What are Your Favorite and Most hated Record Manufacturers

We Need more contributions!!

Wow, people....just WOW!  This is the thread I was trying to or just wishing I could write.  I started thinking about how some of you must be curious about our treasure finds in reissues or even originals that sound amazing and are worth the price (high or low). 

The contributions above call on some very prolific labels/manufactures/distributors, etc.  These are exactly the entities I'm running into when I find a new music or reissues.  Some of the companies seem like they are doing good stuff.  But come on, we all know the folks above were spot on correct when they first said that economic pressures and lack of a industry standard or government imposed standard in divulging key information about the pressing hurts the market---it doesn't help it. 

Now that said, I've bought some stuff that was supposed to be junk and it's turned out to be fantastic. 

For example,  I think there are threads out there in audio forums where people pronounce RCA's "Dynaflex" as even worse than its "Dynagroove" product.  I do appreciate what they say about production quality and cutting expenses.  But I've bought great Dynaflex original pressings from the early 1970s that sound glorious here.  

I have to say....I thought the nuances of vacuum tubes were something to master.  One could argue there's more consistency amongst valve manufacturers of certain periods than record pressings.  It's a jungle out there.   Ugh...I thought spending money on music was going to be less expensive than upgrading a slot in my chain.  Now, my system wants to dine on 4 star meals--top quality source material--every night.  What happened when the hifi was a cheap date? :)

1. Sackville:  A lesser known label.  Not state of the art, but everything is musical coming out of this Canadian entity.  Overall their records sound smooth yet natural.  Everything flows and they show off musicality and your system without sounding like cheesy or boring demonstration things.   Many records that sound simply lovely playing in the background.  Others sound that way too but can swoon you with the humble realism of the mic-to-tape-to-vinyl process.  They put some good stuff out in the 1970s and into the 80s.  Still "affordable".
2. Impex Records.  Holy cow.  Not cheap and they deliver in spades.  Tiny catalog.  I have no information on how much it might be trying to grow or about company.  The stuff I have tried makes me feel that the money I've spent on my system is justified.  I don't think about the price of the record.  It's been that good for me--in my limited experience. 
3. Impulse Reissues.  I think they are under the MCA umbrella or somebody bigger. They seem to almost always sound B+/A- off the shelf.  
4. Pablo Records.   

and so on!.....

The older Pablo records could be very bad. I have a Sarah Vaughn record that hurts to listen to. It is so noisy. I stick to the CD reissues.

Damaged records are another problem. I just had an episode with Blue Note a division of United Artists. I ordered the new Ambrose Akinmusire album, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment." The firs copy came do dished I you not get it to seal on the Cosmos and it actually teeter-tottered under the tonearm. The second copy was exactly the same. I told them they had a problem with this entire batch. The third and forth copies were just as bad. They did not ask for the defective copies back so I started experimenting with a heat gun and managed to get one flat enough to play. Do not buy this record for at least a year. My guess is that one side of the press was not heating correctly so as the record cooled it dished. Nobody noticed and all their bureaucracy could do was keep sending me defective ones even though I warned them the whole batch was defective. I should have just asked for a refund.