Whats on your turntable tonight?

@bkeske, @bdp24 , @slaw,  I love Gilded Palace of Sin and Sweetheart of the Rodeo, I have them on PP and they sound fine. I’ll probably get that new GPOS (Thanks for the head’s up @bdp24 ) because my old one is pretty noisy.   Although, speaking only for myself of course, I really don’t really think “audiophile” considerations are the most important things about Country Rock.  Way down the list actually.  And it can make guys like us who are semi-obsessed with SQ seem particularly weird. Maybe that’s inevitable…. 

 I think I posted something awhile back about how truly crazy it is that we can sometimes concentrate on Country Rock as if it were Chopin or something.  Maybe sort of like buying $350 Elton John hot stampers or super expensive Supertramp re-issues.  Nothing wrong with these things of course, but to me kind of silly.

Sometimes when I listen to my High School and College era Eagles, Poco, Commander Cody, FBB, SoftheR, even Magnetic South, et. al. I can absolutely tear up with nostalgia.  It’s music of a time and place.  

Funny though, I do think that some records in the genre, maybe by Neil Young or say, Jackson Browne, are definitely worth throwing money at SQ.  So, I suppose I’m pretty flaky.  

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Crooked Still
Shaken By A Low Sound

@slaw   

All Ryan Adams lps are great!

I guess I should have known you’d say that.  Will check it out.

BTW, I think I have to (gently and respectfully) disagree.  During the Napster era I downloaded his entire catalogue, including the output of all those different projects and I have to say although there has rarely been anybody so prolific it is a little uneven at times.  I suppose that it didn’t all make it to vinyl.  Should take that into consideration.

Ryan Adams  "S/T" 2014 
Hell Yeah!

Most LP’s in any and every genre are of less than "audiophile" sound quality. I have long felt audiophile reissues are of interest only if 1- the music is good enough to justify it, 2- the recording is of high enough quality to justify it, and 3- the original mastering and/or pressing can be significantly improved upon. The compromises the major labels made (make? ;-) in their LP productions are well known: rolling off the bass, adding compression and/or limiting (some is required, but it can easily be overdone), using tapes many generations-removed from the original as the source, using any-ol’ PVC (resulting in noisy LP’s), running their presses too fast, thus not allowing the LP’s to sufficiently cool before removing each from the press, resulting in a lot of warped records. And that’s ignoring the basic quality of the mastering chain itself: the cutting heads and amplifiers, the attention to set-up and maintenance, and on-and-on.

I gained a dislike of early-Mofi releases because of 1- their choice of albums to remaster and press, and 2- the eq Stan Rikter applied to the original tapes. His Beatles LP’s were not good (I had them all---along with UK originals, finally selling them when the Capitol mono boxset became available). Stan played upright bass, and often goosed the bass on his mastering jobs. When Music Direct bought MoFi, they hired Tim de Paracicini (EAR-Yoshino) to redo the electronics in their mastering chain. Current MoFi’s are REALLY good. Compare the original Reprise Ry Cooder LP’s (and for a major label, they were amongst the best) to the current MoFi’s. I don’t like spending thirty five bucks on an LP, but Ry’s worth it!

While MoFi’s offerings were still questionable, along came Chesky and Classic Records, who raised the bar significantly. The work being done now by a lot of the reissue companies is resulting in the best LP’s ever made. I pick and choose, spending the money only when all my criteria have been met. Ironically, with some really rare LP’s, the audiophile reissue is actually cheaper than a beat-up original!

@bdp24,

I remember your posting years ago to a different tune .