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!
