I’ll second the recommendation to look at Better Records. The concept makes sense: that even with a great release, the quality of an individual record can be affected by such things as how late in the use of a particular stamper the record was stamped - it makes sense that one of the first few records from a stamper will sound better than one of the last ones made using that stamper. And Better Records spends a lot of time evaluating each record they get in, which to me justifies the rather high prices. One of the first records I bought from them is an original pressing of Mingus Ah Umm that I was able to compare with a recent re-issue. It was miles ahead of the new release in sound quality. They do offer a guarantee so there’s little risk if you aren’t impressed.
