Heaver grade vinyl vs Standard

I used to think the heavier vinyl sounded better. But now, I'm not so sure it makes any difference. A couple of my best sounding LP's are from Michael Hedges on Windham Hill. I do agree that the thicker ones mess with your VTA and VTF

At least when you buy 180g or 200g there are, in most cases, 2 albums instead of 1 to show for your money.

Hold the phone. If you are talking about 45 rpm re-issues, that is an entirely different ballgame. To me, nothing - not even SACD versions of albums - sound as good as the handful of 45 rpm re-issues I have.

If you aren't talking about 45 rpm, what 33 rpm re-issues are spreading the album over two records instead of one? The only thing can think of are the Radiohead 10' albums (which, why not make them 12' 45 rpm and up the fidelity - baffling).

Just curious.

I've bought four 180gm albums: the new Shelby Lynne, the EMI reissue DSOTM, the Analog Productions reissue of Waltz for Debby, and MFSL's do up of Aimee Mann's Bachelor No.2. All sound fine, with the EMI topping the list. Still, like 04rdking, I have several Windham Hills that are by far a lot better. All were stamped on standard vinyl, all were bought second hand. The Windhams may be exceptional in that most were half-speed mastered at MFSL studios, but at buck-a-pop resale, it wasn't as if anyone was seriously looking for them.

My 180gm records cost around $120.00 all together. For $120, I can easily find thirty or forty second-hand albums. With the technology and chemicals that are out there to clean records, I can be resonably sure of finding ten to twenty winners in that lot.

In short, I guess the answer to your question is, do you want to spend money or elbow grease? Have fun, whatever you decide.

I would remind everyone that new reissues on 180 or 200 gm vinyl being worse than originals is the general rule, it's not an absolute one. There are great sounding reissues by Classic, Speaker's Corner, Sundazed, Simply Vinyl and even MOFI. In some cases these are 90% as good to just as good as the original which can be extremely hard to find in good condition. This demonstrates that these companies can make a good disc, they just usually don't. I find this more frustrating than if they all just uniformly were bad. That's why a source of information about which titles actually turned out good is helpful. I mentioned the Better Records site already. Maybe a thread on great sounding new vinyl would help those interested steer clear off all the duds out there.