D Jilla
Well-Known Member
I guess as a follow-up to my previous post, is there a current list of Pressing Plant tiers? These are my rankings, but I'd love to hear other's feedback, or if there are others I've missed.
1st Tier (High quality pressings. Not infallible, but less flaws than other plants) :
QRP
Pallas
RTI
2nd Tier (Very good quality pressings, with occasional flaws):
Optimal
MPO
Gotta Groove Records
Furnace Record Pressing
3rd Tier (Good?, but new to the scene):
Kindercore Vinyl Pressing
Microforum Vinyl Record Pressing
Citizen Vinyl
Blue Sprocket Pressing
TAKT Direct
Independent Record Pressing (IRP)
4th Tier (Can pump out a lot of records. Questionable quality control.):
GZ
Memphis Record Pressing (MRP)
Precision Record Pressing (PRP)
Third Man Records
5th Tier (Hot Garbage):
United Record Pressing (URP)
Rainbo (RIP!)
This pretty much matches my experience. I think the big one you're missing is Record Industry - I'd put them 2nd tier.
Also, Memphis is really weird case - some stuff I have from there is amazing (Craft stuff like Big Star AAAs, Jonathan Richman, TVZ anniversary pressings) - like tier 1, whereas some older Fat Possum stuff is pretty much hot garbage tier. Can't tell whether they've improved a bunch or just have way different QC practices depending on the type of project you order.