Last song on most LP's pressed with compression


Over the last few yrs, I have spent more time with my cd player than analog rig. Anyway, the winter is here and I'm feelin the groove and started listening critically to LP again. What bothers me is the last song on a side is often compressed. You have hear this as a reduction in sound quality, akin to what an MP3 does to a cd original. Now if you inspect the LP closely that bothers you. You can see visually that the grooves towards the end are actually cut into the record differently. They are compressed together. I don't care what cartridge or equipment you use, the distortion is there..period . Once your brain locks onto it, listening thru this distortion is very difficult. Now before the experts chime in, I'm not talking about inner groove distortion here. Nor is there anything wrong with my alignment,VTA, tracking,azimuth etc. If you can't hear this on your rig (with an LP that is cut compressed on the last track- not all are)then no doubt your system is not resolved enough. Part of my LP collection (about 500 records)are 12" singles. These do not suffer from this problem for obvious reasons. But I'd bet that 60% or more of regular LP's do. What all this means for me is that the days of investing big $$$ on LP playback are over. What I have is what I have and when it eventually wears out, I doubt that I'll replace it. Yup, I am that bugged by wasting a portion of my valuable listening time listening to a lower quality signal. I modify my own equipment to achieve the highest quality signal that I possibly can. So subjecting myself to a flawed LP format is a step backwards. Before I play an LP now, I examine that groove pattern towards the end. If it looks extra compressed, then back on the shelf that title goes. I'll pick the original (non maximized) cd version every time.

Feel free to chime in.
reb1208
WOW - who knew LPs were such a flawed medium for recording and playing music. I'm taking my entire record collection to Tower Records and selling it for $10. Oh wait, I did that 25 years ago.

Never mind.
Some boxed sets of classical music would put third and fourth movements of a symphony not only on the flip side, but on the next disc. This was OK if you used a record changer, but single play people like me had to put one LP away, get out and clean the next before the music resumed.

The vinyl record technology is flawed in so many ways that it is amazing that it sounds good at all.
Edison had it right with rolls (i.e. constant velocity) and linear tracking arms.

Now, how the devil do you press a vinyl roll? Can't without a parting line. Each roll has to be individually cut.

Back to the future anyone? :>)
I can't remember if any records were actually made this way but decades ago there were serious suggestions that classical LPs should be recorded starting in the inside groves and moving outward because , as already pointed out, climaxes come at just the part of the LP that is least able to support them.

PS Obama isn't perfect, Bush just makes him look that way.