Another possible culprit for the bad reputation that picture discs and non-black vinyl receive may be the packaging. I have two examples in my collection that play with a mild static-like hiss: Biohazard's State of the World Address on clear orange vinyl, and the picture disc edition of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome. In both cases, the discs were packaged in clear PVC (vinyl) sleeves with no inner sleeves. The packaging plastic seems to have reacted with the discs, causing residue to be deposited on (and perhaps in) the grooves. It seems that by trying to show off the product, manufacturers of these albums sentenced the discs to a hissy demise.
I have a thrift-store marbled copy of Dave Mason's Alone Together (mentioned upthread) that sounds excellent. Most of my other colored vinyl records were released in the past decade, and mixing/mastering aside, the vinyl quality sounds pretty good to me. I haven't noticed any correlation between vinyl color and sound quality in my own collection that couldn't be chalked up to dust, residue, or other factors.
