quality of new 'audiophile' pressings
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| Posted on March 30, 2015 at 09:29:08 | ||
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Posts: 90
Location: TN Joined: March 5, 2015 |
picked up two 'audiophile' pressings last week. Bill Evans Undercurrent from MoFi and the Diana Krall Live in Paris 45 from ORG. The Krall album is scarce and its reputation precedes it. Therefore, I paid 15 dollars more than retail at my local record store. Both brand new sealed albums, pressed at RTI, had tons of surface noise, including several what I call 'crunchies' at various points. Well, after several plays and vacuum cleanings to 'dehorn' the records, and after letting them sit in a humid room and giving them several miltystat treatments for static, the surface noise is indeed mostly gone, and things are sounding for the most part VERY nice. Except for those occasional 'crunchies'. I have no better way to describe what I am hearing... sorry. It is like several nasty pops sequenced back to back, and no amount of playing or cleaning can get rid of them. The last track, the Billy Joel cover, on the Krall also has terrible sibilance, as well. It really is too bad that new audiophile pressings that cost a LOT of dough have these kind of problems. I have seen lots of reviews of the Diana Krall album with no such mention of problems, so perhaps I just am the lucky one that got a subpar pressing. Or more likely, there is a lot of inconsistency in these new pressings. And that is a shame. Makes me really gunshy to pull the trigger on what may otherwise be some great music.
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| Yes. 40+ years ago!, posted on March 30, 2015 at 11:15:27 | |
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Posts: 10273
Location: IN Joined: July 8, 2001 |
But there were still some duds.
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| Good looking but ..., posted on March 30, 2015 at 11:28:14 | |
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Posts: 10273
Location: IN Joined: July 8, 2001 |
...I always prefer the bog standard version.
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| oh.. 80s Philips.., posted on March 30, 2015 at 12:42:50 | |
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Posts: 10273
Location: IN Joined: July 8, 2001 |
Do you know who printed those in Holland? ( I recall they were usually Dutch pressing )
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| RE: quality of new 'audiophile' pressings, posted on March 29, 2017 at 19:25:21 | |
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Posts: 662
Joined: May 9, 2014 |
I had the same experience with KOB....off center hole punch.
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| Yup, blame the re-discovered benefits of vinyl playback..., posted on March 31, 2017 at 00:37:31 | |
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Posts: 6828
Location: Glen Burnie, MD USA Joined: December 18, 2003 |
The new demand for LPs is putting a strain on production from mostly old record presses. The older presses are being overhauled and the results are better than we had back when the LP was the main source for music. The problem is not just the older presses it is the lack of experience. This lack of experience exists on the part of the operators who run the presses and the management who run the companies who own the presses. And don't forget the companies who make the vinyl pellets and the materials used in mastering and plating the stampers. Some of the problems that we face are caused by repeating the same mistakes we made long ago. Things are getting better and the quality of the product coming out of LP pressings factories is improving. Yes, they are being overwhelmed by orders and that's a very good problem. It contributes to the mistakes mentioned above but those mistakes are being corrected and the quality is improving. The LPs made at RTI 10 years ago were worse than the product made now. Classic Records was using RTI for its production and they asked RTI to press the 200gm flat profile series of Classic LPs. If you think the 180 gram pressings have problems now, the 200gm Classic Records pressings had serious QC problems. It got so bad that Classic turned to another record plant and eventually they started buying up record presses and were in the process of creating their own pressing plant. I don't know exactly why, but at that point Classic sold out to Acoustic Sounds and the hardware that Classic acquired helped build Quality Records Pressing in Kansas. QRP makes some very fine LPs and they refitted the old presses that they re-built with modern sensors to monitor things like temperature and pressure in the record press. They also instituted computer control over the LP presses. The result is a record pressing plant second to none. RTI can make very good LPs but IMO QRP makes even better LPs. QRP is not the only act and many record pressing plants are operating and pressing some dammed fine product. Yes, there are exceptions but they are learning and tweaking the operation to produce better quality product. Of course there are lower quality pressing operations and companies who are taking advantage of the renewed interest in vinyl records. When I look at LPs I always check to see who pressed the record. Sometimes that helps ensure QC but nothing is a 100% guarantee. IMO we are entering a phase where the best LPs in the world are being pressed. LP production is targeted at people who value quality sound. LP are being re-released in formats that require multiple LPs when the original was a single LP. There are 45rpm releases, releases that are mastered with no peak limiting or compression and box set special releases to make the best quality LP possible. New record pressing machines are being built to create top quality LPs in high quantities. These new presses are just starting to be put into production. It is very interesting. It is not perfect but its getting better. As long as we keep on buying LPs, the industry behind the production will keep on improving. The modern technologies that have been discovered are also finding their way into LP production. LP pressing was a very crude process but it can and is being made better. Again, keep on buying LPs and they will get better. Ed Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
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