Re-issue vinyl vs. the original pressing

Perhaps I have posted incorrect information and the newer Neumann's do not employ a digital delay loop to drive the cutting heads. Some recent reading that I did suggested that the digital delay loop at the cutting stage is still employed on all new albums (albeit possibly at a higher sampling rate than was the case in the late 80's); perhaps that is not true.

Zaikesman: I'm not actually sure why the digital delay was/is used, but it obviously is quite a common practice. Some evidence of that is here:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue3/ricker3.htm

in an interview with Stan Ricker.

and here:

http://dongrossinger.com/don/newarchive3.html

If I presented incorrect info about the Neumann, I certainly apologise for that. Perhaps Onhwy61 can elaborate.

Zaikesman, go to this link and scroll down to the section about disc cutting. It's a reprint of an article by Robert Runstein. It will tell you everything you never even imagined goes into cutting a record. It's not that you need a delay, but you need to preview the signal going to the cutting head.

Thanks guys, I will check out those articles. I assume if "previewing" is a necessity and that it's made possible by a delay, then the delay must have been implemented by analog means in older lathes, which would of course degrade the signal as well. But since the most common method of analog delay before digital was magnetic tape -- also what the source being mastered from was -- the whole thing begins to seem a bit convoluted. What I immediately wonder is, why not simply use a pair of spaced playback tapeheads to play the mastertape, with the first one generating only the preview signal and the second, later-arriving one going directly to feed the cutterhead's amplifier? But I will read...

In my view, reissues can be devided into 3 catagories:

1) Post 1984 digital reissues - these are good but no better than the CD so unless the CD is unavailable, or the LP is cheaper, why buy? (Having said this I own many mint copies of these for recordings that are out of print on CD).

2) Pre 1984 reissues like the Blue Note solid blue labels from the 70's - not as good as the originals but if I can buy a mint Horace Silver Blue label for $20 on Ebay vs the VG+ original west 47th street for $200, guess where I'm going. The same can be said for pre 84 reissues on other labels. I think they are generally a good value. I decide in favor of individual LP quality over pressing.

3) Remaster/reissues like from Classic records, Mosaic, Analog Productions etc. These are hit or miss. You need to be careful as it often is not clear whether the mastering chain was completely analog and the record mastering process is a lost art so quality assurance is very sketchy sometimes.

Hdm, thanks for the link to the articles. Apparently many vinyl mastering engineers are using add-on digital devices in order to protect their lathes from overloads which would burn out the cutting heads. It's a poor solution, but may be necessary since Neumann doesn't make or even support it vinyl lathes anymore.