Is heavy vinyl worth it?

Not necessarily. Generally, the best recording I have are originals pressed on normal vinyl, not the heavy weight reissues. While some quality reissue companies do use heavy vinyl, often heavy vinyl is just a gimmick to attract audiophile purchasers. I find that the majority of the heavy records I get are warped, probably because the pressing cycle duration was not increased as it should be for thicker records. I particularly hate 180-220 gm records since they require VTA adjustment to be played optimally. Easy if you have a Wheaton or a VPI arm, not too bad if you have a Graham, a real pain with the Vector (which I have) and impossible for some.

Best records, in terms of pressing quality, that I have are Japanese or German in origin, and they are all quite thin, but meticulously pressed.

Like Larry, I too have bought an inordinate number of warped heavy vinyl LPs. The only company that seems to be able to produce warp-free heavy vinyl is Blue Note (e.g., heavy vinyl reissue of Kenny Dorham's "Whistle Stop" is excellent). Never had one problem with BN. That being said, I don't consistently find an audible improvement, so I simply buy the cleanest LPs I can find, regardless.

Like I said before, I doubt that any improvements audible with heavy pressings are actually attributable to the vinyl weight itself, which I regard as mostly a marketing hook.

However, I'm inclined agree (from limited experience) with those implying that heavy vinyl may actually *cause* a higher incidence of warps in new records. Whether this is due to greater difficulty of the manufacturing process or is the result of heavy pressings being less able to flex and recover well afterwards I don't know. I've even speculated that thicker records will suffer more from a side-to-side temperature differential when subjected to heat or sunlight that could promote warping vs. a thinner record.

Whatever the reason, when it comes to extra-heavy pressings it's indisputable that once warped they're tougher for clamping-out the warp on the platter, so even if the incidence of new warpage were the same for all weights of vinyl, it would still be more problematic with the heavyweight disks.

P.S. - Pbb, when one is out trolling, methinks it unseemly for a mere mortal to attempt the creation of one's own fish. It's much better to wait to exagerate until one has returned safely to the dock.

Zaikesman, just read your post and your P.S.: I have no idea what you are talking about in that P.S. of yours. Someone once walked this earth, multiplied fishes, and talked in parables. Seems he made a lot more sense than what I can make out of what I take as being some kind of garbled insinuations. Speak up my man. Use plain language. Thanks.

Plain language: It seems to me as if you were trying to 'get a rise' among the vinyl crowd with your first post (commonly called 'trolling' - and this is a subject area in which you've been known to enjoy ruffling some feathers before), and when none was forthcoming, you manufactured one that didn't exist. Where the heck did you come up with that unprovoked attack on Onhwy61? Your response to his answer to your original post seemingly bears no relation to his actual words or perceived intent, IMO. I thought he handled it like a gentleman though. Let me be clear, I have no problem with your original post (despite what I see as your intent more to provoke than to illuminate), just your uncalled-for and out-of-left-field followup. As I've said in the past, I actually value your playing the devil's advocate around here (a custom I practice myself), but to do so effectively, something stronger and more relevant than what was offered this time is required. Or maybe your history of inviting audiophile fire has left you a bit too thin-skinned for your own rhetorical good? Whatever, I hope you recover your fair combative touch my man, because we need a few worthwhile naysayers in our midst.