12" 45 RPM records: What's the story?

Some (45's) are better; most are not....my entire collection of 5000+ is comprised of original pressings spanning 1957-present

Well that doesn't match my experience but I never got close to 5000 LP's

I also used to buy import Japanese pressings of good LP's that I liked...expensive to own the same LP twice but I honestly felt there was an improvement in the better pressing quality.

I must admit that this is a long time ago and I can't be absolutely sure if my findings were not related to wear and tear on the originals too as I never compared brand new with brand new...although some North American pressings were obviously bad (light weight and they had warps in them)

...my TT rig was like $300 dollars (as a student)....nothing like the beauties most of you Analog guys own on these forums... that might be a factor too...just my two cents

Shadorne,
Two brief caveats to my prior email. Your point is well taken. In most cases I find that UK, German, and Japanese pressings are better than their US counterparts.

Second, I don't mean to imply the 45RPM reissues are not good products. In fact most are very good. However, my experience is the difference in the reissues that are better than the originals is marginal not drastic and not worth the high price. With few exceptions, as I posted, I prefer original pressings.

Thanks for your comments.

At 33 rpm the speed of the vinyl passing the stylus as the LP reaches the inner grooves is too slow. This will result in sonic degradation either because of the slowness, or because the recording engineer has manipulated the signal so as to better tolerate the slow speed. By spinning the disc at 45 rpm audio quality of the inner grooves is maintained, and it doesn't hurt the outer grooves. In addition to the higher rpm, audiophile recordings may use wider groove spacing to minimize pre-echo, and various other tricks that improve sound at the cost of playing time.

I have to side with Audiofeil here.Though the re-issues are wonderful,for the money(since many originals command big dollars),the earliest first pressings,will have the more natural timbral and harmonic presentations.
Still,the collector will do well to acquire the re-issues(I'm talking about the Mercury and RCA Shaded dogs)as it is very tough to find really early,and clean pressings at a good price.BUT just as some have no problem spending the extra bucks for pricey equipment,the "best" early pressings out class the re-issues. So a case can easily be made for the dedicated "original" collector.

to minimize pre-echo

Eldartford,

I always wondered about that....I used to think it was the fault of the master tapes and how the magnetic field transfered slightly to the adjacent tape above and below, as stored on the reel...

But your descripton of vinyl pre-echo makes a lot of sense too, after all, stamping a relatively elastic piece of plastic with squiggles is sure to leave stress patterns everywhere and some leakage of squiggles between adjacent grooves once the stamp is removed...furthermore, other effects, like plastic expansion/contraction/curing may play a role as the ridges between the grooves will all be of differing thickness and therefore behave differently under stress from thermal effects.

interesting...