Sound quality of new vinyl recordings.

Yes, it is variable. Even within audiophile pressings.

I am currently listening to a 1958 RCA Living Stereo recording. I just forget how good the recordings and pressings were in the late ‘50’s. The audiophile versions cut twenty+ years ago can be superb. In between playing one. I didn’t realize it was a 50’s recording when I put it on… it quickly became obvious it

Actually, it is the opposite story from the CD.

To answer viridian i was looking to go back to vinyl because i remember the rich sound of my old vinyl from the 70's. I fear i may not get that if they are copying digital to vinyl then i might as well stay with cd's or streaming.

"99% or more of new pressings are sourced from digital files." "Only a few specialist companies like Classic Records will use all analog tape."

Let’s take care of the simple one first: Classic records has been out of business for about 15 years.

Chad Kassem of Analogue Productions (record company) /Acoustic Sounds (distribution) / Quality Record Pressing (LP manufacturing) bought the inventory (metal parts---from which LP stampers are made) and intellectual property (the rights to the name UHQR) when Classic closed down. Almost all his very excellent LP releases are made directly from analogue tape sources, and the few that aren’t are clearly labelled as being not. AP has hundreds of great titles in their catalogue, many of them the best versions of specific titles ever manufactured. There are plenty of comparisons between various pressing of LP titles available for viewing on YouTube, made by serious record collectors.

The German company Speakers Corner is another superior reissue label. I have about a dozen of their LP’s, all excellent, all made from analogue tapes. Vinyl Me Please is another company doing all analogue reissues, and there are a couple dozen more (one being Intervention Records, others Acony, Light In The Attic, Jackpot Records here in Portland, plenty of others) doing the same. Anyone who is unaware of them is not to be taken seriously when making statements about the percentage of LP’s made from digital files.

So how about new albums, not reissues? You’ll notice guys making the claim that 99% or more of LP’s use digital files as their source material never back up that statement with solid evidence. Do they frequent recording studios, and/or know any professional musicians, recording and/or mastering engineers? Upon what is the statement based? Source, please, with examples and numbers.

The great studio here in Portland where Bill Frisell records a lot (Flore Recording And Playback) does so on a 2" 24-track analogue machine (I’ve recorded there), as does the other studio in town I’ve been in. When I recorded with Emitt Rhodes he had an Otari 2" 24-track analogue machine, and well known recording engineer Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello) was taping onto a 2" 24-track Ampex when I recorded with him in the old RCA studio on Santa Monica Blvd. (in the huge room in which The Stones recorded "Satisfaction"!), as did engineer Jeff Bakos when I recorded with Evan Johns in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lots of people say lots of things; not all of them know what they’re talking about.