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New Vinyl Defects

I'd like a little input from you vinylphiles out there.

My buying recently shifted back to almost exclusively vinyl rather than CD. I'm buying mostly "pre-owned", but recently purchased an armload of new and 180 gram pressings. A recent order of 4 LPs, 2 of them were defective. One is unplayable - it had label glue on the last track, and (this is the really odd part) the grooves were off-center, so much I could see the tonearm oscillating back and forth, and the sound was also oscillating. The other one wasn't so bad, or unusual, the first track had near-constant "scratching" sound for nearly the whole song. I recall this as being pretty common in "my before cd" days, but assumed with 180 gram LP's that the QC may be better.

Here's the questions:
1) is the above unusual? That is, is 50% defective - common, or anomaly?
2) What's the likelyhood that if I send back the second LP (Johnny Cash "American V: A Hundred Highways") for a replacement, that I'll get a good copy? I like it and will tolerate the first track if they're all bad.
bdgregory
bdgregory OP
1,719 posts
 
thanks for the input guys - I'm feeling better.

regarding some of the "provisional" points made above - a little background:

My turntable is a Pink Triangle Anniversary with a OL Modded Rega arm. I believe it's well tuned - most of the LP's I play are stunning - better than CDs on my Meridian 508.24 CD player.

I have a VPI 16.5 RCM and have have been buying used LP's by the armful during the last 2 months especially, but also during the last 2 years sporadically. I also had a collection of about 400 LPs I bought in the 70's. The defective albums were cleaned - but no use. Most of the used LP's I've bought cleaned up and sound great, except of course those that I don't really expect to be "pop free" (ie cheap/worn LPs I bought cause I wanted them cheap. net-net - I'm having good luck with used LPs and expect most of my purchases will be used . . . just thought it'd be nice to pick up some new ones too - especially those not available used.
hdm
1,063 posts
 
Upon further reflection, the 50% rate does seem extreme. And even the the records that I've bought with what I consider to be pretty awful quality control issues play reasonably well. It's just that it's super irritating to me when I buy the bulk of my vinyl for next to nothing and I pay $20 to $30 for a new record and it comes out of the jacket with scuffs, smeared label glue, plays noisy in spots, etc. At heart, I guess I am just a cheapskate. And Albert's point about the phono stage is also dead on and one that is not made very often. I'm in the process of upgrading my phono pre right now and cannot believe the reduction in surface noise/imperfections that it provides.
pawlowski6132's avatar
pawlowski6132
592 posts
 
Sounds like my experience mirrors yours however, not as bad:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1161453752&openmine&zzPawlowski6132&4&5#Pawlowski6132
hals_den
77 posts
 
Vinyl is somewhat unpredictable. I have bought brand new vinyl with lots of loud pops that never went away and have found and bought records that looked like they had survived countless late night Ultimate games at Chico State that sounded surprisingly okay.
I recommend checking out Last Record Preservative. Last was the first to explain to me why records develope pops in the first place. Since I've been using it, I don't expect pops on new records any more.
And I'm not sold on the heavy vinyl. Generally my lighter vinyl sounds better than the heavier.
oregon
829 posts
 
I'd return the defective new, 180 gram Lps. They ought to be pristene if advertised as new. No question. If the seller refuses, stay away from them and leave - feedback so we steer away.
Thanks.
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