I give up on new vinyl

Yep, some, or a lot of new pressings are a crap shoot. Was playing Sade Promise LP I bought in the PX in the 80’s, and sounds wonderful. Wife asked if it was an audiophile pressing, said nope, only a $6.95 PX special back then. She was shocked. I have purchased some Barnes and Nobles specials, Chris Isaak and Queen, , for example, and they sound great too. Not special, but a B&N special,,,hmm, is B&N sourcing records from top notch manufacturers and distribution and rebranding? On the other hand, some Audiophile new pressings, like Santana and his new duet with someone, you can tell I forgot that one fast because the recording sucks, was just awful. It’s sounds tinny, screatchy, and compressed, like the audio from Sirius XM in my Shelby, outside the exhaust of course. 

I am reluctant to jump on current Audiophile box sets until an early adopter gets one and posts reviews for others to hear about. Hmmm, LED Zeppelin Mothership was another hyped Audiophile pressing mess, only played once. You immediately get a sense of the recording if it is good or not after dropping the needle and hearing the first voice. 

Pops are inherent to vinyl; however, can be mitigated by ultrasonic or wet cleaning record and using anti static brush, and that zappy anti static tool. The better the tonearm and cartridge combination, the better it is at damping some clicks. I know we all use MOFI antistatic sleaves after cleaning our records too, right. 

@shadorne Do you find japanese pressings consistently good? Or even then you need to research the source/production? I haven’t ventured into japanese pressings yet as I focus my few purchases on jazz mono 1st pressings mainly on BlueNote but I’m definitely curious enough to start acquiring some.

I bought an all analog, all tube amplified audiophile release from an Agon contributor. While the music is fine, and the vinyl silent, the sound quality is quite poor. It is dull, lacks any dynamics, and sounds veiled. Did they not use a Red Columbia or Mercury recording from the 60/70s as a reference?

@three_easy_payments  

Never disappointed. Japan simply makes vinyl to a much higher standard. The pressing and the quality of the vinyl and often the master are to the highest standards.

It's all over the map.  In recent experience, the Fagen Cheap Xmas box is flawless, and I find no fault in the Pink Floyd reissues.