A digital master with vinyl's limits added

Here is a fact the vinyl romance does not like. Many modern vinyl releases are cut from digital masters anyway. So you are often buying a digital recording with vinyl's limitations added on top.

And the limitations are real. The bass is restricted at the cutting stage so the needle does not jump, the highs are boosted by up to 20 dB and cut back again on playback, and the stylus has mass and cannot track the groove perfectly. None of that exists in the master the record was cut from.

I do not use this to tell anyone to stop buying records. I love the format and I keep buying. But it changes the question I ask before I pay: not whether vinyl beats digital, but whether this pressing, from this plant, is worth my money.

Long story short, I read the dead wax first and I research that exact pressing, not just the album. If the fault is there, it was baked into the vinyl before it ever left the factory, and no turntable of mine will take it out.

The format is not the bargain, and it is not the scam. The pressing is.