Telling good vinyl from bad

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At the moment I look for the general condition, obvious scratches, marks around the spindle hole, general sheen but anyone got a foolproof or simply better system?

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I'm afraid I find it is largely luck of the draw. I have vinyl which looks absolutely perfect but sounds crap, and some stuff that looks a little rough but plays fabulously well. One problem is that some vinyl sounded crap from new due to poor pressing quality, so even if it is in absolutely mint condition it will still sound bad. The vast majority of second hand vinyl I have bought plays great.

I look for obvious surface defects in the same way as you describe, though I am possibly prepared to buy vinyl in a dirtier condition than most as I have a very good record cleaner (VPI 17F). Even well kept vinyl accumulates dirt over the years, especially if stored in paper inner sleeves - cleaning makes an enormous sonic difference in some cases.

The quality of turntable and cartridge make a big difference, with some deck / cartridge combinations tracking very much quieter than others. In the rare event that a deck / cartridge dem is available take some old vinyl - when I bought my P9 I arrived at Frank's shop carrying a stack of original 60s jazz.

Tony.

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I may well try a web search later to see if anyone has any info - the dates etc to watch for might be useful. Anyone any clues?

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The following are just my experience:

50s and 60s pressings: Virtually all are really good. From a jazz buyers perspective Verve, Impulse, Blue Note and Prestige are all usually stunning.

70s pressings: On the whole very good, certain labels were excellent: UA, Decca, EMI, Island, Virgin and Harvest spring to mind. RCA were also good, but produced some of the thinnest vinyl known to man. I have seen carrier bags thicker than my copy of Hunky Dory by Bowie, they sound ok though.

80s pressings: Often pretty dire. Factory, 4AD and Rough Trade were good, as were many of the other independents. A lot of the majors produced horrible quality vinyl, I remember taking Swordfish Trombones by Tom Waits back about 5 times in the vain attempt to get a quiet copy, this was typical from Island at the time. The mid priced reissues from the likes of Electra and RCA were pretty naff sounding compared to the originals - you want your Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop albums to have orange RCA labels, not green or black.

90s: Things started to get better again. 180gram cuts seem to be almost the norm these days, and whilst audiophile cuts are really expensive, the likes of Alto Analogue and Classic Records have produced vinyl as good as many prime 50s and 60s cuts.

Tony.

Those 50s and 60s Jazz recordings are increasingly expensive these days. The Ebay and on-line auction factor has inflated prices hugely. As for Blue Note's almost impossible to get anything decent these days even 70s 80s reissues £12-15 minimum. With BN reissues Japanese versions seem better than the French or American . The OJCs are great value though and as Tony says, better still the 70s Prestige, Riverside or Contemporary records.

Johna

For rock, there is just tremendous variability. In the indie field, SST, Sub Pop, and Touch and Go are and have been exemplary in general. Much of the American indie music of the last two decades was mastered by John Golden at K-disc and now Golden. He always did a great job.

In terms of surface noise, I find it is myriad light hairline scratches, rather than obvious scuffs, which bother me. They are not even visible in a lot of light (esp. fluorescent). So it's always the luck of the draw. But older records seem to hold up better.

--Eric

Overall my impression was that, by default, cost control normally had a much higher priority than quality control. Hence all the poor pressings from that era. Its good to see that the newer vinyl makers like Simply Vinyl are taking a much more pro-active approach to QA.

David Stewart

That time is now (cash register kerchinking noise just heard in Reading!)

Before I finally take the plunge though can I ask- just how good are the Simply Vinyl reissues?

I just checked their site and found they have a whole load of albums that I already own but would like to hear again in comparison.

If I were to dip my toe in here I might just end up diving back in to the vinyl market big style so I would really appreciate any thoughts on how these reissues generally bear up against the originals.

Cheers

Peter

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Before I finally take the plunge though can I ask- just how good are the Simply Vinyl reissues?

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I only have three in my possession, and my feeling is that they are really excellent pressings (e.g. very quiet and flat), but the quality of mastering is nothing special at all. They make absolutely no audio quality related claims in their literature, there is no mention that I am aware of relating to the use of the original masters, or even of an analogue source.

Don't let this put you off buying getting an analogue source, there is a lot of great music currently being released on vinyl. There is also a thriving reissue industry with labels such as Alto Analogue, Classic Records, and DCC all producing stunningly quality products, albeit at a price premium over standard pressings. I buy a combination of mainly new and second hand vinyl, though I will also splash out on certain audiophile pressings of classic jazz albums.

Check out www.vivante.co.uk for the audiophile stuff, www.diversevinyl.co.uk for a mix of regular and audiophile pressings, and www.rocketgirl.co.uk for an excellent selection of honestly priced indie vinyl.

Tony.

I have been itching to hear some of my old albums in comparison to the remastered CD versions that I now own so I have formulated a plan of action which initially involves reviving my 20 year old Thorens TD318 as a first step and possibly having my old albums cleaned up by someone.

I have really missed buying vinyl in some ways. I also miss having to get up out of my chair every 20 minutes or so to change sides

The ball is rolling

Regards

Pete

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I'm always attracted to those nice '180 gram'
stickers on re-pressings and now we're starting to get 220 gram vinyl as well,but does it actually make any difference to the sound?

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I remain to be convinced that the thickness / weight has any bearing on sound quality at all. Take Blue Note, I think the thin 1985 French vinyl possibly sounds better than the current 180g stuff, it certainly sounds no worse to my ears (though I do not have any duplicates, just 12-20 albums of each era). I likewise site original UA Can albums, or original 60s US Verve label pressings as being amongst the best sounding vinyl I own, again probably weighing in at about 120g.

What matters is the quality of the cut, the quality of the masters, and the care taken in pressing. The reason to lash out 20 quid on say an Alto Analogue or Classic Records pressing has little to do with the weight of the vinyl, just the care they take in all areas of manufacture. I would site the likes of '234' by Shelly Manne and 'Out of the blue' by Gil Evans on Alto, or 'Ah Um' by Mingus on Classic Records as being amongst the finest vinyl I have ever heard. 20 quid well spent.

Tony.

I've only listened to Unhalfbricking, which sounded OK, but his vinyl front end was still in 'running in' mode.

Peter

I also ordered kindo of blue analogue re-issue (£40) turned out my us import copy for £10 was just as good. I had to return it, and was told other people had done so too - bad pressings. Anyone out there with a decent copy?

http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/75203.html

Johne

got the record "Grace by Jeff Buckley" of simply vinly since yesterday. This record is really good!! In both ways the music itself and the qualitiy of recording and pressing.

On the other hand I own 4 copies of "Blind Faith".
A UK a ATCO (USA) a MFSL and (since yesterday) a Simply Vinyl pressing.

The best is the MFSL followed by the UK then ATCO and the worst is the SV pressing.

The difference is that big that I can't believe SV use original master tapes.

Cheers

Hermann

"I recently purchased a Paul McCartney album ..."

Thats your problem right there

John