It is no secret that black vinyl is
the way to go if you want to press the best sounding record. Audiophiles swear
by it.
Furnace Record Pressing’s goal is to
produce the best sounding records, and that includes the array of color vinyl
options that are formulated to meet our strict quality specifications. However,
there is no such thing as "audiophile-quality" color vinyl (at least
not yet). The closest a color pressing has approached that level, at least in
Furnace's history, was the ORG Music reissue of Tom Petty and The
Heartbreakers' Damn The Torpedoes.
This 1979 album was re-mastered and repressed in 2010 on two 45 RPM transparent
red vinyl LPs, and to Furnace’s President Eric Astor's ears, it was "as
close as we've come to color vinyl perfection."
Color vinyl usually will have a
higher noise floor than well-formulated black vinyl. Surface noise is more
noticeable to the ear when listening to more dynamic recordings pressed on
color vinyl. So, a perfectly mastered jazz record may sound slightly less
pristine than a perfectly mastered loud rock record if both were pressed on the
same batch of Furnace-approved solid white vinyl. When in doubt, press on black
vinyl.
Once you start mixing colors, no two records will look the same, adding to the novelty of your release.
