there is not one album in existence that better on CD than on vinyl is there?

i hear lots of people complaining about modern pressings. maybe i've been walking between the raindrops but i've had the opposite experience -- most of them sound great to me. if they're not analog-sourced they typically use very high resolution digital as masters, they tend not to overcompress the masters, pressings are quiet, etc. plus since peoples' home systems are somewhat "tuned" to their own preferences, things just sound better on them. i guess having a cd-length album split among 4 LP sides can be a drag, but cds are too long and you can make believe each disk is its own LP. their prices are commensurate with what they used to cost. in 1973 (i'm old) i remember paying $3.33 for jethro tull's 'passion play' which though 'on sale' was 33 cents more than i was used to paying for new lps but i did it because i had tickets to see them at nassau coliseum and i wanted to be familiar with their new album. an inflation calculator tells me that would be $26.42 today.

(though in the same store i also got the stooges 1st record off the three-for-a-dollar rack. i think i also got tiny tim's 2nd record and a david frye comedy album to round it out.)

yeah I think Discogs can give you the impression that there are way more bad pressings out there than there actually are. everyone who gets one complaints about it on there and honestly I think a lot of times it's not actually the pressing that's bad - like, I've gotten new records that were full of static and I didn't realize how badly that can effect the replay. also people often use different stereos for their turntable so they're not really comparing them properly - I've had pressings that I thought were bad, only to realize the digital version distorts in the same way. playing music on a decent setup can reveal things you wouldn't hear on headphones or car speakers. often when I think something is bad it's generally a record that wasn't produced very well in the first place. the only 'bad' pressing I've gotten is a 10" record that glows in the dark and probably wasn't really meant to be played anyway

a 10" record that glows in the dark

lol ok what is this

Nature Tapes by Lemon Demon

Definitely different turntables and - more significantly - different stylus profiles can have a huge effect on how they handle imperfect vinyl - I’m using a Technics EPC-310MC at the moment and it is brilliant at digging detail out of records I thought were pretty played-out - but can be very unforgiving of scratches. I have a second TT with a moderately good AT stylus that gets used for cheap and cheerful dollar bin purchases.

So anyway totally agree that it’s hard to have an objective POV about the quality of a pressing.

Having said that I’ve had non-fill (“ripping” sound) in a bunch of contemporary pressings and only one or two vintage LPs, and that’s totally a QC issue.

This is a gross thing to say but I don’t think paper inner sleeves are great for vinyl, often they are glued in with static and can abrade the surface during shipping. On the rare occasions that I’ve bought contemporary records that are stored in a plastic inner they are always in much better condition.

It’s pretty hard to strongly advocate for more plastic use, but then again it’s pretty hard to defend vinyl fandom on environmental grounds anyway.

people on discogs often post reviews like maniacs.

i imagine a warehouse at amazon filled with returned vinyl because people thought it was a bad pressing.

Amazon does ship their vinyl pretty carelessly sometimes. I've heard a few horror stories. luckily I've been fine with the few I've gotten from there but it's weird, you either get it in a really thin cardboard package that could easily blow away or a gigantic box that makes you think you accidentally ordered a table saw

agreed re: the plastic inner sleeves....those thin white paper ones with the hole for the label are probably fine, but the thicker & glossier ones do seem to scuff up the records - nothing that should affect playback, but still, you can get like 300 plastic inner sleeves for the cost of one new record so you might as well. if nothing else they seem to be good at keeping the static away.

just got an 80s vertigo cd of ride the lightning in the mail, it’s kickin ass alright

I should say I have the most recent CD of kill em all and that sounds great too!

ha yeh I would have to say re the og thread premise that the burden of proof is very much on vinyl to sound better than the CD, rather than the other way round

hey TSF - I upgraded to the 95ML on your recommendation. you were right. IGD is pretty much completely gone. first LP I tested it on was Tormato by Yes because the final track on Side A ("Release, Release") had it particularly bad. now I don't even notice it. the record also sounds more crisp - no pops or clicks (though I can't remember how noisy it was before? I mean this is a $1.99 Goodwill record, otoh it's Tormato so who knows how much the original owner played it). almost kicking myself for not getting this sooner. thanks for the recommendation!!

also was very nice that I already had a perfectly aligned AT cart that came with the turntable, just pop it in and go

alright, just gave this the ultimate test: Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star (as you know he's getting polled right now). it's a 56 minute LP with some pretty loud & crazy stuff going on at the end of both sides, so it kind of sounds like garbage on vinyl. with this stylus it's pretty much as good as the CD, none of the blowouts & sharp sibilance that it had before. easily the best "upgrade" I've ever made to my system.

hey great it worked out for you, frogbs. enjoy the listening!