Todays new vinyl LP's better than LP's 40 yrs ago?

>>03-03-10: Mlsstl
but I think my central point is that LP quality has always been and still is the luck of the draw.<<

That is the flaw in your argument.

There was more consistency and higher quality years ago.

One example, your Savoy Brown album, is an isolated case and does not support your position well. Everybody has at least one or two clunkers from the old days. The chance of buying junk today is far greater. I've been doing this far too long to believe otherwise.

Thank you

You will find exceptions for everything, but in general, the older LP's are MUCH better than the new ones. More silent, not so sensitive for scratches, much better vinyl mixes, top quality even with 90gr pressings for a few $...
A lot of knowledge was lost when the plants closed in the 90's.

Audiofeil wrote: That is the flaw in your argument.

There was more consistency and higher quality years ago.

You seem fond of telling me about my own experience. Interesting!

I've been transferring my well cared for LPs to digital for my music server over the past 7 or 8 years. This has involved substantially more than 2,000 LPs, many from the era you laud.

My experience is that truly pristine and exceptional pressings have never been routine or commonplace. The majority is certainly acceptable, but I don't get too excited about lauding mediocrity.

Perhaps we just looking for different things. ;-)

Back in the pre-CD era there were constant complaints about vinyl quality. The vaunted Mercury Living Presence series came in for LOT of criticism about noisy surfaces. Warps and off-center pressings were rife. One of the reasons CDs were so highly praised at the beginning was the abysmal quality of vinyl at that time. You had to be there to remember how bad things were. I was.

Today's reissues are by and large much better in terms of pressing quality, flatness and pops/clicks. I know folks have problems with this, but if they think things are bad, they should have been buying records in the past. I'm not talking sonics; sound quality (of reissues) hinges on the condition of the tapes.

Expectations for vinyl are high among a smaller dedicated group these days. That may be part of it.