180g … It’s All Hype !

Claiming that "all" recordings made on vinyl of a particular thickness/weight is "hype" is ignorant at best.

I'm with you that there are a lot of crap recordings that are hyped because they are on 180g vinyl.  There's also a lot of crap on 150g vinyl.  And different colored vinyl.  And CDs.  And streaming.  

I finally opened up my MFSL of Nilsson Schmilsson and played it last night and holy smokes, was it good!  So dynamic and the soundstage and imaging made my speakers completely disappear.  Everything else I listened to after that was mediocre.  

MFSL has had some duds, no doubt, but their newer releases are often revelatory.  I never really thought of the Pretenders as being "audiophile" material, but what they did with it makes it quite a treat.  Pretty much everything I've listened to from Classic Records and Analogue Productions has been outstanding. 

Speaking of media, almost all of the records I've bought that were made with Quiex vinyl are also very good.

It's already been said (better than I can say it), but there is more to making a record than the media itself and there are some places that put more care and skill into the end result than others. 

Excellent post @big_greg!

I too have no use for or interest in colored vinyl LP's. Seems like something made for girls, or little kids The first ones I had were in the mid-50's---translucent red kiddie records, 10" iirc, or maybe the more common 7" (my memory has been affected by all the LSD I smoked ;-). Vinyl Me Please does a lot of their issues in color, for no good reason I am aware of. At least they have most of their LP's now made at QRP. Black may not be a color, but black is beautiful, baby!

@bdp24  I actually like some of the colored vinyl. It often doesn't sound as good as black, but it is kind of cool and fun to watch on the turntable. Some of the more limited versions like some of the RSD releases can go up in value pretty quickly too. Not for any good reason but I don't mind seeing something I purchased go up in value instead of down, LOL

I'll second or third the posts praising the quality of records coming from Analog Productions and other labels that are pressed at QRP as I have not been disappointed at all. I am in a number of cases partial to the SQ on some of my original pressings from the 60's and 70's but I have also many times found recent reissues or remasters to be equally enjoying. 

I recently replaced my original Byrds Columbia Mono copies of Tamborine Man and 5th Dimension that sounded great but had seen better days. I found near mint Sundazed  2013 reissues on Discogs at a reasonable price and am happy so say they sounded great and as it turns out they were pressed at QRP. 

I've also had good luck with Friday Music and Columbia Legacy.

@big_greg: The first Rock 'n' Roll colored vinyl album I saw and bought (in 1970!) was Dave Mason's great debut album, Alone Together (recorded by the legendary Al Schmitt.). Accompanying Dave are the all-star cast of Leon Russell, Chris Ethridge of The Flying Burrito Brothers,, Carl Radle of Derek & The Dominos, L.A. studio pianist Larry Knechtel, John Simon---here he is again!, Delaney & Bonnie, Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear, and the killer drummer-quartet of Jim Capaldi of Traffic, Johnny Barbata of The Turtles and soon-to-be Jefferson Starship, and Jims Gordon & Keltner. Wow! .

The Alone Together PVC is of the "marble swirl" variety (which looks like Silly Putty does after you have copied some comic strips ;-), which does look cool spinning. The sound quality is good, too. I have augmented a couple of albums I have on black vinyl with the one colored vinyl variant I love the look of, that being Coke bottle green: the new Los Lobos and Rodney Crowell albums. The B-side of the second disc in the Los Lobos album is blank, the space taken up with a cool-looking etching. Had to have it!

@tgilb: QRP presses LP's for some of the majors, too. They did The Band boxset that contains all their studio albums, for instance. Lots of companies got rid of their presses in the 90's, thinking LP's were gone and never coming back. Bet they now wish they hadn't!