Recording Quality and Different Studios

SpeakersCorner, GrooveNote are a couple other companies I have gotten excellent records from. The whole recording chain though is as important. Pretty much anything Daniel Lanois as a producer(or musician(BlackDub)touched floated my boat, for example. Pallas is a great pressing plant and can be a good sign. The Zappa reissues cut at Pallas remastered from Original tape and mastered by Grundman pretty much blow my mind. MusicMatters is another label that seems worth checking out but no personal experience. 

I placed an order with acousticsounds and just received it yesterday.  I'll be checking it out this weekend.  I'm sooo impressed with the catalog!  

I'm pretty down on music direct.  Last year I ordered some of the Pink Floyd reissues - wish you were here and dark side.  Dark side arrived late (by like 3 weeks) and the package was damaged to the point that the vinyl was scratched.  I had to call them and figure out where they sent it as the tracking info was stale.  They gave me such a hard time on an exchange.  Eventually, after talking to a manager, they offered an exchange, but wanted me to pay shipping back.  Ridiculous.   Since then, I will *never* order anything from them.  Very poor customer service.  

martinman
As much as I like the staff at Music Direct, I have never understood the company's stubborn refusal to properly pack vinyl for shipping. Acoustic Sounds creates that cardboard slope at each end of the vinyl cardboard package which absorb corner dents that ALWAYS happen in shipping, Soundstagedirect has internal cardboard bumpers that do so as well. I don't recall the last time I received a album jacket that was damaged anywhere based on the great packaging by both of the above.
Music Direct's packing, with its hard 90 degree corners near the corner of the album jacket practically exacerbate the corner crushes that occur in shipping and often crush at least one corner of the album or albums within. I realize it's not the end of the world but why should I bother with them when I can get a clean new album from another co. By the way, I have alerted MD to the problem a few times over the years but to no avail. So I rarely buy from them anymore. Am I alone?  

gpgr4blu -- I will never order anything from Music Direct again.  Based on my experience with their customer service.  I ordered $50 worth of vinyl not a $5k amplifier.  Ridiculous.  You're exactly right about the packaging.  In total, my package was bounced around for 3 weeks in the back of a USPS truck.  It clearly wasn't prepared for the journey adequately.  

If I buy vinyl mail order I will only deal with Acoustic Sounds. They pack the best and When I had a problem they took care of it promptly. I have been hearing a lot of negative things about Music Direct lately. In the past they were always good. I don't know what happened with them.