Vinyl Reissues: Sorting Wheat from Chaff.
Posted by: kevin J Carden on 21 June 2018
Many Vinyl-using forum contributors have highlighted the highly varied and rather inconsistent quality of many Classic Album Vinyl reissues. I’m thinking there should be value in starting a thread where folk can highlight the ones that they’ve found to be particularly good. I’d certainly find this enormously helpful. Hopefully, others might too.
A few months ago I posted regarding Donald Fagen's Cheap Xmas box set. At the time I thought the Chris Bellman cut reissue of The Nightfly sounded really good, maybe even as good or perhaps better than my early UK/Europe Alsdorf Masterdisk issue. Well, I finally got to compare the two and yes, in isolation the recent CB reissue is excellent, and you could easily be very happy with it. I know I am. However, listening to the early Masterdisk and it has more sparkle and is marginally more dynamic, if maybe a lacking a little of the warmth of the CB reissue. There's possibly just a little extra inner detail with the CB, but that may be down to being fresh and relatively unplayed (my Alsdorf/Masterdisk copy is in lovely nick but has had a LOT of plays over the years, albeit always on a good deck/arm and cart). It's pretty close really, but overall I think I tip my hat in the direction of the earlier pressing as giving me just a bit more of the "tingle" factor. I don't have a US pressing with which to compare though - that might be interesting.
SamS posted:kevin J Carden posted:Richard Dane posted:Kevin, look out for the EMI Millennium vinyl reissue of Lennon's Walls and Bridges. Also, look out for the EMI 100 reissue series of Lennon's Imagine. These were "analogue cut from analogue tape" and very nicely pressed on virgin vinyl.
Well, whaddayaknow... I just discovered that I DO have a copy of this very disc Richard! I bought a bunch of Vinyl about 15years ago from a record collection that Graham’s HiFi had bought in from a customer going digital. A very pleasant surprise indeed. My 18month old Granddaughter is staying with us for the next few weeks, so the LP12 is locked away, but I’ll give this Millenium reissue a spin after that.
Kevin - If you happen to find an EMI 100 of Bowie - Hunky Dory in there, then you hit the jackpot. Beautiful sounding re-issue and considered superior to originals.
Quite expensive now.
Sadly not Sam. However, That’s one crucial album that I do have a nice copy of ; an original Orange label RCA. Owned for more than 40 years, it’s been heavily played and has many ticks and pops, but still a great experience to play 
kevin J Carden posted:Sadly not Sam. However, That’s one crucial album that I do have a nice copy of ; an original Orange label RCA. Owned for more than 40 years, it’s been heavily played and has many ticks and pops, but still a great experience to play
In the end Kevin, that's all that matters. I am constantly delighted by records I pull off the shelf that haven't seen light in decades, yet still manage to make me smile when they play.
Back on thread - there is a small reissue label in the US called Intervention Records who have been doing some very fine sounding work. The chap who runs it, Shane Buettner, is very committed to the task and can be found on a somewhat dedicated thread over on the Hoffman forum. The catalog is small but growing, and everything he touches is done with great care. I have Joe Jackson - Look Sharp, I'm the Man and Night and Day and there is a definite improvement on the originals, particularly in the 1st 2 titles and most notably in the bass which really highlights what great playing was on these records. Night and Day is perhaps not as large an improvement - in fact my bog standard CD of that sounds pretty good but the reissue is welcome nonetheless.
I also picked up the Murray Head, Nigel Lived more out of curiosity than anything else as it had been referenced in the recording engineer, Phil Brown's book Are We still Rolling. It is indeed interesting, and perhaps a bit more of its time, but sound-wise (field recordings etc.) a treat. My previous knowledge of Murray beginning and ending with his role as Judas in 'Jesus Christ Superstar' - an album I have owned for 40+ years that still gets an airing every year around Easter (much to my family's chagrin).
Other titles such as those form Judee Sill also get high praise but I had to draw the line as they are expensive to get into the UK unfortunately.
I've come across a few really good reissues lately. I'll get too the others in due course, but first up, the Talking Heads reissues from Rhino. I've mentioned some of these before, but tonight was my first listen to Speaking in Tongues. Mastered by Sterling Sound, cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and pressed by Optimal, you'd be expecting something really good, and you won't be disappointed. It's a favourite album of mine, evoking a particular time in my life out in the US when the album was first released. Listening to it always brings back memories of good times. As such, I find I have a few copies; my original copy bought in the US is gone - maybe I left it at the radio station or someone borrowed it and never returned it. Anyway, my local shop in the UK had put a copy aside for me when I came home for the holidays, and that's the one pictured here with the DMM sticker. It's still in really great condition even though it has been played a lot over the years. There's also another German pressed original that I found about 6 or 7 years ago still sealed - I played it a couple of times at most. And then of course the most recent Rhino reissue.
The Rhino is notable for being considerably heavier and thicker than the two originals. However, the originals are flawlessly pressed. The Rhino is close enough to perfect. Playing the Rhino first, I was really impressed with the impact and clarity. I don't know what they source was but it didn't sound like it had suffered much over the years. Compared to the German pressed original it added a hint of extra warmth to the upper bass and had a bit less stage width, but it was a touch more natural. However, my original DMM seemed to eek out just a smidge more excitement - and putting me just a touch more "there". But overall, I'm splitting hairs here. What's remarkable is just how close they are overall. On that basis, short of finding another sealed original, the Rhino is a sure fire recommendation.
So here's another really excellent reissue that I bought recently. Frank Zappa's Hot Rats.
Remastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed by Pallas in the US, this is as nice a slab on vinyl as I've come across in recent years; a nicely printed gatefold sleeve, a poly-lined inner (hooray!) and an LP that's perfectly flat, perfectly centred and totally silent bar the music. And what music! Compared to my 1970 UK 2nd issue (admittedly getting on a bit and has seen some play over the years), it's like listening to a completely new performance - clarity and dynamics are much improved as is the apparent bandwidth. I don't know how it compares to an original US copy, but even if it matched this reissue. I'd be surprised if the surfaces were as quiet. Oh, and joy of joy, at last a new LP where the record slides easily out of the inner sleeve without feeling like you've put hand onto a van de graf generator - no static cling!! All in all, a stunningly good reissue. Could it be that things are beginning to look up?
Loki, of all the many pressing issues that can occur, an off-centre hole I find the most annoying by far. I guess I may be rather pitch sensitive. Unfortunately it has always been something of an issue, probably at its worst during the '70s. IIRC UK ELO LPs on Jet Records were some of the worst culprits. Of course, there is an end-user solution; You can either painstakingly open up the hole and then mark the edge that needs to be closest to the spindle. It's not exact, but it can really help, but it's tedious. Or, you could track down one of these...
Image of Nakamichi TX-1000 linked from Vinylengine.
Richard Dane posted:Loki, of all the many pressing issues that can occur, an off-centre hole I find the most annoying by far. I guess I may be rather pitch sensitive. Unfortunately it has always been something of an issue, probably at its worst during the '70s. IIRC UK ELO LPs on Jet Records were some of the worst culprits. Of course, there is an end-user solution; You can either painstakingly open up the hole and then mark the edge that needs to be closest to the spindle. It's not exact, but it can really help, but it's tedious. Or, you could track down one of these...
Image of Nakamichi TX-1000 linked from Vinylengine.
Definitely worth it for a bit of Abba magic! These off-world ears are particularly pitch sensitive. It's one of the [many] reasons I graduated from the Planar 3 to the LP12 in 89. On the other hand I might just ask Direct Vinyl for a swap
Richard Dane posted:Loki, of all the many pressing issues that can occur, an off-centre hole I find the most annoying by far. I guess I may be rather pitch sensitive. Unfortunately it has always been something of an issue, probably at its worst during the '70s. IIRC UK ELO LPs on Jet Records were some of the worst culprits. Of course, there is an end-user solution; You can either painstakingly open up the hole and then mark the edge that needs to be closest to the spindle. It's not exact, but it can really help, but it's tedious. Or, you could track down one of these...
Image of Nakamichi TX-1000 linked from Vinylengine.
You'll be lucky.