This is great! The fact that United pressing plant won't let you visit there because you said something negative about them ( rightfully so) , speaks volumes about them!
Love Optimal! Definitely one of the best pressing plants around today. I’m so thankful for my Beatles mono box set, which is pressed phenomenally with crazy attention to detail and sounds absolutely amazingly awesome! Thanks so much for this vid, Michael. 🎶🔊🙂
Germany has a very long tradition of manufacturing excellence. Optimal is no exception, but for us audiophiles they are a very welcome addition to the world of vinyl records manufacturing. Thanks for the tour, Michael!
@@audiophileman7047 sadly, I'm afraid the WEF 2030 "green" agenda is going to push record manufacturing out of Europe very soon. (and I work at another plant btw)
Very interesting indeed Michael!! You are wonderful to share this for us record fans!!! Reminds me as a pianist I had to opportunity to tour the Yamaha Upright factory in Thomaston, Georgia Thanks again for sharing!!!
All joking aside. Thank you Michael for taking the time to do this and thank you Optimal for conducting a tour of your impressive facilities! Thank you both. Now, back to the video quality.......lol
An amazing insight into a cutting edge facility in Germany. This is another reason that UK leaving the EU was a bad idea. This video reminds me why vinyl costs so much.
Michael, when a granulator is grinding up trimmings at the press and it has a hose leading to the extruder...... that plastic is being fed right back into the press. Thanks for the video - a a very impressive factory.
Thank you Michael - and I for one appreciate you speaking to us while you bring the world of audio into my computer, a bit of explanation here and there certainly helps pull things together - ha! didn't know "chickens" were involved in record pressing - kidding of course - and hopefully you got your luggage back.
You know a top shelf quality control company when you see the ISO designation. I used to work for a company back in the 1990's when they were applying for this designation, and there is no tolerance for BS;-)
what was the secret green press you were not allowed to show? was it something ..related to the DFI vs MPO story by any chance? (: or in other words: did it have some unique robot-hands putting records into sleeves?
I have mixed feelings about this plant. I recently bought the new Coldplay album. And Optimal usually do not use lined inner sleeves. Due to mass production (which is good news of course) the records are simply dropped in the paper sleeves, charging the record as it falls in the inner sleeve and this also caused nasty scratches. So PLEASE OPTIMAL, use lined inner sleeves. I mean, if the third copy I had was acceptable, that must tell you something. Other than that, please make sure both stampers are alligned correctly in the press, too many sides are off centered. Is it really that difficult? Sorry for ranting here but we pay a lot of money for our hobby and we have a right for a quality product. I’m not saying that you do not try but somewhere in the process there is room for improvements. Regards, Willem from Holland.
I feel your pain, but would suggest ranting at Warner Music Group. The choice of inner sleeve is a financial decision made by the record company, not Optimal. Large record companies mostly do not give a shit about your listening experience - they are trying to squeeze as much profit as they can out of each unit. Hence they choose the cheapest inner sleeve, even though Optimal offers poly lined inners. A good example: Blue note's 2019 "BN80" reissue series. Pressed at Optimal. Started with cheap paper sleeves. Audiophile jazz fans complained. Eventually Universal listened and they switched to poly-lined sleeves. Small victories. :)
It is no use to adress the pressing plants. You simply won’t come through. Let alone all research one must do to find out where that record really was pressed. Discogs maybe offers some kind of help but it is difficult. Which makes pressing plants all are in some kind of ivory towers, certainly this plant is. Thing is, in the old days over here in Holland we had the Polygram pressing plant in Baarn. It was jointly owned by Philips and Polydor. As for eccentricity, those records never had that defect. I don’t know how they managed to do that, but they did. As for the total quality of the product, it was a in a class of its own. With the demise of that plant, the world suffered a great loss. I don ‘t know what happened to the pressing machines they used and I also don’t know what company made them. However, the pressings are easily recognisable by looking at the edge of the label area. The records all have a kinda embossed edge of the label. Maybe that has something to do with the fact both sides of the record were perfectly centered. We all know that wow and flutter can, will rather, severely degrade your listening experience. Most people do not hear it, that is, until they do. From that moment on your brain is trained to recognise the uneven running. A good turntable must have very low w&f. So why do we have to accept it if a record side is off centered? Thing is, if you have one chances are that the replacement shows the very same defect. Because it is likely that the replacement record came from the same production run. Not always, but I seldomly got a replacement that didn’t have the same defect(s). The poor retailer can only order another copy, the plant is the only party that can correct the problem. I have been ranting time and time again, to no avail. So this is one of the reasons I simply do not agree if the experts say that new records are better that those from way back when. It simply is not the case. Also the nonsense of 180 grams vinyl. Those old Polygram records were pressed on 120 gram vinyl, they still sound perfect. Dead silent vinyl, perfectly alligned sides and hardly any warpage, if at all. All mass produced. By the way, Polygram used the same presses in France and the UK. The German pressings by Polygram lacked that ridge at the edge of the label and were sligtly less reliable as for eccentricity. So although the DG pressings from Germany were generally perfect, the Dutch ones were clearly in the lead. Maybe Optimal reads this. Mr. Fremers channel is widely known by the record industry. And yes, I know the artists decide what sleeves must be used. However, knowing lined sleeves are so much better as for protecting the final product, this little extra should be spent by the plants, if only for prestige reasons. I would greatly value this and it certainly would make a plant standing out from the rest.
Oh, just remember this. Holland’s pressing plants from the past were certainly not all perfect. On the contrary! Some were alright, such as the Artone plant from Haarlem, later owned by CBS and later by Sony Music and finally by Record Industry. It still exists, be it in another location and it produces a good product that most of the times exceeds your demands qualitywise. But they also have their occasional dog that escaped the quality checks. Nothing in life is perfect but at least they try. Now back to the worst plant that ever existed: tatadada..........Bovema! Also from Haarlem but the pressing plant was elswhere I think. I still own the worst record I ever bought as for pressing: Songs in the key of life by Steve Wonder. A masterpiece. Everything that could go wrong during the manufacturing process went wrong, quite an achievement! I avoided records from that plant (easy to recognise them, the dead wax figures started with 5C) so I went all the way to Germany to get the German pressing (dead wax numbers started with 1C by the way) I still have both copies just to let people HEAR the differences between a good and a bad record.
SergioMartelli It remains a gamble. But I got two records today, one from Optimal and one from GZ. The latter on clear/black mixed PVC and both sound superb. The only thing that can be done if you got a bad pressing is simply return it but do not ask for a replacement. Instead, wait as it might be you get a decent copy from a totally different run. Sound recording quality aside, the main problems as for the mechanical problems that might occur are caused by man made errors. Maybe the Symcon project is the solution as fewer hands are needed during the pressing process. No pressing is involved to be precice, instead, injection molding is used. But it is silent at Symcon.......
I noticed it right away. It seems that all Neumann cutting machines are controlled by those East German 8 bit "Robotron KC 87" home computers (see Wikipedia).
Looks like 2021 now, maybe. Last I heard in their tests this summer they had some problems with the vinyl not separating cleanly maybe? Not sure. Also not sure what their speed/capacity is now in cutting the stampers.
Back in the early 70's I worked in an automobile parts warehouse and they had pallets stacked all the way up like in the 26 minute marker of this video, .I had to manually use a tow motor to retrieve stock from way up on high!!
Dear Mike,I'm sorry about your underware. I accidentetally found your channel. Love it. May I suggest a topic for another issue: collectors catalogs, value of vinyl collections and where to find etc..Apreciated. Regards from Germany
7:54 "...we can make a b-family". Is this reputable? My translation: "So, you can say we heard the mistake when checking the engine. We're going back to father now. Father has it too and in principle I have now looked at the foil, possibly with the hope that we can make a B family. We're not going to say that out loud." Original german: "Also, du kannst sagen wir haben den Fehler gehört bei der Motorkontrolle. Jetzt gehen wir zurück bis auf Vater. Vater hat es auch und im Prinzip habe ich mir jetzt die Folie angeguckt, evtl. mit der Hoffnung, wir können eine B-Familie ziehen. Das sagen wir jetzt mal nicht so laut."
That is one clean factory. Just wondering if any of your hosts ever get pissed at your wise guy comments/asides? I think they are funny. I'm pretty sure in the video with that old Japanese cartridge maker that he was getting pissed. Hard to tell cause the Japanese are so polite. Pretty sure he was pissed.
Not even one audio monitor is set up correctly in there yet they had to have Genelec monitors for some reason. If they aren't going to set them up properly they might as well be the cheapest monitors they can get.
I'm not critiquing any specific entity or person but as a compulsive person & acoustics treatment professional, you can go mad by looking through publications, websites, videos of gear/rooms in thousands to hundreds of thousands and most, MOST have not taken the basic step towards improving the monitoring position, the viewing position, etc. It's crazy. "Dave, look at my $25,000 speakers and the deal I got on my pair of nine grand mono amps and new TT isolated platform!" Me: where's your wall treatments? Your beautiful speakers are pointing in different directions, yada yada." My rant is over.
No mostly GZ media for the likes of Waxtime, DOL, Doxy etc. Obviously best avoided but they put out alot of colour LPs for hardly any dosh so people lap them up for that reason alone and dont give a tinkers cuss about the bootlegged nature or unknown audio source... obviously a Cd/Mp3 file. Its more the law and the consumers fault than its the bootleggy labels fault... you cant blame them that they spotted a gap and have obviously exploited it in some kind of gigantic vinyl hustle!
So... this is the company responsible for that shitty "Now and Then" pressing. Noted. I'm staying away from _anything_ pressed by this company in the future. Fool me once....
This is great! The fact that United pressing plant won't let you visit there because you said something negative about them ( rightfully so) , speaks volumes about them!
Love Optimal! Definitely one of the best pressing plants around today. I’m so thankful for my Beatles mono box set, which is pressed phenomenally with crazy attention to detail and sounds absolutely amazingly awesome!
Thanks so much for this vid, Michael. 🎶🔊🙂
I work there
Great Video! Most of my pressings come from either GZ or Optimal.
Germany has a very long tradition of manufacturing excellence. Optimal is no exception, but for us audiophiles they are a very welcome addition to the world of vinyl records manufacturing. Thanks for the tour, Michael!
using Swedish Pheenix AD12 makes the records purely German (:
my preferred German plant is Pallas, but Optimal is a lovely facility nonetheless.
@@graearea101 Having more quality pressing plants around the world is always a good thing for supply of the titles we love. 👍👍👍
@@audiophileman7047 sadly, I'm afraid the WEF 2030 "green" agenda is going to push record manufacturing out of Europe very soon.
(and I work at another plant btw)
Very interesting indeed Michael!! You are wonderful to share this for us record fans!!! Reminds me as a pianist I had to opportunity to tour the Yamaha Upright factory in Thomaston, Georgia
Thanks again for sharing!!!
All joking aside. Thank you Michael for taking the time to do this and thank you Optimal for conducting a tour of your impressive facilities! Thank you both. Now, back to the video quality.......lol
An amazing insight into a cutting edge facility in Germany. This is another reason that UK leaving the EU was a bad idea. This video reminds me why vinyl costs so much.
I press my own labels records with Optimal. They do an amazing job for both the majors and little labels like mine!
Love the Mussorgsky at the end! That entire facility is so super clean and modern and perfect, and huge.
Thanks Michael..a great video. I love optimal records..easily the best in the business!
Michael, when a granulator is grinding up trimmings at the press and it has a hose leading to the extruder...... that plastic is being fed right back into the press. Thanks for the video - a a very impressive factory.
This place is heaven! Thanks for this awesome video!
Thank you Michael - and I for one appreciate you speaking to us while you bring the world of audio into my computer, a bit of explanation here and there certainly helps pull things together - ha! didn't know "chickens" were involved in record pressing - kidding of course - and hopefully you got your luggage back.
You know a top shelf quality control company when you see the ISO designation. I used to work for a company back in the 1990's when they were applying for this designation, and there is no tolerance for BS;-)
what was the secret green press you were not allowed to show? was it something ..related to the DFI vs MPO story by any chance? (:
or in other words: did it have some unique robot-hands putting records into sleeves?
I have mixed feelings about this plant. I recently bought the new Coldplay album. And Optimal usually do not use lined inner sleeves. Due to mass production (which is good news of course) the records are simply dropped in the paper sleeves, charging the record as it falls in the inner sleeve and this also caused nasty scratches. So PLEASE OPTIMAL, use lined inner sleeves. I mean, if the third copy I had was acceptable, that must tell you something. Other than that, please make sure both stampers are alligned correctly in the press, too many sides are off centered. Is it really that difficult? Sorry for ranting here but we pay a lot of money for our hobby and we have a right for a quality product. I’m not saying that you do not try but somewhere in the process there is room for improvements. Regards, Willem from Holland.
I couldn't agree more Willem (helemaal mee eens)
I feel your pain, but would suggest ranting at Warner Music Group. The choice of inner sleeve is a financial decision made by the record company, not Optimal. Large record companies mostly do not give a shit about your listening experience - they are trying to squeeze as much profit as they can out of each unit. Hence they choose the cheapest inner sleeve, even though Optimal offers poly lined inners.
A good example: Blue note's 2019 "BN80" reissue series. Pressed at Optimal. Started with cheap paper sleeves. Audiophile jazz fans complained. Eventually Universal listened and they switched to poly-lined sleeves. Small victories. :)
It is no use to adress the pressing plants. You simply won’t come through. Let alone all research one must do to find out where that record really was pressed. Discogs maybe offers some kind of help but it is difficult. Which makes pressing plants all are in some kind of ivory towers, certainly this plant is. Thing is, in the old days over here in Holland we had the Polygram pressing plant in Baarn. It was jointly owned by Philips and Polydor. As for eccentricity, those records never had that defect. I don’t know how they managed to do that, but they did. As for the total quality of the product, it was a in a class of its own. With the demise of that plant, the world suffered a great loss. I don ‘t know what happened to the pressing machines they used and I also don’t know what company made them. However, the pressings are easily recognisable by looking at the edge of the label area. The records all have a kinda embossed edge of the label. Maybe that has something to do with the fact both sides of the record were perfectly centered. We all know that wow and flutter can, will rather, severely degrade your listening experience. Most people do not hear it, that is, until they do. From that moment on your brain is trained to recognise the uneven running. A good turntable must have very low w&f. So why do we have to accept it if a record side is off centered? Thing is, if you have one chances are that the replacement shows the very same defect. Because it is likely that the replacement record came from the same production run. Not always, but I seldomly got a replacement that didn’t have the same defect(s). The poor retailer can only order another copy, the plant is the only party that can correct the problem. I have been ranting time and time again, to no avail. So this is one of the reasons I simply do not agree if the experts say that new records are better that those from way back when. It simply is not the case. Also the nonsense of 180 grams vinyl. Those old Polygram records were pressed on 120 gram vinyl, they still sound perfect. Dead silent vinyl, perfectly alligned sides and hardly any warpage, if at all. All mass produced. By the way, Polygram used the same presses in France and the UK. The German pressings by Polygram lacked that ridge at the edge of the label and were sligtly less reliable as for eccentricity. So although the DG pressings from Germany were generally perfect, the Dutch ones were clearly in the lead. Maybe Optimal reads this. Mr. Fremers channel is widely known by the record industry. And yes, I know the artists decide what sleeves must be used. However, knowing lined sleeves are so much better as for protecting the final product, this little extra should be spent by the plants, if only for prestige reasons. I would greatly value this and it certainly would make a plant standing out from the rest.
Oh, just remember this. Holland’s pressing plants from the past were certainly not all perfect. On the contrary! Some were alright, such as the Artone plant from Haarlem, later owned by CBS and later by Sony Music and finally by Record Industry. It still exists, be it in another location and it produces a good product that most of the times exceeds your demands qualitywise. But they also have their occasional dog that escaped the quality checks. Nothing in life is perfect but at least they try. Now back to the worst plant that ever existed: tatadada..........Bovema! Also from Haarlem but the pressing plant was elswhere I think. I still own the worst record I ever bought as for pressing: Songs in the key of life by Steve Wonder. A masterpiece. Everything that could go wrong during the manufacturing process went wrong, quite an achievement! I avoided records from that plant (easy to recognise them, the dead wax figures started with 5C) so I went all the way to Germany to get the German pressing (dead wax numbers started with 1C by the way) I still have both copies just to let people HEAR the differences between a good and a bad record.
SergioMartelli It remains a gamble. But I got two records today, one from Optimal and one from GZ. The latter on clear/black mixed PVC and both sound superb. The only thing that can be done if you got a bad pressing is simply return it but do not ask for a replacement. Instead, wait as it might be you get a decent copy from a totally different run. Sound recording quality aside, the main problems as for the mechanical problems that might occur are caused by man made errors. Maybe the Symcon project is the solution as fewer hands are needed during the pressing process. No pressing is involved to be precice, instead, injection molding is used. But it is silent at Symcon.......
Thank you Mr Fremer!
I was wondering, was this Robotron KC 87 homecomputer does at both of the lathes?
I noticed it right away. It seems that all Neumann cutting machines are controlled by those East German 8 bit "Robotron KC 87" home computers (see Wikipedia).
He gave his underwear for us !!
Great facility...great tour. Always enjoy Michael's videos. Thank you
God I love it when you do theses factory tours! You could visit one plant a thousand times, and I'll never git tired of it! Thank you, Mr fremer!
Goddamn - is Germany in the future?? What a facility!
Great work as ever Michael.
2020 HD vinyl starts selling their laser chiseled ceramic stamper technology to record plants around the world. Can’t wait 😊
Does that mean no lacquer? No lathe? NO KEVIN GRAY??
"George is getting upset!"
Looks like 2021 now, maybe. Last I heard in their tests this summer they had some problems with the vinyl not separating cleanly maybe? Not sure. Also not sure what their speed/capacity is now in cutting the stampers.
Truly clear and awesome video in HD!
Thanks for this tours, sir.
Back in the early 70's I worked in an automobile parts warehouse and they had pallets stacked all the way up like in the 26 minute marker of this video, .I had to manually use a tow motor to retrieve stock from way up on high!!
Micheal! Never ever put your camera gear in your checked luggage! You’re forgiven.
That is the same "O" as Oregon Ducks college logo, ha epic
Dear Mike,I'm sorry about your underware. I accidentetally found your channel. Love it. May I suggest a topic for another issue:
collectors catalogs, value of vinyl collections and where to find etc..Apreciated. Regards from Germany
As an audiophile I’m required to ask which stamping machine makes the best records?
SergioMartelli All this stuff is so powerful that in the end they can convince you anything sounds great. The desert of the real.
Michael, This was pretty cool usually I don't get into the machinic of things but this was very interesting.
thanks michael i love these kinda videos
Thanks for the tour very interesting
They didn't give you any free samples of The Beatles in Mono as a Christmas Gift?;-) Think I also saw the Beatles Vinyl Number Ones?
Nice to see Genelec 1031's running strong in these studios..........
looks like a serious operation
What is the disc diameter of the Neumann lathe machine?! Looks like 400mm or something? Anyone knows?!🤨
Since Optimal keeps all the stampers, hoping UMG reissues the Beatles in mono
Vinyl heaven thanks Mike hope you got your luggage
Impressive place.
Wheres the department that puts all the little dents in the lead in groove of all their records?
😮wow! Awesome!!
7:54 "...we can make a b-family". Is this reputable?
My translation:
"So, you can say we heard the mistake when checking the engine. We're going back to father now. Father has it too and in principle I have now looked at the foil, possibly with the hope that we can make a B family. We're not going to say that out loud."
Original german:
"Also, du kannst sagen wir haben den Fehler gehört bei der Motorkontrolle. Jetzt gehen wir zurück bis auf Vater. Vater hat es auch und im Prinzip habe ich mir jetzt die Folie angeguckt, evtl. mit der Hoffnung, wir können eine B-Familie ziehen. Das sagen wir jetzt mal nicht so laut."
Mutterkontrolle .... im Prinzip habe ich mir jetzt die ... Früher angeguckt. But yeah... B- family? ... hmmm.
1:13 below Karajan, in the middle Beatles, above Lena-Meyer Landrut Vinyl "Only Love". ruclips.net/video/1ZLp2kSkNvU/видео.html
Which machine puts the pops and clicks into the vinyl?
The one in your head.
GZ. That’s in a different video.
Plutocracy Now! The same machine that puts the CD killing sound in the vinyl. Oh, and I sacked your maid. Too much dust being left.
Human handling at any stage of production and final end user, pop and clicks are dirt or liquid stains that became residue when dry!!❤
That is one clean factory. Just wondering if any of your hosts ever get pissed at your wise guy comments/asides? I think they are funny. I'm pretty sure in the video with that old Japanese cartridge maker that he was getting pissed. Hard to tell cause the Japanese are so polite. Pretty sure he was pissed.
Can't stop thinking about Mike's old underwear.
Knew immediately when he mention Frank Farian.
Amazing
Not even one audio monitor is set up correctly in there yet they had to have Genelec monitors for some reason. If they aren't going to set them up properly they might as well be the cheapest monitors they can get.
I'm not critiquing any specific entity or person but as a compulsive person & acoustics treatment professional, you can go mad by looking through publications, websites, videos of gear/rooms in thousands to hundreds of thousands and most, MOST have not taken the basic step towards improving the monitoring position, the viewing position, etc. It's crazy.
"Dave, look at my $25,000 speakers and the deal I got on my pair of nine grand mono amps and new TT isolated platform!" Me: where's your wall treatments? Your beautiful speakers are pointing in different directions, yada yada."
My rant is over.
I would love to see BALLFINGER Tour.
Lordy!!
Hail To The Thief!
Sad 4 U
@@AnalogPlanet m8
The studio didn’t have a full surround sound system with Atmos for mixing Atmos or 5.1/7.1 music???
German mass production plant..WOW...
So is this where all the bootlegs are coming from?
No mostly GZ media for the likes of Waxtime, DOL, Doxy etc. Obviously best avoided but they put out alot of colour LPs for hardly any dosh so people lap them up for that reason alone and dont give a tinkers cuss about the bootlegged nature or unknown audio source... obviously a Cd/Mp3 file. Its more the law and the consumers fault than its the bootleggy labels fault... you cant blame them that they spotted a gap and have obviously exploited it in some kind of gigantic vinyl hustle!
So... this is the company responsible for that shitty "Now and Then" pressing. Noted. I'm staying away from _anything_ pressed by this company in the future. Fool me once....
Roughing it.
More of a commercial printing plant than anything else it seems
You know, the video COULD be better. But you feel the need to prance around in your undies.....nevermind. On with the tour. lol
Amazing that parts of this place looks like a nuclear plant.............
One of the worst employer in the region.
And vinyl is dead... 😎