I have a number of 180g recordings and can't recall any warped ones. Audiophile recordings are for a tough crowd and perhaps more care is taken in their manufacturing. OTOH, most folks my age (nearing 70) will have less than fond memories of making additional trips to the record store to return hopelessly warped commercial recordings during the 1970s (when vinyl got cheaper and thinner).
Heavy Vinyl
I did a search and see that this hasn't been discussed in quite a while. Heavy vinyl is touted as being better for sound quality. I wonder about this. For a start, it is more susceptible to warps and particularly those short duration warps that really give the cartridge a hard time. Second, in my own listening across a fairly extensive record collection, I'm not hearing any particular sonic revelations from heavier records. I'm more inclined to believe that the critical factor is the quality of the vinyl and the stampers used rather than the thickness of it. Other thoughts?
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IMHO the weight of the vinyl has pretty much zero to do with the sound. I have some great sounding albums from the 70's that flex like crazy. The sound is going to be affected by a host of other things, one of which is who mastered the music in the first place. If it was a lousy recording to start with, having it on heavier vinyl or even remastered, won't fix it. Specifically, I am thinking the first Chicago album (CTA), and Carol King's Tapestry - two of my fav albums (you can tell I am an old fart) but IMHO kinda muddy sound, even the remastered versions. And then released around the same time, BS&T 2 - incredible sound and music. My best sounding albums have one of the following guys (all guys) as the mastering engineer - they are normally listed in the fine print on the back of the album or in the liner notes somewhere: - Bernie Grundman; Stan Ricker; Kevin Gray; Steve Hoffman; Roy Halee; Bill Schnee; Doug Sax; George Marino; Todd Wunderlich (MoFi). I am sure there are others, but if I see one of these names, then I know it will be great sounding record. Also the label - Analogue Productions - IMHO - seems to do the best job of re-issues and re-masters. MoFi is also good, notwithstanding their lawsuit and marketing. There are other labels that are defunct that produced some great sounding music - you can find them on Discogs - Umbrella, from Canada; Crystal Clear Records, M&K Real-time; Recut Records (Sweden) - again, a short list from my old memory. YMMV of course. |
Boy I remember those. They were beyond awful! |
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