[jdandy]

Dave.......Call me a party pooper if you wish, but this constant regurgitation of "master" recordings on some supposedly new medium created in some new way leaves me completely disinterested. Now record companies, pressing plants, and vinyl retailers want us to fork up even more cash for this "new" LP technique, expecting us to purchase another copy of some recording we likely already have several copies of, all because they have supposedly improved something. Oh yeah, I'm believing that.

In general the quality of current vinyl pressings, already at ridiculous prices, is hit or miss with no assurance of getting a quality pressing. My personal experiences have demonstrated that approximately 25%, perhaps even a bit more, of the vinyl I purchased in the past couple of years has been defective in some way, i.e. noisy, tick's and pops due to vinyl defects, with some defects visible to the naked eye, and yes I wash my records. Not only are low quality pressings anticlimactic and disappointing from an end user's perspective, it adds cost for return shipping, waiting for replacements, and sometimes having replacements be defective thus requiring additional cost for return shipping, and waiting for a third copy to show up. It takes all the fun out of the purchasing experience. Return shipping by US Mail for an album has cost me $8.00 each time. Add return costs to the cost of the original LP purchase, typically $29.00 to $39.00 per album plus shipping, and now the true cost of an LP goes as high as $52.00. If a second return is required, twice happening to me, the cost goes even higher. That's absurd. I have a copy of a Houston Persons LP that is still defective after a second replacement. I gave up and kept it because I did not want to go through a third return process and expense. It gets old pretty darn fast. For me it isn't worth the hit or miss aspect of purchasing mail order LP's. No matter what the retailers advertise or say, it's a crap shoot. I am a fussy audiophile. I expect to receive full value for my purchases. Even 45 years ago when I was spending $4.00 per LP I expected a clean pressing. For $39.00 plus shipping per LP at today's prices, I damn sure want my money's worth.