I think the main problem there is that the 180gm vinyl being higher mass stores the heat longer then they are packaged and shrunk too quickly so we get lots of warps.
Never had this problem in the good old days with floppy LPs the quality was in the mastering not the weight hype. 
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Aye, itâs cowd under tâbridge.
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Always liked a thin record with an edge you can cut paper withâŚ
Thin records and good sturdy sleeves, bliss.
Never understood this 180g nonsense.
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I do not think a heavy-weight LP makes much if any improvement on a more std 1970s/80s weight of around 140g or sometimes less. There is a thought that a heavier LP will help disperse vibration better but I think the benefit will be marginal and it will be better to have a good mat or well setup and isolated turntable.
However, in the late 70s and certainly early 80s (as CDs came in) got cheaply made as possible. If you compare many mid/late 1960s produced LPs they generally were of a higher std weight than later production.
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If a record shop owner told me all that I might not go there again or at least ask for a larger discount on his used LPs for sale.
Mastering before mass production in analogue or digital form can make a big difference but it should be remembered it is just one step in a line of steps before the musicians playing gets to your Hifi. They all have to work well to make a great recording and final production. Several bits of equipment and people operating them has to combine to make a master recording (digital or analogue) that san be mastered for production.
The revival is not in my view just about marketing if it was it would be a poor investment for record companies as although popular it represents a small part of their income. There is fo course some lifestyle marketing going on but that is true of pretty much everything someone is trying to sell you for your home.
CDs in the first place were a huge marketing success, the hype about indestructible and able to withstand rugged handling is we know absolute billhooks. The original cost of CDs were around 3 times as expensive as the LP release when the production costs were less than the LP.
For me I never stopped buying LPs used or new but I do have CDs too. I prefer physical media I can own than streaming but that is not the modern trend. The market is about streaming in terms of mass consumption not physical media in any form.
I think this is the reason the physical media market is stagnating or shrinking well, that and a reset and lag from the covid years where being at home all the time made people do things they would not otherwise have done. We are going through a degree of normalisation after a period that was anything but normal.
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This 
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I strongly suspect that this âdownturnâ in LP sales in the USA is 99% for new Vinyl releases.
I very rarely buy new release albums. Most albums i purchase are second hand. Yes you can still buy second hand at decent prices. I live very near to Kidderminster where Mr Teeâs record shop is located. They have been selling second hand LPâs since 1978, are still there and are selling more than they have ever done (including the 70âs and 80âs). Although i buy lots of cdâs new, i buy even more LPâs second hand. Itâs a good way to spend a few hours talking with other people about music as well.
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@Simon-in-Suffolk @Nigel1957 - SHM CDs are not new, theyâve been around for more than a decade. I bought my first SHM-CDs from Japan in about 2011-12. They are standard Red Book CDs with a special polycarbonate coating which is supposedly more âtransparentâ to the CD laser. They are stereo only and have a maximum play time of about 80 minutes.
They are very popular in Japan (the Japanese are still hugely enthusiastic about physical formats) and have a small following among collectors and audiophiles elsewhere. Outside of that small group I donât think they have much appeal in the West.
Whether SHM CDs (and there are SHM-SACDs as well) sound better is up to your ears. But I have two Bobbie Gentry SHM-CDs that sound superior to any other digital version; I think this may be, as Simon says, because of superior mastering (these two particular discs are flat transfers from the analogue tapes).
Many people on this forum have the beautifully-presented vinyl replica Japanese Led Zeppelin SHM-CDs. Most of them (including me) think they are by far and away the best sounding Zep CDs. Nobody knows why this should be, because, as far as anyone knows, they are just the 1990s Marino masters.
So maybe SHM CD does work after all�
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indeed I didnât think it was that new - but that was the only thing that I could see that could be âSuperCDâ.
I am sure they work, and I kind of think that with some CDMs they work better than standard polycarbonate CD ⌠possiblyâŚ
Yes a few on this forum have commented that in Japan CD has never really declined much ⌠and will be interesting to see if the growth in the sales of CD in the UK in 2024 thus far continues. There certainly appear more middle market CD players around now in the market ⌠it felt not that long ago if you wanted a CDP for reasonable money you had to search eBay.
My experiences with second hand vinyl are that quality is only judged by looking at it and not listening to it âŚ
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Anyone remember Blu Spec CD? I think mainly a Japanese thing.
Cash in on the Blu Ray name?
Canât say I remember hearing much if any improvement over a standard CD, but itâs ages since I played this one.
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not heard of itâŚ
With streaming from your own store, you can pretty much cope with everything: Not only can you keep it indefinitely, but you can download files, and/or you can buy whatever physical format may be flavour of the month or whichever gives you best sound quality or best value for money, and rip to your store.
Indeed. I have a mix of personal store and Qobuz.
G
Indeed me too⌠if I particularly enjoy a track , EP or album however I buy it as a download or CD.
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It seems that any form of physicals media is one the way out. When CDs were set to replace vinyl, I retained my album collection and am glad that I did so. I also use CDs and streaming, the latter being very convenient. I have only purchased a couple of 180g vinyl pressings (Jimi Hendrix Experience/Frank Zappa) and both are inferior to my original first pressings. I am yet to hear a digital source that betters vinyl. My guess is that future trends will be determined by commercial viability rather than sound quality.
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My recall is that tests suggested zero impact above 110-112 grams. Anything above that and youâre just having the mickey taken out of you and a hand in your pocket lifting your cash because they can.
The vinyl involved is a very small part of the cost of production of a record so whether it is light or heavy does not matter much. A larger weight as well as not doing much for sound quality it wonât harm it either.
A standard weight in the 1970s was 140g but certainly, in the mid-80s you could get lighter examples for sure. I have a couple of modern pressings that are 200g too which is getting a bit excessive as they muck up VTA setup.
Record companies do not have direct access to your funds we all have a choice which is why I try and buy most of my records used (but as near mint as possible) unless they are stupidly expensive items where a modern pressing can be a lot less money.
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I think in terms of mass-market music availability this is already happening.
I like you I have never stopped using my LP collection and have never stopped buying even in the days of CDs supposedly taking over. Mind you used LPs were a hell of a lot cheaper in the 90s, fun times.
That problem has become worse since pop acts in particular started creating deliberate scarcity with multiple vinyl variants of the same record. Taylor Swift is probably the most high profile of these vinyl villains, making multiple versions of the same vinyl in slightly different colors (six colors for Midnights and approximately a million billion different variants of The Tortured Poets Department), but itâs widespread across mainstream music now.
The high prices and limited supply in retail are having a knock-on effect on resale too. If you spend any time on the r/vinyl subreddit or similar forums youâll see redditors â redditors who love vinyl, redditors whoâve spent more on music than some of us spend on cars or feeding our families â talking in astonishment about the soaring prices of old records, the greed of second-hand sellers and why theyâre scaling back their buying as a result of what many consider to be blatant price gouging. And as some point out, high prices doesnât necessarily mean high quality either.
Copied from an article but pretty much sums up how the the labels have shot them selves in the foot again.
A few years ago Naplam records released 5 different versions of Monster Magnets album Mastermind and yes a bought all 5 variants then a year later released 2 more versions then another 2. Then the next album Last Patrol 6 variants on day of release once they had sold out they dropped another 5 versions. Know that the fan base would buy as many variants as they could. Thatâs when I realised all they were doing is hitting the die hard collectors.
Itâs now common for some of the smaller labels to constantly reissue rare albums every couple of years in different colours knowing the same fans will buy them.
Letâs be honest weâve all over the years fallen for it. How many times does DSOTM or A kind of Blue need to be remastered and reissued
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