Digitally remastered vinyl record? Seriously?

Personally i do not listen to digital in my system at all (no CDs or files).

But i can speak for analog when it comes to vinyl. I preffer original vintage vinyl. Just normal vinyl, not a 180-200g press or reference LP super-duper pressing. Talking about regular vinyl from 60s, 70s, 80s ...

Since my music is mainly Jazz, Soul, Funk, Latin i'm aware of many reissues on the market. Reissue labels always (90% of them) use digital remastering. I have some reissues pressed in the last 15-20 years. No matter it's 45 rpm (7 inch singles) or LPs but my originals of the same tunes always sounds better when i can do direct A-B test.

Again i'm not talking about biggest labels on the market, maybe some of them can do digital remastering much better but i'm not interested in mainstream music. Regular independent small labels still reissue good music (not for audiophiles). I've never heard any reissue with better sound than original even if the condition of the original is not mint-

They always try to make sound more punchy, fuller etc but ends up with big loss in dynamic and naturality when they remastering music from the 60s/70s.

Direct analog mastering from the master tape also possible. This is how it should be done - that's the best! Digital touch is evol :))

Also modern cheap pressing is sucks compared to old pressing. But i have some awful vintage records as well :) Or maybe i just need phono stage with all possible RIAA curves for real vintage stuff.

Mapman nailed it. Me, I don't care if it's digital, analog, cassette or 8 track tape, it is all about the music.

What a superb thread. I was wondering about most of the issues raised here, most of which have been answered. Can I just say though that as far as I understand large studios went digital as from the 80's which meant that mainstream albums were nearly all breathed upon by digits - real shame. What I am curious is as to whether the recording was at a higher resolution that found it's way onto red-book CD, therefore, in other words did vinyl continue to have the edge in terms of resolution. If that is the case I guess the vinyl is still worth buying. Reading from this the vinyl pressing were often better 'mixed' than the CD's. I agree with the post about heavy vinyl being largely pointless. I will add that my vinyl front end is significantly better than my digital source and as such getting vinyl whether or not digitally mastered does not change the fact that the LP sounds significantly better than the CD equivalent. I tend to only buy CD's when there is no LP.

I cannot abide digital. I'm referring to CDs right out of the box, untreated. So in that sense I don’t agree it’s all about the music. Did you ever notice that of the three recording/mixing/mastering variations one sees for CDs, you know, the AAD, ADD, and DDD, that AAD sounds the most analog whereas DDD sounds the most synthetic, thin, uninteresting, monochromatic, kind of like papier mâché? And as I intimated earlier digitally remastered cassette tapes actually seem to get the best of both worlds - dynamics, low noise and analog sound.

Hi Geoffkait - am I right to therefore think that casette tapes are therefore a genuine high end music source? or am I reading this incorectly?