Recording Quality and Different Studios

Buying vinyl is very hit and miss and can be very frustrating. Like you said there are a lot of hipster labels that put out trash. I have found the company Acoustic Sounds to put out very consistent high quality vinyl. You just have to make sure that they are the one's pressing the vinyl and it is coming from the original master tapes. I always call over there and discuss it with someone before I buy. I know it's more time consuming this way but you have a better chance of getting the better quality vinyl this way. 

Certain artists are known to care a great deal about the sound quality of their recordings. Ry Cooder, for example, works very hard at getting good tone out of his guitars and amps (and succeeding magnificently!), and did the first digital Pop album (Bop Till You Drop), but hated the sound of his guitar on that album. When he heard a Water Lily album, he was stunned, and has been on a few WL albums. Recorded sound quality is not reliably recording studio related, but more recording engineer related. One studio in which a fair number of good soundings albums have been recorded, however, is Ocean Way in Santa Monica, California.

Is acoustic sounds related to music direct at all?  They have the same holiday discount code...  just seems odd.  

I looked through ACs site - i'll be ordering next from them.  Really good stuff.  Thanks for the suggestions.  

@bdp24 - is there an easy way to look through an Ocean Way catalog?  

 

Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds are direct competitors, each with a associated record company wholly owned by the company or its principal. Music Direct  (principal-Jim Davis) owns Mobile Fidelity and its assets including mastering chain.
Chad Kassem owns Acoustic Sounds as well as Analogue Productions/Quality Record Pressing and is making an all out assault to be engaged in every aspect of record production from mastering to pressing the biscuits to printing the record jackets to selling the final product.
There are also Soundstagedirect, Elusive Disc and others. For getting my records delivered without bends, folds, dents, etc--Acoustic Sounds and Soundstagedirect are the best.
They all compete so when one has a holiday sale, the others often follow.