Purchased a couple new albums and based on the sound quality my system is capable of with good LP's, these were both disappointing.
The first one was Peter Gabriel "US" on RealWorld records which is a 3 LP 180 gram 45 RPM half-speed remaster numbered limited edition. I could only get down two of the five sides before I gave up. Bass heavy, and lack of transparency. Not what I was expecting and seriously disappointing.
The second one was Piano Guys "Uncharted" on Portrait Records/Sony Music Masterworks which is a single LP 180 gram 33 RPM pressing. Sound quality was better but still not opening up and lacked transparency. Pretty obvious it's a digitally recorded and mastered album as the album sounds just barely better than the MP3 stream from the internet.
Prior to this has been several similar experiences with new LP's where it sounds like it is mastered for CD and then dumped to LP for the novelty of it rather than for the sound quality.
There is no point to have records for the novelty of it. In both cases I could have gotten the MP3's to sound as good or actually sound better, and it's just proof that it doesn't matter how good the quality of the record is if the recording sucks, nor does it matter how good the quality of the recording is if the pressing sucks.
It makes me realize that wining the vinyl vs. digital debate will never be easy since a good DAC would actually sound better than many of todays pressing.
-steve