Does colored vinyl sound as bad as picture discs?

The issue is how good the recording was made, the mastering, the cutting and pressing, and also very importantly the quality of the vinyl plug used. Only virgin vinyl is best, recycled vinyl is not as quiet. All the major NOS vinyl pressers bemoan the hard to obtain and quality virgin vinyl for modern pressings.

My old puke colored Dave Mason Alone Together that I've had since 1971 when it came out sounds great and much better than some of my Classic recent releases, such as the new Coldplay that was pressed on total junk vinyl. After one pass it has devloped "potholes" where the vinyl had no elasticity as the stylus passed over and now these micro chips are permanent. That crap vinyl is brittle at the groove stylus interface. More like a foam than a solid. Same thing with the recent Classic pressing of The Who's Quadrophenia. And no, it's not my stylus.

Inpepinnovations post above is the most accurate and correct answer. As far as picture discs go, normally they sound terrible. However, recently I bought one that sounded fantastic, almost like a master tape, except for an excessive amount of background noise.

One can make a case that black vinyl is likely to be the WORST sounding color because of the carbon. According to the blurb on the back of my Peter Appleyard direct to disc album, "Salisbury Labs decided to use white virgin quadradisc vinyl after several tests proved it to be quieter than black vinyl. Carbon Black normally is added to records to strengthen them."

It is indeed a very fine sounding LP, but I suppose by the same reasoning, without the Carbon Black may not remain as good sounding after 25 or 30 plays.

Stevecham -
interested in your comments on The Who pressings. have you heard the classic pressings of Who's Next and Tommy, and what did you think? I have been thinking of picking these up, assuming they would be better than my US mca issues. anyone else who's had a chance to hear these would welcome the input.

The remark about the use of carbon black to strengthen the vinyl is incorrect. Initially carbon black was used because the previous material used for records (78 rpm shellac) was black and it wouldn't do to change that colour! The very tiny carbon black particles (essentially soot) would not contribute to the strength of the vinyl in any meaningful way, but might help with the noise problem, however.

Bob P.