@millercarbon
I have a used copy of Aja, just an original pressing and the SQ is sublime, right up there with some of the best I have, cost was $1.....
For years I went along with the assumption or conventional wisdom that what was on the recording was on the vinyl, that the only real difference between any two pressings was ticks and pops and noise. That all changed recently when I began comparing different copies and not for noise but for SQ.
Case in point, couple nights ago I opened a brand new 200g Analogue Productions copy of Linda Ronstadt What's New. Right away I was disappointed by it having just as much surface noise as my ancient $4.99 used record bin copy. That was nothing though compared to the sound. Within a few minutes I was uncomfortable enough to pull it and drop the needle on my old copy. The ordinary old one was MUCH BETTER! No more syrupy strings, they had just the right amount of bite and body and focus. LR's voice was present and emotive and enveloped in the ambience of the hall. The Analogue Productions, festooned with stickers bragging how good it is, comes nowhere close. It is frankly pure pabulum and crap!
Ditto the MoFi of Aja. Ordinary cheap used record bin LP positively trounced the MoFi. On deck for shootouts are several copies of Crime of the Century, Dark Side of the Moon, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I can already anticipate its gonna be a blowout because when I recently compared two ordinary copies of GYBR my sonic spider senses were telling me the better one sounds better even than my MoFi.
I actually hate having to do this- take up space in a thread, take up my precious listening time. But people need to know. This is not bargain hunter braggadicio. This is a whole industry of fake audiophile pressings that sound like crap! Okay there are exceptions. My Reference Recordings pressings are universally excellent in every respect. Probably there are others like this too. But this is different. There is nothing to compare them with. I'm talking about audiophile reissues, remasters, half-speed masters, heavy vinyl reissues, yes even 45s. Every one of those I have compared so far is bested by whatever came out of the record bin.
"just an original pressing and the SQ is sublime"
-uberwaltz
Pin it.
