Music label titles.

[indus]

David. It does sound that your Drum and Bass records are now from small labels that use poor sources and inferior pressing plants. There are a few that advertise this sort of service. I am sure the records from the 90's were distributed and pressed by the major labels. It does seem the market has moved away from 12" singles back to LPs possibly due to a drop in popularity of dance music and vinyl DJaying. Probably a factor in the demise of the SL1200.

Coloured vinyl and picture discs have always been problamatic though I have some coloureds that are very good including the new Norah Jones on white vinyl. In general I have found pressing quality to be improving after a dip 3 or 4 years ago. There are a number of labels and plants pressing high quality vinyl LPs including MOV, Speakers Corner, Warner, Mo-Fi, Analogue Productions and Pure Pleasure. Even Universal seem to have uped their game recently. Usualy the vinyl quality is acceptable to superb but source quality can vary. As long as they use High Res or Analogue sources rather than MP3 or CD masters the sound is fine.

Hi

Funnily enough I don't think these original tracks were on major labels, unless the major labels owned these specialised dance labels.

The original stuff now sells for silly money. The big tunes from that era in mint condition regularly have an asking price of £30-£50 and sometimes more!

[Minstrel SE]

I have just been playing Pink Floyd The Wall and side 3 has several small bumps like smooth lumps in the vinyl.

Although I was enjoying myself, at a critical quiet point I get a loudish thump as the needle rides this bump over about 8 grooves. It does spoil the enjoyment because Im listening for the quiet speech detail to be greeted with a pressing flaw. I wouldnt take it back to a supermarket as how would I even know the next copy isnt worse.

Its on heavyweight vinyl which Ive read is a marketing gimmick anyway

This is the thing with the vinyl revival in that nobody really dwells on the flaws with the medium. Am I really going to Pay £25 per time to relive some of these flaws?