Surely I'm not the only audiophile metalhead who buys new vinyl. Disappointed with sound quality. - Page 2

No definitely, not every single pic disc sucks, just like not every black vinyl sounds amazing.  Like I said, it depends on the record company, and how big the band is (which means how many copies they can sell and recoup costs).

Colored vinyl falls in the same category, but my copy of Sleep - Holy Mountain on swirled red and blue vinyl repress sounds amazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by acidbasement 

Excellent to hear.  Did you ever get the Paradise Lost question settled?

Not yet.  I ordered it, but it never shipped.  I'm going to have to cancel that order and get it from elsewhere.

My suspicions are strong that the situation will be very similar to Iconoclast: a not terribly great mix that can at least be improved with less dynamic compression and no clipping.  Being able to listen to a mediocre mix without having my ears bleed is better than nothing at all.

I have Moonsorrows Suden Uni album on vinyl and it sounds amazing. No complaints thus far.

It's kind of 50% to 50%. What has happened is that even though you have had vinyl making a slow come back over the last 10 years the pressing plants are not as good at it as they once were. It is really and art to get everything correct in reproducing an LP. Some LPs are from a CD and sound like it. I wish I could state that the situation is on the improvement swing but I think it is the down slide. Your better off with 180gm records but even then there is no set way to know.

 Arch Enemy..Doomsday Machine........ one of the best recorded metal albums ever!

All the Opeth LPs are great, even the Back On Black reissues, even though I hear they use a digital master it is better than the CD. The Opeth sounds better than any metal out there on wax.

Not really total metal but the 180 gm Song Remains The Same by Zep is fantastic!

The Black Album reissue is great, Justice For All reissue is bad but even when it came out it had bad SQ, great music. Death Magnet is ok not great, reissue of Master of Puppets is a little better than good. It may be great as I am doing a compare to modern day recording. Ride The Lightning OK.

The Slayer reissues are thin but that just may be the sound? I sold my Slayer records in the 80s but the new releases sound OK. Hell Awaits, Haunting The Chappel, Live Dead.

Newer In Flames, A sense Of Purpose...... Great 

Turbonegro Party Animals......Bad,bad,bad

Nile...Annihilation Of The Wicked...fantastic

Dissection...Storm Of The Lights Bane......fantastic reissue

Dissection...Somberlain..fantastic reissue

Emperor..In the Night Side Eclipse....Sounds like the original 

Emperor....Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk  great

Emperor..IX Equilibrium great

All Slipknot is good not totally great not that bad.

Meshuggah  obZen......thin but ok

All the original pressings of bands like Manowar are fantastic, all original Judas Priest Albums are perfect! Really any original metal records recorded well and released by big label sound fantastic, you can't go wrong.

Dimmu Borgir...Death Cult Armageddon.......... is bad

Really most Nuclear Blast pressings are not that good.

Darkthrone reissues They sound ok.............A Blaze in the Northern Sky..Under a Funeral Moon...Transilvanian Hunger... sound like they should.
 

Burzum Back On Black reissues. They sound ok

Burzum.......good   
Aske.......good
Det som engang var........good 
Hvis lyset tar oss ....good
Filosofem.........great

Burzum/Aske Comp......good

Managed to get someone to rip some recent metal releases.  Results were mixed.

Symphony X - Iconoclast turned out OK.  Far better than the CD, but still not great.

Katatonia - Night is the New Day is barely distinguishable from the CD.  It's a little brighter, and less distorted in the loudest sections, but not much difference otherwise.  The CD isn't bad, though.

Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance is a pretty huge difference from the CD (which is very compressed and has extreme bass bloat), but also has a lot of high frequency noise.  One of the only rips I've had to EQ.  After a little tweaking, though, it slaughters the CD.

Also preordered the latest Opeth.  Keeping my fingers crossed, since the package is EXPENSIVE.  Better **** well sound good.

I will say one thing, at least: Vinyl releases are **** pretty.  So nice to hold and look at.  A pity it's so difficult to get the most out of them, and that some labels (*cough*Earache*cough*) simply use the CD masters for their vinyl pressings.

Reviving the thread now that I've gotten some metal vinyl...

The Music on Vinyl pressing of Opeth - Blackwater Park is really nice. Super-clean sound.

Evergrey - Glorious Collision is OK. Whether it's better than the CD is debatable.

Slipknot - Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses *SUCKS*. It sounds exactly like the CD, clipping and all. I'm still irritated by this. I had high hopes of it sounding a little better, since I heard a rip of System of a Down - Toxicity (also produced by Rick Rubin, and also a terrible-sounding CD) which actually sounded quite good on vinyl.

Kamelot - Black Halo isn't any better than the CD.

I have a few others that I've been meaning to try (Meshuggah - obZen, Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra (which will probably suck), Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (which will probably suck), Psychotic Waltz box set), but I started having issues with my turntable setup.

I've bought several vinyl issues from Southern Lord and they all sound excellent.  The label seems to take a lot of pride in their analog releases.  And I don't think it's fair to say that metal records have the "worst" mastering.  That would indicate that there's a "best" mastering available somewhere.  Often times, cleaning all the rough edges on a metal record is going to be pretty detrimental to the intended mein of the music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by acidbasement 

Good mastering and pressing isn't about cleaning up the rough edges.  It's about preserving the rough edges that were already there from the recording stage, in all their glorious detail.

 

Exactly!

Recording and pressing anomalies aside, investing in a good record cleaning machine goes a long way in getting the most out of vinyl.  A must for serious playback.