Since the end of 2022, all their vinyl records seem to have been mastered either from mp3 or with a VERY harsh rolloff that leaves pretty much nothing above 16khz. I know the format has limitations, and a rolloff in high frequencies is common to not overheat the cutting lathe. but this is just ridiculous.

Also a lot of bass is rolled off on these new pressings and they are also pretty low in volume.
I guess so kids with their crosleys wont complain about the records skipping? no idea.

I noticed strange thing with many ZYX mid 90s releases. Even though they are marked as released in Germany, they rarely appearing on sale from Germany, but many is located in America. The US market is big, yes, but the releases I am talking about are from Euro / Italodance style. Such styles were never popular in the USA. Strange.

This German label started its life in the 80s with the distribution of Italo dance. Later on, they switched to dance music in general. For me, ZYX was one of my favourite labels, because I was mixing CDs in the early-mid nineties.

1. When ZYX released a title on 12 inch, there was also a CD version of it, containing all the tracks the 12 inch had, plus radio versions. Other labels tended to replace one of the tracks of the 12 inch by a radio version, or drastically reduced the number of tracks to keep the total time under a certain limit. Or they simply only released the title on vinyl, not on CD. X Press 2 "London Express" (1993) was only available on CD maxi... in Germany, on ZYX! Not even Junior Boy's Own was eager to release a CD of it, even though the track was a bigger club hit in the UK than it was in Germany.

2. ZYX also released excellent compilations featuring two discs full of DJ friendly, unmixed, full length 12 inch versions. This ranged from commercial Super Dance compilations to the twenty volumes of "Techno Trax", Germany's harder-edged answer to Arcade's "Turn Up The Bass". Sure, there were some filler tracks on them but buying these comps was more cost-effective than just the CD maxi singles of the songs you liked. I also got in touch with tracks I would never have discovered otherwise.

3. ZYX licensed a lot of interesting tracks from non-German labels, most notably New York's Strictly Rhythm and the Italian U.M.M. Some of the German SR releases contain bonus mixes for the German market, not to be found on the original American SR vinyls. As I was following SR those days, this was a dream come true for me.

Sadly enough, it all had to end...:(
During the late nineties, the label started to lose focus and the quality of their compilations got worse and worse... although their current Italo Disco Collection series is a sign of hope...