You're at the mercy of the vinyl or CD marketers as to the nature of the source material for a particular pressing or issue. I have one or two very crummy LPs that seem to have been just duped off an equally crummy CD. "Re-mastered" is another double-edged sword, as in some cases the original mix was better. I've never owned a bad Mobile Fidelity recording, whether CD or vinyl; those guys have been around a long time, at least since Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus, and seem to know what they're doing. A good website for both vinyl and optical media is Elusive Disc; between them and Mo-Fi you can find about anything. Recordsbymail.com is another great source.Laminarman wrote:Dang it all now I want to go listen to something. I'm getting to the bank in a couple days to get a check out to some guy named "Bob" to get my VT70 kit (tee hee!!) But I have a question. Folks keep referencing a LOT of vinyl. How does one know if it's a newer pressing or off the original master tapes? I can't find this information easily for LP's. I don't have a turntable (yet) and have been looking about and wondering if catalog numbers are searchable to find out if they're from the original master recording or not. Am I right in assuming some later pressings might be from the CD and not of high quality? And finally: if it's CD, is it the "Gold" or "Mobile Fidelity" etc or what release? Isn't that information critically important in this discussion?
EDIT: I have nowhere locally to buy LP's unless a record/CD fair comes through so I'm pretty much stuck to the internet.
If you're buying old vinyl look for first-pressings. That's when the master press was least worn. Those mostly went to radio stations and music critics and are marked "Not for Sale" and often look like cut-outs.
Living out in the sticks needn't limit your access to vinyl. Garage and moving sales, thrift stores, etc., can turn up some real beauties. I bought a stack of near-virgin Brubeck early Columbia releases and got change back from a fiver. Still looking for that box of Sheffield Labs releases for under a buck, but it will happen . . . probably in the same yard that's got the '56 Vette under a tarp for sale for $50.