New vinyl sound quality

[KDX01]

I've been listening to some of my old vinyl - quite a big collection of mainly dance music 12" singles. The sound quality on some, probably, many of those is unbelievably good.

Having not bought any new vinyl for a long time I found myself thumbing through the selection in HMV and came away with the Maroon 5 LP selected at semi-random (as in - I knew I liked their stuff, but wasn't looking for anything in particular).

The sound quality on this is so bad it's hard to even listen to. It sounds like someone mastered the CD first, and then used the CD as the master for the LP. Without seeking to start that debate, I just can't be bothered listening to stuff on CD, it does nothing for me, and I've always suspected this is due to me perceiving the "gaps" in the music caused by the sampling rate making it sound like "most of the music is missing". So this LP doesn't even have the benefits of CD (e.g. wider frequency range? Forgive, I'm not an expert) but doesn't have the benefits of vinyl either, the worst of both worlds.

I do have a few (literally, out of about 400) other older records which sound like that but conversely, older tracks like Paffendorf's "Be Cool" (I'm not sure everyone will recognise that one, still..) sound chilling, better than anything I've heard recently.

I thought that, some time ago, I spotted reviews of new music which also included comments about the sound quality, but I have a feeling that was biased towards the classical and easy listening type genres as opposed to the latest dance stuff.

Given this is the first LP I've bought in years... is this common or normal now? Is it because I've picked up essentially a "pop" album and an "audiophile" album would be mastered better, or is it just bad luck that this particular one is especially poor?

 

[bretty]

In general, it's pot luck, when it comes to SQ on new vinyl. I've got some that sound flat as a pancake, but conversely, I've got some that are just superb. It really seems to depend on the label some care much more about SQ than others. My favourite is 'Music on vinyl'

 

[Al ears]

Agree it is a bit of a minefield but there are many good vinyl producers, MOV being just one, around these days.

With the current pricing of vinyl I make pretty sure I only buy from ones that I trust or items that have been reviwed (HiFi+ magazine hve a very good, though somewhat limited, section on vinyl with ratings for 'music' and 'recording'.

I'd like to see much more of this in hifi mags alongside actual equipment reviews because equipment can, if needed, actually be auditioned prior to purchase whereas vinyl cannot (under normal circumstances).

 

[p_m_brown]

I used to favour MOV as a label but after having 4 faulty (warped and or noisy) records in the last month, I'm not as keen!

 

[MakkaPakka]

Complete pot luck on new releases as said. I've got some that sound brilliant but several others that sound worse compared to my auditioning the album on spotify.

I've also had a couple of new releases that could best be described as pringle-esque the warping is so bad.

 

[The_Lhc]

Without seeking to start that debate, I just can't be bothered listening to stuff on CD, it does nothing for me, and I've always suspected this is due to me perceiving the "gaps" in the music caused by the sampling rate making it sound like "most of the music is missing".

Sorry, but you fundamentally do not understand how digital sampling works, there are no "gaps in the music", everything up to 22.05kHz is reproduced *perfectly* on CD. So anything you think is missing is just your own misbeliefs prejudicing your hearing.

 

[Waxy]

Without seeking to start that debate, I just can't be bothered listening to stuff on CD, it does nothing for me, and I've always suspected this is due to me perceiving the "gaps" in the music caused by the sampling rate making it sound like "most of the music is missing".

Been listening to Norman Collier CDs?

 

[The_Lhc]

Either way the point isn't entirely relevant to the original question, the answer to that is simply if you listen to Maroon 5 you deserve everything you get frankly.

They may well have just used the CD master in that case but I've got plenty of new vinyl that sounds fantastic.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Warped records can't really be blamed on the manufacturer as it is more down to how they've been stored before purchase. I visited the Beatles museum in Liverpool recently, who had a couple of Ikea racks with some vinyl on, some of which was sitting at a 45 degree angle (with staff standing around doing nothing). My local HMV and the HMV local to my girlfriend have no idea how to store or display vinyl. This is partly due to lazy browsers who leave vinyl displays in a right state (extremely irritating), but there's nothing to stop an employee checking on it regularly and tidying it up. It doesn't help when retailers stuff too much vinyl into a space, which in turn ends up with browsers forcing (bending) the vinyl forwards in order to see what is behind.

 

[thescarletpronster]

I've found it a really mixed bag. A lot of dodgy pressings (particularly US pressings for some reason) and some superb ones. Among the best pressings were ones from Domino Records (two Anna Calvi LPs and Immunity by Jon Hopkins) - just superb with loads of depth and subtlety and no noise at all. Then I discovered they've recently moved their releases to a new pressing plant; hope the quality won't suffer as a result.

 

[KDX01]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I was just a little unlucky with this one, though as was commented, you can't preview the sound quality before buying.

I basically stopped buying music when vinyl began to die since you can listen to stuff on say YouTube and to my ears it does sound worse then CD, but put the other way around, the CD is not good enough for me to buy it; if I'm going to buy music to listen to for an "experience" in front of the Hi Fi then I want to be impressed with it and really feel that the performance is happening right in front of me. Otherwise YouTube TV will do.

Getting the turntable up and running again has brought back the musical experience, stuff I'd only listened to digitally for years suddenly comes to life with reams of detail, space, soundstaging and imagery that you just don't hear in the digital copy. The clarity is breathtaking at times.

So if I'm going to actually reward the music industry and the artist by buying their stuff it would be lovely if some attention to detail were paid to the quality of it, since you can't take an LP back as "not being of merchantable quality" easily (in respect of the manufacture, not the music).

Maroon 5 was an impulse choice I'll go for an Example one next and see how that sounds. I've been so out of the loop for a few years, and most of the stuff I like is Italian (current: Paola Peroni, Giacomo Ghinazzi) so I suspect I'll have a hard time tracking down the vinyl of that and it will cost a fortune.

If when it arrives it sounds as appalling as the CDs then I think I'll just stick with my old collection, YouTube TV, and buy just the occasional thing on iTunes for 99p as I have been doing for years which is actually what I'd expected to do anyway as I didn't even know stuff was being released on vinyl again.

But fingers crossed the next one will be better, thanks for the tips. I'll go on a record buying spree online at the weekend.

 

[thescarletpronster]

Paola Peroni has three 12"s listed on Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/51363-Paola-Peroni - and two of them are available pretty cheaply there. Giacomo Ghinazzi seems to be download-only.

 

[KDX01]

Thanks for that - great tip; I knew there was an online dance vinyl seller - I think I'll be spending some time on there.

They even have my "audition" single, which she produced - 1994, Logic/BMG, House Traffic - "Everyday of my Life" - my all time favourite tune, it's actually quite hard to drive and for a turntable to play it very well and since I know it so well it's quite revealing when trying equipment. I have five vinyl copies, two of the original 1994 release and 3 of the 1997 one. Maybe just in case one, er, wore out. And the CD copy.

Her label is digital only though so it's only her old releases on there, so I guess I'll never know what "Too Much Love" (last release) was supposed to sound like, I only have the iTunes copy.

Bookmarked to return to, doubtless many times

 

[thescarletpronster]

Glad it's useful. Just to clarify: Discogs.com isn't an online dance vinyl seller, it's a database of known audio releases (in any format) which also has the facility for people to sell their copies.