Old records.

It seems to me that it's something wrong with your system, not your older records.

My record collection is predominately 80's music and ones pressed in 80s..90s sound more superior ones pressed recently or re-pressed. I can't even think of comparing modern day releases of Zeppelin vs. original Ludwig releases

I am happy that this matter about the material pressing of vinyl was touched upon  here instead of  usual the alleged superiority of vinyl which for me in the actual digital state of the technology is only a matter of the cost/design /level of the concerned technology when compared to each other  ...

I am happy that this was discussed openly because it was the reason i quit vinyl buying spree BEFORE digital enter the scene ...

As i said when digital came the sound was horrible because it takes at least two decades before this technology was mature enough ...

As an important observation this does not means that all vinyl pressings were bad , at this times i owned a hundred vinyls it is not a big sample enough to gave the right information .... Then i may had been unlucky with my choices and it was half classical and half pop or folk ... This post of mine relate only a limited experience not the truth of the vinyl market at the times...

I remember well why i listened mostly only Bach because i was disgusted with vinyl buyings and not picking the best interpretation first but the more solid and well pressed one .,.. The other reason was my unsatisfaction with the sound quality of my audio system , even with a Sugden Amplifier and Tannoy dual gold concentric ... I did not know anything about what i learned in Acoustics and embeddingas controls in the last 10 years..😊

Then being ignorant my only way to improve the sound was buying costlier component ... But how to improve Tannoy dual concentric and Sugden ampliofier when you are relatively poor ? I did not upgraded ever from Tannoy or any other component i quit buying vinyl till digital ... Upgrading i know it now would had been a disaster because of my ignorance in acoustics and embeddings ...

@rvpiano 

"I think the consensus here is that records are maddeningly inconsistent. " 

I couldn't have said it better .

@hsounds  brought up people's top 50 or 100 albums that they listen to most often,  for myself I have multiple copies of those records , most of the time they are each from a different country and /or sometimes 2 or 3 copies from the same country but different pressings .  There are differences usually small but still there, the greatest one I can recall is a John Denver US pressing that weighted 105 grams verse a German pressing that weighted 150 grams , that one is on my shelf while the lightweight is in storage ( to be sold someday ) . 

My LP collection includes every one I bought between the early 70s and the present plus about 900 LPs I "inherited" upon the passing of a dear friend. His LPs were purchased new by him, usually from local vendors like Tower Records, and he took meticulous care of his LP collection which totaled 6000 LPs at the time of his death. Most of mine were purchased second hand, but I am very finicky about sources for LPs, and I will not buy any LP with any visual evidence of surface damage (scratches, scuffing, etc) or other evidence that it was not well cared for (e.g., no inner sleeve, album cover showing signs of having been wet or defaced). Without exception, I have found that every upgrade to my phono stage, TT, tonearm, or cartridge has resulted in better sound on average from even average LPs and that old LPs that I heretofore thought were not worth listening to because of poor SQ in many/most cases seem rejuvenated by new and better playback equipment. I am constantly and pleasantly surprised by this phenomenon. I guess I’m just a lucky so and so, to quote a phrase from a good song.

You've got it RV. It use to be somewhat predictable. Classic good to great, pop not so much. Commercial pressings of modern music still have much to be desired. There are new smaller companies that are doing an excellent job of making quiet pressings. They usually specialize in re-releases.

If you are a picky person and can not stand the occasional pop and tic vinyl may not be for you.