Todays new vinyl LP's better than LP's 40 yrs ago?

Good answer.

I think a lot of new issues are digitally mastered despite being delivered on vinyl. Not all old records sound great. Some of these could be digitally remastered as well and hence sound "better" as a result of the remastering.

Records have always been a crap shoot in regards to good sound. Same true now I would think. The difference now is that new ones cost a lot more and there are a lot of quality control issues that seem to still surround them as well.

In the case of reissues, it depends a lot on the current condition of the original tapes. I have a 45 (Bill Evans' (Quintessence) that doesn't sound as good as the 33 1/3 Fantasy original. On the other hand, many of the reissue 45s and 33s sound absolutely terrific.

And some LPs from the 70s and 80s were pretty crappy to begin with.

I find new vinyl just as erratic as old vinyl. Some are great, a lot are mediocre, and some are poor.

If you read about the process of making LPs, there are so many steps involved (and each one is an opportunity for something to go wrong) it is kind of a miracle any LP makes it out of the factory in good shape.

And even if great care is taken during manufacturing, whether new production or old, somebody has to get the LPs from the end of a production run before they replace the stampers.