French pressing plant, manufacturing and distribution company which stemmed from their original pressing plant in Averton (Mayenne), France, established by Pierre Tyrel de Poix in 1957. The 'MPO' acronym remains from the original company; 'Moulages et Plastiques de l'Ouest' (in English: Western Plastics Castings). Through expansion, MPO has permanent offices throughout the world, with a strong presence in Europe. The group's operations are structured around its three production sites and logistics centres; MPO Iberica and MPO France (Averton and Villaines La Juhel) and MPO Asia (Bangkok, Thailand) and numerous sales offices in Europe and Asia as well as a partner in the US.
MPO pressed its first commercial CD on 4th of December, 1984.
Vinyl discs pressed by MPO usually have the hand etched "MPO" inscription in the runouts (sometimes 'MPO®' or 'MP').
Recent presses sometimes show a stamped logo followed by a number in the form ## ##### (where the first two digits indicates the pressing year – see this image). DO NOT ADD THIS NUMBER TO LCCN.
Another identifier for MPO vinyl discs is three concentric pressing rings around the spindle hole as here. MPO can be credited as M.P.O. on releases.
On cassettes: "Duplication MPO", most often printed on labels.
MPO CDs made at Averton are assigned the following SID codes:
Mastering code: L031, L032, L033, L035, L036, L039, LY88 (often misread as LV88)
Mould code : 12##
MPO isn't always explicitly mentioned in the CD matrix, but can sometimes be identified by a string of tiny text with the following format:
CA [label cat#] [one or more @] IFPI [mastering SID code] M/D/YYYY HH:MM:SS [AM/PM] NNNNNNNNNN
(This isn't usually allowed, but there was forum discussion for doing this for MPO in particular.) If you aren't sure, please ask in the forums.)
The non-fill situation is getting out of hand in the last year or so. This used to be my most trusted pressing plant for everyday releases but sadly I've had better luck with GZ-Media recently. Hope they improve their standards as besides the non-fill I never have any problems with their pressings. Of course I've seen non-fill on other plant's pressings (even Optimal) but its rare cases, with MPO its slowly becoming the norm and that's pretty bad.
Has anybody else found that MPO’s pressing quality got worse after they stopped stamping the 3 rings around the spindle hole? It seems almost every new pressing I get from them has non-fill to some degree. That was not a huge issue for them before.
You used to have a problem with debris pressed into the vinyl. Now your newest problem is non-fill. If brand new CD's came with pits in the surface people would scream bloody murder. You used to be a great plant but I guess times have changed. It's time to get it together and stop showering us with defective pressings.
George Thorogood limited RSD 2020 live 4LP set - non-fill Alice in Chains Facelift 2020 remaster 2LP set - non-fill
I just returned a copy of their "Kind of Blue" I found new in a shop a few days ago. It sounded like someone was frying an egg in the background. The worst sounding brand new record I've ever owned. It went back to the shop and I may have to reconsider purchasing new records in the future. I've had far better luck sonically with used vinyl.
Fortunately, so far nothing but great experience with my MPO records: Sgt Peppers Anniv (2020 according to runnout), Kind of Blue, OK Computer, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Natalia Lafourcade etc etc etc. I hope MPO keep doing a great job!
I think their standards have dropped this year. I wrote a mostly positive review of their output back in 2018 but I've not been impressed with the releases I've heard from them this year. Their pressing of Aldous Harding's Designer was one of the worst sounding new LPs I've ever heard and their reissue of Gomez's Liquid Skin is solid but did need a lot of cleaning to become acceptable - and, even then, it isn't as clean as their pressing of the same band's 'Bring It On' from last year. I'm not sure what's gone wrong as I've almost always been very happy with their pressings in the past.
werk91
27 febbraio 2021