Any advice on buying quality vinyl

@playpen: "RCA living stereo’s are the most difficult records to clean. It took my years to figure how to get rid of their noise,it takes time and many cleanings and playings but worth it"

Yes and...I have spent years experimenting with cleaning methods and chemistry. The current manual approach I use is as good as, if not better, than most machines including ultrasonic units. I have done the comparisons.

Deep cleaning RCA’s does help some but there is a perceptible noise floor on most I have listened to, even sealed records (I have grudgingly opened). There have been some exceptions of course, but I attribute those that play very quietly to ideal storage conditions. For most RCA’s, under average conditions, they don’t age as well as equally old records from other premium labels from DECCA and Deutsche Grammophon Gesellshaft.

Maybe we should compare notes sometime on cleaning records?. 

This is hijacking the thread, sorry....

I will assume RCA was aware of the noise floor in their late 50's and 60's pressings because they tried to fix the problem with their Dynaflex pressings in 1969. 

A quote from a site: "Opinions from record collectors and audiophiles are divided as to Dynaflex's sound quality. Some felt that the sound quality actually improved, due to better processes for removing impurities in the vinyl compounds" 

Whether you like the thinner (floppier) pressings and ignoring whether it was a smoke screen to sell less expensive (to make) LP's, RCA claimed a new "miracle surface" that played quieter. Actually, the problem was either impurities in the vinyl (not virgin vinyl) or the plasticizers that were not doing their job. 
 

Wasn’t it "Dynagroove"- Dynaflex was just thinner, right? Hans Fantel was famously touting Dynagroove back in the day.
I don’t mind thinner records.
A copy of this came in yesterday, on this thinnest vinyl I think I’ve ever encountered. Staggering, sonically and sublime musically. Not easy to find. 
https://flic.kr/p/23WrviD

@voiceofvinyl,

I can appreciate your expertise as a veteran record dealer, but are you seriously suggesting that DGG is to be compared to Decca? It's a generally acknowledged fact that the vast majority of DGG records sound mediocre and dynamically flat compared to any vintage RCA and Mercury, let alone Decca.

I don't know where your quote is coming from, but as fas as I know there isn't much debate amongst audiophiles that RCA's Dynaflex - like their equally desastrous Dynagroove mastering procedure - was one of the biggest backward steps in the history of the gramophone. The suggestion that Dynaflex was an attempt to fix noisy vinyl is one of the strangest things I've ever read on this topic.

Besides I don't understand where you get the idea that early RCA Living Stereo pressings are noisier than others from that era. In my experience the Indianapolis pressings (easily recognized by the 'I' in the dead wax) are mostly dead quiet, just like the early Mercury Living Presence records that were also manufactured there.

The Indy pressings are generally considered the benchmark of quality for classical stereo records in the late 50's and early 60's, along with Decca's New Malden pressings. This is why original pressings on both these labels are coveted by audiophile collectors, who generally ignore DGG and Dynaflex era RCA's.

@edgwear,

I was only saying that most of the early DGG and some later DG pressings play black quiet.

As far as the sonics, yes, I find that the some of the early DGG red stereo pressings have a very natural tonality, good soundstage and great transients- as good as the best DECCA ffss blue backs and Speaker Corner issues I have listened to. My Asian audiophile buyers seem to feel that way as well. That said, not all DECCA labels are high-quality, you know that.

I don’t like the RCA Dynagroove pressings myself. The later Dynaflex (floppies) are too thin for me as they seem to allow rumble to interfere with the reproduction. But the sonics on some are excellent.

The quote I shared was from an RCA history site I archived. If it is accurate, then I can only assume that RCA engineers were aware of a running noise problem.

My experience with early RCA Living Stereo records is different than yours. I do hear audible running noise on most. Even the sealed Indianapolis copies my curiosity has compelled me to open and sample. I can’t argue it- it’s just there on most I play. In general, I find early German pressings and later Japanese pressings to play black quiet. The vinyl on mint copies of these also looks different to my eyes- they look like a sheet of black glass. The early RCA vinyl looks brittle and is prone to be slightly cloudy looking.

My listening experience may differ from a lot of collectors and audiophiles. I only offer it.