"Pressing Vinyl"

I think the comment by the plant manager is really a reflection of the fact that it is a fairly old tech manufacturing business, and as the video suggested, lots of variables to keep all that stuff humming optimally. I don't care that he doesn't give a poop about the music, as long as the records are well made. We can leave the creative stuff to the artists, engineers and producers. I do find it fascinating that these old presses can be refurbished and returned to service. As to investment in new presses, I don't know, but imagine the tooling costs would be considerable, and it seems that a lot of people are concerned that once the 'fad' aspect of the vinyl bubble bursts, we'll be back to far lower volume, audiophile stuff, the odd release by a new band, etc. I don't buy many new records, and of the 'mass market' stuff I do buy, whether pressed in the US or EU, I've certainly had issues. (I'm not talking about the fancier pressings of the type you get from Chad or Mo-Fi, and even some of the big labels are using Chad now for some stuff, e.g. if memory serves, the Hendrix Legacy AYE was pressed at QRP).

I don't think MoFi owns its own pressing plant. The original ones were done, as you no doubt know, by JVC in Japan. I think they owned a US plant briefly in the '90s, before they went bankrupt. Now that Music Direct owns them, and rebooted the brand, I suspect they use the usual suspects. Correct me if wrong. I have a few 'new' MoFi, and can look.

Ralph: I'm happy about the resurgence and the resulting renassiance in the art of making records. I hope it does continue, but I do think there is a degree of 'fashion' to all of this right now that may not be enduring. I'm OK with that too. I hung in there during the nadir, and probably bought more records after The Death of Vinyl (TM) than before, when it was a mainstream medium. Most of my record buying in the past 10 years has been older stuff, filling in gaps, but I do buy some new material (not so much reissues, but sometimes). As I said, I hope you are right, and I am wrong. Even if it is a bubble, I think there have been benefits to revitalizing what was becoming a lost art.

Precisely. And when the Lumber sexuals decide craft made beer and vinyls are out, where to next? :)

Act- RTI for sure; don't know if they used any others. I was addressing an earlier post that suggested MoFi had its own pressing plant. I don't buy many remasters or "audiophile" records these days, but of the 'new' MoFi's I have, the quality is good and pretty consistent. That old MoFi vinyl formulation that JVC used was really as good as it got; I rarely listen to them because of the EQ (those I bought many of back in the day b/c it was one of the few "audiophile" labels that had rock music as opposed to sonic wallpaper). I know the delays were one reason Chad decided to go his own way. His stuff has been pretty good too, though, again, my experience is limited- I have some of his older stuff pressed on RTI (test pressings) that are great!