What is the Difference between Cutting and Embossing?

Cutting actually engraves the spiral grooves into the surface, i.e material is removed by the stylus from the blank. Embossing imprints/etches onto the surface, i.e no material is removed. Cut records have deeper grooves and track well at a higher fidelity, at the expense of wear to the cutting stylus. Embossing creates less wear, increases stylus longevity and allows for harder, more experimental materials to be used. The shallower grooves on embossed records tend to track at a lower fidelity. Both methods are entirely viable, each with their own pros and cons.

How is the playback quality?

With audio files that have been specifically mastered for vinyl the audio quality is generally indistinguishable from your every day vinyl record. However, every record we cut is unique and due to the nature of the manual cutting process each record may have slight variations and subtle inconsistencies. Lathe cut records also tend to play at a lower volume than traditional pressed records. The process of transferring from a digital format to an analog disc will never be 1:1. We cut lo-fi, mono records; Keep this in mind when comparing the two.

Why are .WAV audio files preferred?

MP3s compress sound files, limiting audio range and potentially compromising audio quality when cutting to vinyl.