Common

The Q/C and vinyl quality from Classic Records (RTI) has gone notably downhill in the last couple of years. This has been discussed here, on VA and on other forums. When asked about this, the owner of their largest retail outlet routinely shrugs and walks away. Consistent high quality is not one of his priorities.

It certainly wouldn't surpise anyone if your explanation were correct, and it wouldn't be the first time either. RCA included recycled vinyl in their Dynagroove "improvements" in the early 1960's, to name one of the more notorious examples.

Return them for replacement. If the replacements prove defective, return those too. If we accept garbage they'll keep making it - and selling it.

Doug

P.S. I have a Chesky LP with slivers of red (label?) paper pressed into the vinyl. One corner is actually sticking up above the record surface. Your experience is not unique, unfortunately.

Hi Fatparrot,

DynaGROOVE records were lighter than Shaded Dogs, but they were still around 110-120g - reasonable. It was only during the later DynaFLEX era that RCA's records got truly flimsy, under 80g in many cases.

Regarding poor quality vinyl, to be fair I should have said "some" Dynagrooves. Like you I have Dynagrooves which are nicely silent. Others have general background noise that resists all cleaning and which I can only attribute to poor quality vinyl.

That cost-cutting, "they won't hear the difference" mind shift which drove lighter record weights, dynamic compression and frequency balancing for low-volume/low-fidelity playback presumably also drove a move to lower cost materials.

My copy of "Fragile" is also extremely good, and minty too. (Yes, Doug actually owns a rock record. Who knew?!) I wouldn't think of replacing it, but it's great there's a well mastered new release for those who need one.