Todays new vinyl LP's better than LP's 40 yrs ago?

40 years ago was 1970. At that time jazz LPs were generally very good and on average better than pop albums, whether from Impulse, Blue Note, Columbia, Verve, Pacific Jazz, Atlantic, ECM, A&M, CTI, Concord (1972), or Pablo (1973).

In fact, I pretty much consider anything from Concord or ECM to be audiophile quality, and most Pablo is in the same ballpark.

That said, I've also been happy with most reissues, even the $11 Original Jazz Classics reissues. I have a Speakers Corner reissue of "Count Basie and the Kansas City 7" and two Classic Records reissues of "Kind of Blue," and they are all superb. Ditto for the new Diana Krall albums recorded in analog and coming out on vinyl. Big, lush, detailed, musical.

I wouldn't so much say that one era's better than the other so much as that today's masterers and pressers are rapidly regaining the skills we took for granted 40 years ago, and in many cases the limited production numbers mean they are being extra careful these days.

A very few years ago you were hearing horror stories about noisy Classic Records and some of the other label reissues with wrong-sized spindle holes and untrimmed edges (I encountered that). I don't see much of that these days. I have a Speakers Corner reissue of the Bach Cello Suites by Janos Starker on Mercury. I also have an original 1966 mono pressing. The Speakers Corner is at least as good and dead quiet.

>>03-03-10: Mlsstl
I find new vinyl just as erratic as old vinyl. Some are great, a lot are mediocre, and some are poor.<<

Disagree.

Been collecting for over 50 years and find old vinyl far offers far more consistency i.e. higher quality and fewer problems than most of the contemporary overpriced product.

That's not to say that you can't find some very fine releases today because they are available.

But take a random sample of 100 albums from the 50's, 60's, and 70's and compare them to 100 new releases and you'll find far more problems sound quality, warpage, etc. than you'll see/hear in the old stuff.

IMO/YMMV

As a sidebar to this thread...

I've been a big fan of Joe Farrell and love his "OutBack" Lp on CTI. Unfortunately, is has terrible sound. It's very hard in the mids and bumped up in the lower treble. I sourced a Japanese CD reissue and it is much smoother and more realistic. So don't give up on the CD if the Lp is awful.

Peter

The original LPs almost always sound better. The only time to buy a reissue, in my opinion, is when the original can't be located or is too expensive.

Dave

Generally speaking, no, they are not better. When it comes to reissues of older records, often the reissuer cannot get the master or a low generation copy, or such tapes have simply gone bad over time.

Even with new issues, the gear for mastering records and stamping records are now ancient and there is not enough demand for anyone to manufacturer new production equipment.

The quality of supposedly virgin vinyl is poorer today than in the past. There is an article somewhere about a relatively new vinyl pressing operation in New York where the operators acknowledge that the vinyl is not as high quality, though they manage to improve the quality somewhat by re-grinding the vinyl they receive.

Still, because a lot of the current market for new vinyl does care about quality, a number of the producers of audiophile records do a pretty good job, such as Mobile Fidelity, Speaker's Corner, Music Matters, Analogue Productions and even Warner. Classic Records have been spotty in quality in the past, though some of the "Clarity" records they have issued have been terrific.