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| Quality Record Pressings | |
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 Workers operate an SMT record press at Quality Record Pressings | |
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| QualityRecordPressings.com |
Quality Record Pressings is a vinyl record pressing plant launched by music entrepreneur Chad Kassem in Salina, Kansas, United States in 2011. QRP sought to improve premier audiophile pressings, introducing innovations never before tried in the record pressing industry. [1] [2]
Quality Record Pressings was born out of parent company Acoustic Sounds, Inc. Kassem started Acoustic Sounds in 1986 as a mail-order business specializing in the sale of audiophile vinyl LPs, SACDs, DVD-Audios, high-quality CDs and high-end stereo equipment. Acoustic Sounds sister business, Analogue Productions, reissues choice jazz, blues, classical and folk recordings. Analogue Productions now has more than 450 titles in print. By launching his own vinyl pressing plant, Kassem sought to end increasing delays in getting his records pressed, both reissues as well as those from authentic and legendary living blues artists recording on Kassem's APO (Analogue Productions Originals) record label. Kassem also sought to raise the quality of LP production by investing in innovative pressing technology. [3]
Located in a 20,000 square-foot former refrigerated warehouse in Salina, QRP operates three different kinds of record presses that include Toolex Alpha (made in Sweden), SMT (Southern Machine & Tool Corp. of Nashville, Tennessee) and Finebilt (of Los Angeles). The Toolex Alpha and SMT presses are automated, while the Finebilt presses are manual, but all feature important add-ons. [4]
Microprocessors were added to cycle each press based on temperature rather than the more inaccurate cycling by time, enabling greater operator control over heat and other variables that can create inconsistencies from record to record. Operators inspect each record as it comes off the press. Other technology employed helps mitigate variations in other factors that can compromise a record's quality, such as pressure and vibration. Uneven contact between the surface of the press die, to which is attached the stamper (the mold that creates a vinyl record), results in temperature variations. These variations introduce variations in the width and depth of individual grooves on the record. Quality Record Pressings uses a vacuum system to ensure uniform die and stamper contact. As a result, the listener's turntable needle tracks more smoothly and provides the listener with a more faithful reproduction of the music. QRP also uses an innovative double steam valve system that reduces die temperature cycle time as well as a more finely tuned level of temperature control of the heating and cooling process. Both reduce inconsistencies from record to record in the manufacturing process.
And just as ambient temperature, humidity and variations in steam and water pressure affect the quality of a vinyl record, so do the minute environmental vibrations from nearby equipment. Unwanted harmonic vibration transmitted to the die during the pressing process causes distortion of the record's grooves and other noise as well as other unwelcome changes in the physical structure of the grooves on a record. QRP uses custom-designed press isolation pads to mitigate the effect of these vibrations. As part of its record pressing operation, QRP also operates a plating department, setting it apart from other record pressing plants that do not have that capability. The plating department headed by Gary Salstrom is where Lacquer master discs are given metal coatings to make the metal stamper that molds the records from heated vinyl. In 2010 the acquisition of Classic Records, of Los Angeles, California, by Acoustic Sounds, was announced by Kassem and Classic Records Mike Hobson. Acoustic Sounds acquisition of Classic Records included the “Quiex SV-P” vinyl formulation/process, “Clarity Vinyl”, the unique 200-gram “flat profile” tooling and all other aspects of Classic's proprietary vinyl pressing technology. [5]
The first title pressed at Quality Record Pressings was Cat Stevens's Tea for the Tillerman from 1970. All of the Analogue Productions reissues and the APO Records titles are now pressed at QRP and the pressing plant also handles the jobs of several other record labels, both large and small.
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue recording and reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones.
An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. An audiophile seeks to reproduce recorded music to achieve high sound quality, typically inside closed headphones, In-ear monitors, open headphones in a quiet listening space, or stereo speakers in a room with good acoustics.
A phonograph record, a vinyl record, or simply a record or vinyl is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. For about half a century, the discs were commonly made from shellac, with earlier records having a fine abrasive filler mixed in. Starting in the 1940s, polyvinyl chloride became common, the "vinyl records" of the late 20th century.
An acetate disc is a type of phonograph record generally used from the 1930s to the late 1950s for recording and broadcast purposes and sees limited use as of 2009.
The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes, playback speeds, and appearance. However, since the commercial adoption of the gramophone record, a wide variety of records have also been produced that do not fall into these categories, and they have served a variety of purposes.
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is a record label that specialized in the production of audiophile issues. The company produces reissued vinyl LP records, compact discs, and Super Audio CDs and other formats.
Record collecting is the hobby of collecting sound recordings, usually of music, but sometimes poetry, reading, historical speeches, and ambient noises. Although the typical focus is on vinyl records, all formats of recorded music can be collected.
The history of sound recording - which has progressed in waves, driven by the invention and commercial introduction of new technologies — can be roughly divided into four main periods:
The LP is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of 33+1⁄3 rpm; a 12- or 10-inch diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a vinyl composition disk. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire US record industry. Apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound, it remained the standard format for record albums until its gradual replacement from the 1980s to the early 2000s, first by cassettes, then by compact discs, and finally by digital music distribution.
In the music industry, Trade Mark of Quality was a bootleg record label based in Los Angeles, California, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The label was responsible for many underground records of Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Devo, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, The Who and many other rock artists of the era.
Direct metal mastering (DMM) is an analog audio disc mastering technique jointly developed by two German companies, Telefunken-Decca (Teldec) and Georg Neumann GmbH, toward the end of the 20th century after having seen the same technology used by RCA Princeton Labs for its SelectaVision videodiscs in the late-1970s.
Zenith Records is a vinyl record pressing plant based in Melbourne, Australia, established in 2005.
In the production of phonograph records – discs that were commonly made of shellac, and later, vinyl – sound was recorded directly onto a master disc at the recording studio. From about 1950 on it became usual to have the performance first recorded on audio tape, which could then be processed and/or edited, and then dubbed on to the master disc.
Audiophile Records is a record company and label founded in 1947 by Ewing Dunbar Nunn to produce recordings of Dixieland jazz. A very few of the early pressings were classical music, Robert Noehren on pipe organ, AP-2 and AP-9 for example.
Acoustic Sounds, Inc. is a mail-order business specializing in the sale of audiophile vinyl LPs, Direct Stream Digital/PCM downloads (SuperHiRez.com), SACDs, Reel-To-Reel album reissues, DVD-Audios, high-quality CDs and high-end stereo equipment. Located in Salina, Kansas, United States. The business is owned and operated by Chad Kassem and as of 2016 employed 98 people.
Analogue Productions is a record label specializing in the manufacture and distribution of reissue LP record albums, CDs and SACDs that primarily include jazz, blues, rock, folk and classical styles of music. The company is a division of Acoustic Sounds, Inc. founded by music entrepreneur Chad Kassem in Salina, Kansas, United States in 1992.
Blue Heaven Studios is a recording studio located in a gothic-style church in Salina, Kansas. The studio is a division of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., founded by music entrepreneur Chad Kassem, and is the home of a yearly blues music festival — Blues Masters at the Crossroads.
Blues Masters at the Crossroads is a two-night blues concert held in October, at the Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas. It features award-winning blues musicians performing in a Gothic-style church sanctuary, built in 1924, which was bought and converted into a modern recording studio/concert hall by music entrepreneur Chad Kassem.
Century Record Manufacturing Company was an American custom recording company and record manufacturer. It was founded in 1958 as a division of the former Keysor-Century Corporation, a California corporation based in Saugus. Century Record Manufacturing Company served the music education market and the music groups of the U.S. Armed Forces, in addition to producing professional recordings. The company went out of business in 1976. Mark Records and Silver Crest Records are comparable labels.
Michael Alan Fremer is an American music journalist, YouTuber, and voice actor from New York City, known for writing about audiophile equipment and vinyl. He is the editor of The Tracking Angle and Senior Editor at The Absolute Sound. Due to his influence within the audiophile community, he has been called the "Pied Piper of vinyl" and the "dean of audiophile writing."