Vinyl Lovers


After a marathon session of ultrasonically cleaning some of my vinyl treasures, I discovered that a few of them had what I'll call "skip-scratches" on various cuts. I have many more to clean (i.e.  somewhere around 5 to 6 hundred, mostly original 60s & 70s LPs) and fully expect to encounter more bruised babies along the way, not all of which I'll probably replace with vinyl re-issues or re-pressings. Some of my all-time favorites, however, I definitely will want to replace, providing I can find good quality re-issues/re-pressings. I know there is much to learn about this, and I am just beginning to scratch the surface (no pun intended). For example, there are issues of so called "virgin vinyl", quality of the vinyl mix, thickness of vinyl, recording from original master tapes, if still in existence and in good condition, quality of the actual pressing process, etc., etc., etc.

So, I guess my question for you all who know much more about this than I, is where the best places are to buy the best quality vinyl re-issues or re-pressings. Local record shops are few and far between and most of them don't have much in the way of variety or stock in anything other than used records. I'm familiar with Discogs but, frankly, am reluctant to buy used records on-line because I don't entirely trust the purveyors' ratings and the endemic hassles of possible returns. Most of the re-issues/re-pressings I've purchased, thus far, have been from or through Music Direct. I've noticed that some of their offerings actually come from companies like:  Island Records; Impex; RHINO and other sources.

So, what are some of your go-to, solid, reputable standbys?

Thanks Much!

oldaudiophile

If you're correct, then it must emit positive ions when the retracted trigger is slowly released, because that is the step that neutralizes charge on an LP surface. 

@lewm: And if that's the case, perhaps the Nagaoka and Furutech emit only positive ions. Neither has a trigger handle, only an on/off button.

The Zerostat can only handle so much static charge. The best way to deal with static it to provide a very low impedance path to ground. The Hudson conductive sweep arm does this beautifully at a very attractive price, 1/3rd the price of a Zerostat. If you put just a few drops/gallon of a cationic subrance in your record cleaning fluid such as BAK (Benzalkonium Chloride) your records will not collect a noticeable charge. 

What data support the idea that zerostat can “only handle so much static charge”? And how much is that?

Classical one place (organization method of choice, i.e. alphabetical, chronological, both, etc.)
Soundtracks in another place (ditto).
Adjacent to soundtracks, the “others”; Xmas, comedy, spoken word, etc, and 7”(ditto).
Virtually everything else alphabetized.
Works well for me when I want to find something efficiently.