The reproduction onto vinyl has some inherent problems associated with the manufacturing process. This is in part due to:
1) The "stamper" and what generational copy it has been made from the original master tape: in the old days, production was handled over many countries and you will see marked differences in quality in English, German, Japanese and American copies of albums based on the source tapes/stampers sent out. Today's production is centered in one plant and the source is more uniform--good or bad.
2) The type of vinyl used--there was 13 grades of pellets used in the golden age--we are now down to four.
3) The time on the press (45 seconds per LP) and the humidity of the room
4) The general volume around the release and its production run--today's runs are 10,000 to 30,000 versus millions during the golden age
In the golden years, it was always assumed that Quality and Assurance would be handled by the return policy of the retailer--i.e., that Q & A would not be conducted at the plant.
Problems I am seeing with the current reissues are as follows:
1) poor file management of the artist's master tapes resulting in new reissues being based on inferior second or third generation copies--this is something I hear constantly from recording artists that tapes are misfiled or have disappeared (think of the amount of consolidation of labels that has taken place over the years)
2) poor remastering where new technologies such as dynamic compression are added to the original source or tonalities are completely changed (listen to the mid-range vocals of Robert Plant is the Classic Records reissue of the Houses of the Holy versus an original copy)
Generally speaking, I find it is better to buy a "stack" of used vinyl and try to find the hidden gems that have great master tape quality and quiet playing surfaces. You can usually find that 1 in 20 to 30 albums will really stand out to your ears. Expect the same ratio to apply to current production as well.
