Vinyl has really gone downhill

Hajidub said:
Through inflation the price today is the same as it was 40 years ago. Today's releases, minus the premium presses, might have a higher warp average due to the limited number of pressing plants (when compared to "back then"). They're overburdened beyond belief and tend to sleeve albums before cooling, causing the warp. Of course there are a handful of pressing plants left that take pride in QC.
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It's never been warping for me always , noisy and scratchy being the major factors . Once again . me personally , I have never seen any new HQ touted vinyl priced for under $20 . Unless it is on closeout .
 
ReactiveLoad said:
Vinyl was never the only thing to buy. It's only ever been the cheapest thing to buy.
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It was the only thing to buy where I shopped. Only other choice was reel to reel - the selection was limited and mail order didn't stop the money from burning a hole in my pocket.
 
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zebra03 said:
It's never been warping for me always , noisy and scratchy being the major factors . Once again . me personally , I have never seen any new HQ touted vinyl priced for under $20 . Unless it is on closeout .
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Not sure what HQ is, sorry. $8 in 1980 is equivalent to $25.56 today. Hopefully you clean your albums after purchase and prior to play, otherwise it could just be crappy engineering or press.
 
Hajidub said:
Not sure what HQ is, sorry. $8 in 1980 is equivalent to $25.56 today. Hopefully you clean your albums after purchase and prior to play, otherwise it could just be crappy engineering or press.
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You don't know what HQ is ? High Quality .

Sorry , I'm still going by 1984 and that is still not $21 today . I sure didn't spend $8 for an album back then either .

I have 45 your old records I purchased my self and they are still quiet . I must be doing something right . ;)
 
FluxT said:
The few I've bought on Amazon were OK, but a couple had to be returned for warps. I quit shopping on Amazon in general recently, and get my records from local shops, online retailers like BandCamp and Discogs, and even other big box stores. Haven't seen a scuff or a warp since. My guess is that Amazon buys up all the iffy stock to keep the prices down and supply high, or stuff just gets damaged in those giant hotbox warehouses and nightmarish shipping rushes.
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A lot of the products sold by amazon are vendor owned ,amazon is basically just the middleman.All that ive got so far were vendor supplied with the furthest away coming from Dusseldorf Germany of all places.My friend is in a band and they decided to get a run of 550 albums cut .I have number one.What was odd to me is that its 45 speed not 33.Why would that be?Quality is good.Its red.
 
zebra03 said:
I was going by the last time I was serious about vinyl (1984) which puts $7 at $18.01 . Not much new HQ vinyl at $18 . My point stands .
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But you said “I expect more from today’s releases” meaning today, right? So no, your point is confused at best. Because....it isn’t 1984.
 
onwardjames said:
I've seen both sides of this argument. I have my own experiences, and thus, my own biases.

I think that the world is still able to make incredible vinyl reproduction, but my own experience has been pretty unremarkable in regard to new pressings. Horrifically off-center pressings, bad masters, clearly some made from a heavily compressed cd file, you name it.

Maybe where you live and where you buy from makes a difference? All I know is, if I have to transfer another heavily packaged, expensive pressing, only to find that same lathe rumble I heard out of EVERY pressing from Nashville, I'm gonna scream.

I literally have a noise file sample to remove this, such is the prevalence.
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Wonder if that's the old Scully at what was Nashville Record Productions, now United Record Pressing. I suspect that Wes Garland is still using that old Scully lathe to this day.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Wonder if that's the old Scully at what was Nashville Record Productions, now United Record Pressing. I suspect that Wes Garland is still using that old Scully lathe to this day.
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Kent, all I know is that I see the same revolution-dependent rumble (to me, sounds like a bad bearing) in so very many of these. I've become adept at removal when I transfer, but damn, man. I'd be pissed if I had to listen to that thru a TT.
 
I bought a record recently which has little bits of paper embedded in it, causing loud popping noises when they pass.

My issue with new vinyl isn't so much the quality, but more the price. There's so many records in the $45 - $50+ CDN category, it's starting to look like price gouging to me. Even the record stores tell me that sales would be way better if they could sell them for $30 each. I've heard every possible reason for why they're so expensive, but the fact is it's a low tech mass produced product, and I just don't believe that the only way it is economically viable is if records are close to $50 a piece. Heck you can get a cheap cell phone for $100, which takes probably 1000 times more work to make than a single LP. I think the idea is to treat them as a luxury good, and to make as much money as possible while demand remains strong.
 
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maxhifi said:
I bought a record recently which has little bits of paper embedded in it, causing loud popping noises when they pass.

My issue with new vinyl isn't so much the quality, but more the price. There's so many records in the $45 - $50+ CDN category, it's starting to look like price gouging to me. Even the record stores tell me that sales would be way better if they could sell them for $30 each. I've heard every possible reason for why they're so expensive, but the fact is it's a low tech mass produced product, and I just don't believe that the only way it is economically viable is if records are close to $50 a piece. Heck you can get a cheap cell phone for $100, which takes probably 1000 times more work to make than a single LP. I think the idea is to treat them as a luxury good, and to make as much money as possible while demand remains strong.
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It may be a low-tech product, but a lot of the people who knew how to run a record plant and maintain the machines are dead or retired. If demand exceeds the ability to ramp supply, prices go up. Here's what happened to the plant where I used to work: https://www.wnep.com/video/news/loc...edafb-9387-4c19-973e-aaa1a3cd5855?jwsource=cl . It was one of the largest media manufacturing facilities in the world at its peak.
 
maxhifi said:
I bought a record recently which has little bits of paper embedded in it, causing loud popping noises when they pass.

My issue with new vinyl isn't so much the quality, but more the price. There's so many records in the $45 - $50+ CDN category, it's starting to look like price gouging to me. Even the record stores tell me that sales would be way better if they could sell them for $30 each. I've heard every possible reason for why they're so expensive, but the fact is it's a low tech mass produced product, and I just don't believe that the only way it is economically viable is if records are close to $50 a piece. Heck you can get a cheap cell phone for $100, which takes probably 1000 times more work to make than a single LP. I think the idea is to treat them as a luxury good, and to make as much money as possible while demand remains strong.
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Paper in records is not a new thing at all. Also $50 is roughly double what most records cost, most new records I buy are about $24. Saying records are $50 and you can buy a cell phone for $100 is strange thing to say when most records are half that and most cell phones are 6-8 times that much.
Edit: Just saw you were in Canada so my comment might not hold true in your area
 
BamaBilly said:
Paper in records is not a new thing at all. Also $50 is roughly double what most records cost, most new records I buy are about $24. Saying records are $50 and you can buy a cell phone for $100 is strange thing to say when most records are half that and most cell phones are 6-8 times that much.
Edit: Just saw you were in Canada so my comment might not hold true in your area
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Yeah could be localized price gouging, I usually do buy a lot of vinyl when I go to the US. $24 would be a title they're trying to get rid of around here.
 
maxhifi said:
Yeah could be localized price gouging, I usually do buy a lot of vinyl when I go to the US. $24 would be a title they're trying to get rid of around here.
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Ah gotcha, that’s a shame. I don’t buy a ton of new vinyl but when I do they’re USUALLY around $24. The exception being double LP’s and the Tone Poet series from Blue Note, and absolutely worth the extra money. Thing about records though, if it’s a good pressing it won’t depreciate like other media does, most of the time anyway.
 
BamaBilly said:
Ah gotcha, that’s a shame. I don’t buy a ton of new vinyl but when I do they’re USUALLY around $24. The exception being double LP’s and the Tone Poet series from Blue Note, and absolutely worth the extra money. Thing about records though, if it’s a good pressing it won’t depreciate like other media does, most of the time anyway.
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That's why I always come home from the US with heavy suitcases when I'm there on business. Hopefully once things are back to normal I'll be doing that again! Haven't been able to travel lately so I just assumed you guys were subject to the same price gouging as we have been lately.. looks not, which is great to hear!
 
onwardjames said:
Kent, all I know is that I see the same revolution-dependent rumble (to me, sounds like a bad bearing) in so very many of these. I've become adept at removal when I transfer, but damn, man. I'd be pissed if I had to listen to that thru a TT.
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Some records do have a noisy run-out groove, but not during the music portion. Those noisy grooves are from moving the lathe rather quickly, In the old days, the run-out was fairly close together, now they look like they are more then .25" apart on the spiral.
 
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