Vinyl 101: Colored Vinyl vs. Black Vinyl

Whether or not black or color vinyl sounds better has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the vinyl world since probably the 1960s, when the first color records were released. But what’s the reality? Vinyl 101 is here to help. 

Here's the actual science: Standard black vinyl gets its color from carbon black, an additive that's been dumped into the PVC compound since the format's earliest days, but not for aesthetics: it happens to be a phenomenal filler. It fills in micro-voids in the vinyl compound, and it helps dissipate static. Colored vinyl swaps that carbon black for other pigments, and those pigments don't always do the same job.  

In practice, this means colored vinyl has historically been more prone to surface noise, more prone to warping, and generally a little less consistent from pressing to pressing. Splatter and swirl variants — the ones that look like a Jackson Pollock paintings — are the biggest offenders, since you're mixing multiple compounds that don't always play nice together as they cool.

But here's the part the message board fights about this topic leave out: pressing plants have gotten dramatically better at this. A well-run plant with well-maintained stampers and a properly formulated colored compound can put out colored vinyl that's audibly indistinguishable from black. The variable was never really "color:” it was always "quality control." A pristine colored pressing will smoke a trashed, warped black one every single time.

So, go ahead and buy the colored vinyl. It looks cooler, and if it’s an album you love, it’s way more fun to have something interesting. Just know they’re not always better than black vinyl, and black vinyl isn’t always better than color.