european vinyl quality

is it just me or has anyone else noticed that since the demise of prime,and a few other uk distributors, that the quality of most of the vinyl available in the uk is of really poor quality. it is generally really thin and sounds muffled in comparison to the quality to which i have become acustomed. on top of this is the fact that it costs an extra pound cost and an extra two pounds retail for the pleasure of having to buy ex uk labels which are now only available from the continent.

many people on this forum lauded the end of prime, but i for one wish they were back pressing quality vinyl again.

Dunno mate - all the stuff I've picked up is pretty damn fine - and in some cases the weight of the vinyl is either 120 or even 140. Maybe its just artists who just don't want to invest in proper cuts at a quality plant. Curve press stuff is always especially good.

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Originally Posted by jonnyspeed

Dunno mate - all the stuff I've picked up is pretty damn fine - and in some cases the weight of the vinyl is either 120 or even 140. Maybe its just artists who just don't want to invest in proper cuts at a quality plant. Curve press stuff is always especially good.

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curve presses standard 150.
and the sound is also nice...


they just refreshed their machines by the way....
you know what that means!! :clap:

I guess what I was trying to say was a few are 120, other 140 and curve press is excellent. The weight on SUF70 is wonderful. so no I ain't seen a drop in quality.

:)

The distributors can't be held responsible for any demise in the quality of vinyl. Blame that on the pressing plants and/or the labels. Sometimes labels will opt for shitty mastering plants and/or pressing plants...sometimes the pressing plants just do a shitty job. Luckily...knock on wood...I haven't bought a shitty record feeling record in quite a while.

I agree. I can however see that the demise of distributors cos costs labels alot of money. This has an effect on the percieved risk for labels to put out tunes so cheaper pressing is probably a way of reducing the investment and therefore less risk.

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Originally Posted by jonnyspeed

I agree. I can however see that the demise of distributors cos costs labels alot of money. This has an effect on the percieved risk for labels to put out tunes so cheaper pressing is probably a way of reducing the investment and therefore less risk.

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we're also seeing a lot more web-based distributors. web-records.com doing pretty well for themselves, cut a lot of cost out by not paying a fortune for nice designing! (and all that middlemen cutting aswell) Hopefully, it'll all reach a nice equilibrium soon that sees we get quality prints & they get our quality business!

Some of the pressings coming out of Germany at the moment are woefull. I had major problems with gains on this mixer last weekend, they were blown and shit and when I played some of the German stuff I had to frig around and turn up the main volume and quickly cut across at the same so as to not to show up a ****ed mix, cause that's what they can do to you if you're not expecting it.

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Originally Posted by killarava2day

Some of the pressings coming out of Germany at the moment are woefull. I had major problems with gains on this mixer last weekend, they were blown and shit and when I played some of the German stuff I had to frig around and turn up the main volume and quickly cut across at the same so as to not to show up a **** mix, cause that's what they can do to you if you're not expecting it.

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true!!! some new stuff from germany I got has this problem too. the mastering is really messed up!

Haven't had a single complaint about them as yet. The stuff I'm getting from Spain is pretty darn good and can't wait to play them on a club system soon.

just played a repress of RAW 5 and its shity paper thin vinyl but it plays okay. Had one pressed off centre that you have to be really careful with when you drop the bass on cos it jumps off the beat into the next groove if you rock to hard.

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Originally Posted by jonnyspeed

just played a repress of RAW 5 and its shity paper thin vinyl but it plays okay. Had one pressed off centre that you have to be really careful with when you drop the bass on cos it jumps off the beat into the next groove if you rock to hard.

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Pickep that one up too a couple of weeks ago. No complaints from me ;)

yes I know, German pressing plants suck :cry:

i think its mostly down to the labels trying to save dosh by choosing a shitter vinyl - its difficult because there is so little money in the game people have to cut costs somewhere :(