reubent,
In the hey day of vinyl, there were so many pressing plants running on all cylinders just to keep up with the demand. Also, then, (there was no other medium). So, the numbers in the dead wax are important in a historical perspective. As rushton pointed out, an early pressing is very desirable, but based on the pressing plant, who was operating the plant at the time and their knowledge and how that knowledge was implemented during the pressing and how "lucid" the operator was, has a lot to do with the pressing quality.
A WLP, (white label promo) lp that I referred to earlier, was a first run pressing that was mostly issued to radio stations to play to promote an artist' current song. I have personally been a fan of these lps as they are consistently better sounding IMO, from other pressings.
In the hey day of vinyl, there were so many pressing plants running on all cylinders just to keep up with the demand. Also, then, (there was no other medium). So, the numbers in the dead wax are important in a historical perspective. As rushton pointed out, an early pressing is very desirable, but based on the pressing plant, who was operating the plant at the time and their knowledge and how that knowledge was implemented during the pressing and how "lucid" the operator was, has a lot to do with the pressing quality.
A WLP, (white label promo) lp that I referred to earlier, was a first run pressing that was mostly issued to radio stations to play to promote an artist' current song. I have personally been a fan of these lps as they are consistently better sounding IMO, from other pressings.