Why are people obsessed with 180g - Merged Thread

[danieldust]

To me, the real irony is that so many modern LPs advertised as 180 gram are poorly mastered, suffering from non-fill, pressed off center or warped. All the extra weight in the world is meaningless if the record is flawed in some other way. But it's easier to just say it's 180 gram in big letters and hope no one notices the other stuff.

[GlassWolf]

180g vinyl by itself may not mean much, but most of my best records happen to be 180g pressings.. namely Mobile Fidelity Half-Speed Master Gold pressings. The main reason they are so good though, is the genius work done in the remastering of these albums from the original studio recordings, much like their original master gold CD counterparts. One thing I have seen with some 180g Japanese pressings of vinyl is that the play surface is recessed from the outer edge and inner portion of the albums, so that the bottom side of the album while on the turntable doesn't make contact with the platter, supposedly lengthening the lifespan of the records.

[GlassWolf]

To me, the real irony is that so many modern LPs advertised as 180 gram are poorly mastered, suffering from non-fill, pressed off center or warped. All the extra weight in the world is meaningless if the record is flawed in some other way. But it's easier to just say it's 180 gram in big letters and hope no one notices the other stuff.

I agree. One of my biggest pet peeves is actually the compression used on so many recordings these days. I really wish labels would stop doing that crap. If you don't know to what I refer, search wikipedia for "loudness wars"

[EdAInWestOC]

I agree with you guys in that its a shame that "180gm" has become what it is.

When the vinyl resurgence hit there was no doubt that there would be many manufacturers who played the part and produced poor product under the guise of an audiophile collectable. Fortunately I only have two recent 180gm LPs that I would put into the "me too" arena of poor manufacturers.

For the sake of being warned those LPs were Journey's Greatest Hits redone by Legacy and Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys on Universals "Back To Black" series.

The Journey LP was pressed well enough but the mastering was no better than MP3 level sound and I suspect that was exactly what it was. The LP comes with a coupon with a code to download the album in MP3. I suspect that they produced a single source for both the download and the vinyl. The sound of most of the tracks on the LP is poor to say the least. The pressing quality is not bad its just the sound.

The Traffic LP was also fairly well pressed but again the sound quality was nothing to bother buying the LP for. I would say that the Traffic was the better of the two LPs in question here. The sound of the Traffic LP was not objectionable but it has nothing to make it noteworthy. You can get much better sound picking up a clean used copy and save yourself some money.

The rest of the vinyl that I have bought has been very good. Most of the titles that I buy have been from Classic Records (when they were in business), Analogue Productions (or any of the labels produced by Chad Kassem's Acoustic Sounds), Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, the stuff being pressed by Chad Kassem's Quality Record Pressings, quite a few titles from Rhino and a long list of other manufacturers that I have had success buying from.

If you ask this consumer the "180gm" thing has been a success so far and I have found quite a few reissues that are better than the original pressings. Saying that all original pressings are best is as dumb as saying everything with 180gm on it is junk. Neither is true and life is not that simple.

Unfortunately we are obliged to buy the LPs to see if they are what we hope they will be. Sometimes what I have bought is outstanding sometimes its not very good.

Hmmm...it sounds just like it was back when all those "best originals" were the source for music. Not much has changed. Its another year, LP production is up, and there are manufacturers you can trust and there are manufacturers you cannot.

Ed

[megatrends]

Well I must say I love the 180g records as they just feel quality and for all intent and purposes sound magnificent. I have a good ear for these things, there is a difference in sound quality. it just sounds "better" and I have no specific data or info to prove it other than it sounds better to my ears.

I got the Black Sabbath self titled LP on 180 g and am in love with it. It is quiet like a CD and the highs are perfect with crisp clear lows for a recording 40+ years old it is impressive.