jfv wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:19 pm

Teacher's Pet wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:00 pm Separately, if it's fancy new pressings of "classic" material, cut directly from the original delicious analog tapes by magic wizards and packaged in a 4-pound jacket with a foil-stamped turbo number on it, then, OK, go for it I guess. But it'll just be too expensive and fancy for me to really enjoy, if I can afford at all.

Ok, yeah, I agree with this.

The Comedy Minus One 2xLP 45 RPM pressings of the early Silkworm albums priced at $30 USD are WELL WORTH IT.

The new MoFi pressings of the Van Halen albums at $100 USD? Nope. Would rather pick up a well-known excellent used pressing on Discogs.

Indeed, there's always hot stampers.

I have a few of the Classic reissues of the Lewis Layton, Richard Mohr produced RCA Living Stereo recordings from the late 50s that were cut at 45 RPM to four LPs. One of them is the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, another is Respighi's Pines of Rome/Fountains of Rome by Reiner and the CSO as well. I think I also have a pressing of Bartok's Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta with the same team.

All sound amazing, when played on a turntable setup that can handle the groove velocity and displacement of such a hot cutting at that speed. Ultimately the SACD sounds just as good. Part of what makes it worth the effort is these recordings were done on 3-track 1/2" tape at 30ips, with a direct 3-channel mic setup with omnis on a Decca tree and a -2 dB even split of the center track to each channel in the master. The whole setup used custom Telefunken mics, with custom pres, on a custom Ampex 300 machine. These recordings were literally laboratory experiments to achieve the most "accurate" transference of the live concert experience to playback equipment at the time, when the notion of audiophilia still had some engineering rigor behind it. It was these experiments that paralleled the guys at Mercury records running modified 35mm magnetic film recorders with 3-tracks with 8mm wide tracks with special high-voltage condenser mics that output directly to the record head of the magstock recorder with minimal preemphasis.

I also have a few Angel/EMI pressings from the 70s that run at 45 RPM. Finlandia and some baroque concerto recording. Neither sound that much more special than a CD and don't really seem worth the bother. I can't imagine any pop/rock recordings along similar lines would be worth the expense or effort either.

As far as bands going the extra mile for the nerds, I much prefer DMM which has similar benefits but keeps it to one normal length LP.

enframed wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:27 pm

jfv wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:19 pm Ok, yeah, I agree with this.

The Comedy Minus One 2xLP 45 RPM pressings of the early Silkworm albums priced at $30 USD are WELL WORTH IT.

The new MoFi pressings of the Van Halen albums at $100 USD? Nope. Would rather pick up a well-known excellent used pressing on Discogs.

Indeed, there's always hot stampers.

Whoa.

A record that costs that much better be giving me BJs.

EDIT (of previous post): those Van Halen MoFi repressings are actually $125 USD. Fuck no.

Agree that the Side Four etching is kind of a cop out; better doing it all in 45rpm than resorting to that. It's odd cuz I have one 12" (Resoraz's "Art of Time") wherein they didn't even do that--it's just completely blank and smooth on the B side. Think it might have just been intended for radio stations, or club DJs? At any rate, it looks and feels funny, like a dog with a half a haircut, bilaterally lopsided.

FWIW, I'm cool with the 45 rpm LP and own several.

Any minor sonic improvement isn't worth it compared to the degraded listening experience.

The main sonic degrader, surface noise, certainly would only be worsened as there is more scratches and dust that you can fit in per minute. I'm not an audiophile, but the other options (digital) must be perfectly suitable by now, especially as I'd have to guess most of these pressings are not promising the lack of a digital intermediary in the recording/mixing/mastering process anyways.

zorg wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 3:04 amI'd have to guess most of these pressings are not promising the lack of a digital intermediary in the recording/mixing/mastering process anyways.

Technically case by case, but in most instances, the implication with a 45rpm LP is that it'll be all-analog/AAA, sourced from the original tapes (if available). This is a big selling point if an album has been around a long time.

zorg wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 3:04 am The main sonic degrader, surface noise, certainly would only be worsened as there is more scratches and dust that you can fit in per minute. I'm not an audiophile, but the other options (digital) must be perfectly suitable by now, especially as I'd have to guess most of these pressings are not promising the lack of a digital intermediary in the recording/mixing/mastering process anyways.

Regarding more scratches per minute, isn’t an issue if one is taking care of their records. If they are not, then yeah, they should stick to digital.

Regarding digital steps in the mastering process, yep, that does happen. See MoFi. Also a reason why I won’t spend $125 on one of their new pressings. Their SACDs, however, are excellent.. and at a better price.

DaveA wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:34 am Technically case by case, but in most instances, the implication with a 45rpm LP is that it'll be all-analog/AAA, sourced from the original tapes (if available).

AAA records are pretty rare now. However, the digital steps of the process are almost never below 24 bits at this point, often beyond 44.1kHz with converters that may go beyond even that. The processes involving the record itself: multi step stamper process, the EQ/summing involved in the cut itself, the RIAA playback curve, a billion variables in peoples' turntable setups, etc. are changing the sound more than the digital steps in the process.