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What are Your Favorite and Most hated Record Manufacturers

I have had great luck with Analog Productions and Friday Music.
I will not buy another Rycodisc pressing.
At the end of this thread I will make a list of the most loved and hated record companies. Hopefully this will make life easier for us vinyl lovers and we can send a message to the bad companies by not purchasing their products and just maybe they will increase their quality. 

Mike
128x128mijostyn
jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller
1,444 posts
 
  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!.....


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mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
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.   
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,381 posts
 
Don't know how I missed this thread. Most of the big winners and losers have been called out. Love the list from @spiritofradio. A couple I didn't see:

Great:  Acony  (Gillian Welch & David Rawling's label
The Tone Poet and Blue Note Classic series

Might be great...Sam Records raves everywhere, I've got a couple on my holiday wishlist.

Underrated: OJC aka Original Jazz Classics still great values, especially used.

Bad: DOL the worst overpriced reissues.

Lately, I've been impressed with almost everything recently pressed at QRP and RTI; that wasn't the case a few years ago. QA improvements across the board! Cheers,
Spencer
bslon's avatar
bslon
2,239 posts
 

I don’t know how I missed it either, here goes

Friday Music- 1 star

The last 2 records were warped and unplayable, the other 2: Sonics-3 stars

Analogue Productions- 5 stars

MoFi- 5 stars

Columbia- 5 stars

Columbia/EMI- 5 stars

MCA- 5 stars

Impex- 5 stars

Geffen- 5 stars

Stiff- 4 stars

Music On Vinyl- 5 stars

ATCO- 4 stars

Chrysalis- 5 stars

Atlantic- 5 stars

RCA Victor- 5 stars

Reprise- 5 stars

Cotillion- 4 stars

Decca- 5 stars

Hollywood Records- 5 stars

DCC Compact Classics- 5 stars

I.R.S.- 4 stars

Paradise of Bachelors- 5 stars

A&M- 5 stars

Anchor Records- 5 stars


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