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Warps on 'premium' records - getting worse?

K

kingston12

pfm Member
Apologies, I know that this has been done to death, but has anyone else noticed a recent uptick in the number of warped records they are getting from the higher priced reissue labels?

I get a very high percentage of warped records with 'standard' issues and generally accept it unless it affects play, but series like Tone Poet and the Verve Acoustic Sound Series have generally been fine. I'm now finding probably at least 25% of those are warped quite badly.

The latest examples have been the John Patton TP (three copies before a flat one turned up) and the Mingus Pre-Bird AS (second copy on order), but it's definitely worse this year than last in my experience.
 
The QC in the American plants (QRP/RTI) is all over the place at the moment. They're probably pressing too quickly without allowing sufficient time for cooling is my theory. One way or another they're stuffing warped records into jackets.
 
Yes, im thinking the same. All my tone poets and acoustic sounds reissues have been flawless though. they put them in loose wrappers but other stuff is being shrink wrapped when the record is still warm and getting dished. Craft recordings used to be top quality pressings but the last title I bought from them at nearly £40 looked like it had been dropped and skated around the plant floor before being wrapped. I actually took this pressing back to the store and swapped. I opened the replacement at the counter and it was just as bad. I then opened the 3rd copy at the counter and it was even worse! dust, scratches grease palm print and un-centered and dished! got a refund and bought another record. that was clean but totally dished so another refund. prices are high and quality is low right now. interestingly I bought a used Mingus from MOV and that was perfect but was pressed a couple years back.
 
I have simply given up on purchasing vinyl now, everything I've bought in last year has been warped or dished, or scratched. All my existing good vinyl has been ripped to hi-res digital so I'm not even playing it now.

And the new prices are just stupid now anyway.
 
alanbeeb said:
I have simply given up on purchasing vinyl now, everything I've bought in last year has been warped or dished, or scratched. All my existing good vinyl has been ripped to hi-res digital so I'm not even playing it now.

And the new prices are just stupid now anyway.
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I think give it 6 months and quality might be on track again.
 
Recently bought the 45rpm 2-disc 'Rumours' and LP1 has a very tiny warp. Absolutely no impact on how it sounds, but it gnaws away at my mild OCD, especially given what this set cost :mad:
 
Generally been really lucky with Tone Poets, Verve/ Acoustic Sounds but last 2 (Roy Haynes & Wayne Shorter Schizophrenia). had to go back. Replacement Shorter was fine but now waiting for a new copy of the Haynes as it's currently "o/s" at the distribution centre.
 
The orange vinyl edition of the Coltrane Village Gate LP had huge 1cm warps in both discs. It sounds like lots of other people received something similar so something went very wrong with the pressing.

Bought direct from the Decca store. Two weeks before anyone responded to my emails - then only to say they were out of stock and couldn't replace. Send the warped copy back as requested and had to spend another four weeks sending nagging emails to eventually get a refund.

Should have bought the CD from Amazon...
 
I've had to return 3 of my last 4 LP's, Patton Tone Poet (very noisy at the end of first side, slightly warped), Lee Dorsey Ride your Pony (dished) and the Universal SD Aja (non fill on first side, the sleeve was ruined, glue marks everywhere).

Its disappointing.
 
alanbeeb said:
What is going to bring about the improvement?
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when all the folk that jumped on the vinyl bandwagon to make a quick buck and its not trendy and cool anymore and the demand goes down. I think a lot of new adopters could be getting fedup with the very high prices and very low quality. These things come in waves and ill be very happy when its over and pressing plants arnt over run with work putting out bad pressings etc. Even record store day is being boycotted by lots of the independent stores it was supposed to help because the titles are pretty dire, check the RSD Black Friday list for this year...its just a cash grab now. Check HMV and their out of this world prices on vinyl...
 
I buy a load of current vinyl and I don’t feel it is any worse than it was in the late-70s and especially ’80s. I’d argue the period from about 1988 through to 2000 was by far the worst period. Just so much dubious likely recycled vinyl served up without ‘groove-guard‘ contour (the raised run-in and label designed to protect the surface from auto-changer damage which also really helped against sleeve scuffs etc). Just nasty stuff that on the whole hasn’t survived, e.g. go out and find me a genuinely mint original pressing of Peter Gabriel’s So! All destroyed by the inner unless the original owner popped it straight into a Nagaoka or similar inner.

I do agree warps are more of an issue now. That’s a 180g thing. There is no excuse for it. 140g is the right weight.

One thing that has improved hugely is colour vinyl. It sounds absolutely fine now, even extreme splits and splatters. I remember the days of say the gold New Boots And Panties or the luminous vinyl of Penetration’s Moving Targets (former sounds awful and is noisy, latter just noisy).

Mailers have improved hugely too. It is very, very rare I get a corner ding on a new record these days. Pretty much inevitable with mail order in the 80s-2000s.
 
Thanks all. What actually ma
mikechadwick said:
Generally been really lucky with Tone Poets, Verve/ Acoustic Sounds but last 2 (Roy Haynes & Wayne Shorter Schizophrenia). had to go back. Replacement Shorter was fine but now waiting for a new copy of the Haynes as it's currently "o/s" at the distribution centre.
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They were two of the only ones recently that I got good copies of first time, so it just shows how random it is.
 
The Optimal Classic Series has been pretty impressive for a while now.

I saw a recent interview with the owner of SAM records in Paris who inspects every record himself. He says that he rejects close to 50%.
 
gavreid said:
The Optimal Classic Series has been pretty impressive for a while now.

I saw a recent interview with the owner of SAM records in Paris who inspects every record himself. He says that he rejects close to 50%.
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The Classic Series is definitely better than TP/AS in this regard.

I'm still trying to get a flat copy of Pre-Vird on AS, and am worried that Amazon will start questioning my return rate before I get one!
 
Give the price of vinyl it’s all premium now, seriously why bother? You would go back to restaurant which served up such poor quality.
 
The vast majority is fine, it sounds great, supports the artists, and is often an appreciating asset. Why would you buy anything else?
 
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