Coloured vinyl pressings - Are they inferior?

garylkoh said:

Unfortunately, most of the LPs had crappy music (like polkas and pipe organ recordings) but they sure sounded fine.

Click to expand...

garylkoh said:

I hunt down clear vinyl pressings as I think that many of them do sound better than the standard black, but as with everything audiophile, YMMV.

A long time ago, the research and development division of Riverside Records issued a bunch of LPs (the Fortissimo XK series) on what they called the Polymax compound. It's supposed to harden the groove surfaces and increases impact resistance beyond the ability of the stylus to "iron out" the more delicate sound impressions that contain the harmonic overtones and transients. It also contains a self-replenishing groove lubricant, and a lifetime anti-static agent. Unfortunately, most of the LPs had crappy music (like polkas and pipe organ recordings) but they sure sounded fine. They were a transparent red in color, and played from the inside-out instead of the outside-in.

Another excellent recording on clear red vinyl is Oscar Peterson's Nigerian Marketplace. While there's no information about the vinyl formulation used, it looks and feels very much like my Fortissimo LPs.

One of the best illustrations of how good some of these clear-vinyl LPs are is "The Mark II Purple Singles" by Deep Purple - it is a compilation album and SQ on compilations can sometimes be really bad. However, the version on clear-purple vinyl is far better than the black vinyl ones. In fact, the 'live' Smoke on the Water from Made in Japan is the best of any I've heard - including the first UK press and DCC remaster (do not buy the black "Remastered Edition" - it's really bad).

Lost Highway records, for their 10th Anniversary, are re-issueing some of their most popular titles in clear vinyl. I bought the Lucinda Williams - West and the SQ is excellent++ but very hard to cue as it's completely glass-clear. However, with LPs I generally play at least the whole side anyway. I'm looking forward to getting more of their titles. In particular, all the black vinyl Shelby Lynn - Just a Little Lovin' albums I have have ticks and pops, so I'm trying to find a clear vinyl copy without having to buy the whole box set.

Other colored vinyl don't fare as well - the tan vinyl version of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is slightly noisier than the black vinyl version. The black has a few ticks but the tan seems to be a little hissy. A white vinyl LP from Air: Pocket Symphony is excellent. Most of the orange vinyl I have has been bad. So, may be colored vinyl isn't good, but clear is??

Click to expand...

MylesBAstor said:

The original Ewing Nunn Audiophile releases were pressed on red vinyl. They're, such as Muskrat Ramble or Doc Evans at the Gaslight, among the best recordings you'll ever hear. Talk about mikestands! Nunn had his wife hold the mikes during the recordings I seem to remember that Rich/U47, has Nunn's original mikes now.

So also were the early Fantasy releases including the Cal Tjader recordings.

Carbon black was added to the vinyl slurry because of its antistatic properties, nothing else. Classic did demo that the clarity/clear vinyl did sound better.

So I'm not sure one can generalize unless they know how or what was used to "color" an LP.

Click to expand...

puroagave said:

the nunn recordings of early jazz/dixie music on his Audiophile label were superb. many moons ago i saw an ad in audiomart (THE marketplace before audiogon, etc) and a collector was selling off his dupes, I bought them all. many were on red wax/gold label and all of them sounded amazing and changed my attitude on how life like mono can sound be vis-a-vis stereo recordings. it would be awesome if the tapes can be brought back as 45-rpm reissues and hi-def downloads.

Click to expand...

MylesBAstor said:

Yes the gold/red wax are the ORIGINALS And many have said the same thing about the Audiophile monos. There's a very audiophile, Audiophile, Echoes of the Storm, that is mind blowing. The three best cuts are the hammer hitting the anvil, the water dripping into the pail and the second side with him recording a thunderstorm

The one thing that's always been puzzle to me, is that they do tend to be slightly bass shy. But if you read the album jackets, some of them at least, were recorded with a non-RIAA curve. Nunn even says to adjust your preamp EQ for the best sound

Two of them were reissued, The Salt City Six on Athena and Yellow Dog Blues on AP. So someone must have access to the tapes and maybe we should suggest to Chad to release a couple of the Audiophiles in 45 rpm format. Great suggestion and I'll mention it to Chad when I see him at CES!

PS. I miss Audiomart

Click to expand...

garylkoh said:

Considering what some LPs will go for, the Nunn originals aren't expensive. May because the Asian audiophiles haven't discovered them???

Original red wax Echoes of the Storm for $20:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Echoes-Stor...ic_on_Vinyl&hash=item255fd758e4#ht_2736wt_952

Click to expand...