Any advice on buying quality vinyl

@edgewear,

Nice experiment. To be very candid, I am at the edge of my competency now. Of the three choices. I have heard that back in those days, 2nd gen copies, used for mastering, would be flown to other pressing sites so that rules out tape source? I would guess that better mastering, which includes both the equipment and the person behind the console and running the lathe. As far as I can tell from cruising Steve Hoffman's forums, he talks about a "breathe of life" (tonality) in the early shaded dog Living Stereos. I can't seem to find, in these same forums, a strong reason for that difference. 

As good as the sonics are, I still struggle to get one's that run quietly. I guess it's just the lot I run into, rather than the quality of the vinyl or the poor aging of the vinyl. 

I still struggle to understand why recently opened, 60-year-old copies that show no signs of moisture damage, mold, or excessive heat would play with a low-level running noise. It's not my system. I play other LP's all the time that run CD quiet.

Maybe I need to find a stylus that rides higher in the groove....

Interestingly, to me anyway, I read somewhere that some labels including RCA are no longer flying or shipping original master tapes overseas- they are just too valuable. So either the lacquers have to be cut stateside or they are sending digital masters. The latter is what I heard was being done. That might also explain any difference people are hearing in newer audiophile (re) releases?

@voiceofvinyl,

I certainly don't have all the facts, but apparently the industry practice was either to send lacquers to foreign markets (used on location to press the discs) or to send second generation copies of the master tape and have the mastering done over there (usually under some licensing agreement). Even in those days it seems that record companies were reluctant to ship around their original master tapes. This might explain why original pressings made in the home country of the record company usually sound best. And also why in the above comparison of the Albeniz the US pressed LSC sounds slightly better than the UK pressed SB. 

But to complicate matters the agreement between RCA and Decca also involved recording. Many of RCA's recordings made in Europe (mostly with London orchestras or the VPO in Vienna) were made by Decca recording engineers like Kenneth Wilkinson. Obviously Decca did the mastering and pressing of the UK issues of these recordings, but did they also use the master tapes (which they made themselves)? I have no idea.

So I did another experiment: Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique by the VPO conducted by Pierre Monteux and recorded by Decca. In this case the UK pressed SB-2090 (1M,2L lacquers) sounds better than the US pressed LSC-2362 (2S,4S lacquers). This outcome suggests that Decca had access to the original tapes, but of course as legal owners so did RCA.

I admit to speculation here, but IF both companies used the original tapes for making these records, the Decca mastering engineers had the edge over their US collegues. But perhaps this is totally wrong. Perhaps a 1S/1S copy of the LSC sounds best of all, who knows?

So there's really only one way to find out: listen for yourself! That's just the advise you were waiting for, right? ;-).

Thanks for all the great replies.  Lots to consider.  Question for @inna, I have an Okki Nokki, where do you get your Audio Intelligent fluids, pre-cleaner plus three step solutions?  
Maybe this is a question for a new thread, but do you prefer older earlier pressings with the pops and clicks or the newer audiophile releases.  Case in point, as with my early discussion of Elton John recordings, today I was confronted with the choice of an Elektra version of Queen's A Night At The Opera or a new audiophile recording.  I chose the older recording and have been happy save for a few clicks and pops.  

Analog record playing is not an audio "level" as much as it is an audio "experience."  You know....the record case, sleeve, groove cleaner, turntable, tonearm, platter...etc. It is an outdated system that someone thought was retro cool and decided to confuse a lot of people with "retro-cool" hype.  It is still the same limited, flawed analog system it always was. 

But what it does provide is a really cool looking playback device - the turntable.  I get that....appearance is cool and part of the experience.  Audio hacks with time to kill have convinced their clueless buddies that this is the platform of the future.  Yes...it certainly sounds different from digital audio...but not better.  Sony and Phillips replaced the LP with a disc with far superior sonic capability.  Don't even try to argue that.  Scientists and audio engineers way smarter than you and I have trumped that notion.