Does colored vinyl sound as bad as picture discs?

no. the reason picture discs sound lousy - or so I read once - is that they're much thinner (perhaps to compensate for that picture in there?)

I've yet to hear a picture disc that doesn't sound really noisy, so I avoid them. I tend to agree with the "thinner vinyl" explanation.

I don't have many colored-vinyl discs, but my red vinyl copy of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by The Flaming Lips sounds pretty darned good.

Some of my colored vinyl sounds amazing, some does not, just like regular records.