45 RPM LPs (vinyl)

Does anyone have any experience with these 45 r.p.m. LP remakes? Are they worth the extra bucks, and/or are they hard on a stylus? The concept makes sense but I wonder if it also makes sense to be jumping up every 10-15 minutes to flip them over and perhaps getting your stylus a little warm.

I've bought thousands of lps and a couple of 45 rpm "super discs". I can't remember the super discs, but I remember the lps I love. Bottom line, if you know the performance and love it, why not? Just don't waste money on a hi fi effects record. You won't enjoy it any more at 45 rpm.
And don't worry about your stylus. The increased friction won't melt anything.

I just pulled out a 45 RPM album, "San Francisco Ltd.", a direct-to-disc recording released in 1976 by Crystal Clear Records. Here is an excerpt from the liner notes which gives their reasoning for using 45 RPM:

"This album was recorded at 45 RPM and offers a substantial improvement in quality due to the faster disc speed. Listen carefully at high volume levels, to the innermost grooves. There is virtually no pinch distortion thus yielding substantial improvement in high frequency response. Please be careful to accurately adjust your turntable’s speed control."

Basically, by recording at a higher speed, there is more groove length allowing the stylus to negotiate the undulations with less difficulty.

Best Regards,
Charlie

I've somewhere north of 300 of these.  While I've found the remastering rather good compared to several originals (Fantasy, Verve, Impulse, Blue Note), they're not all better than the originals.  And, yes, getting up to change sides every 10 minutes is a royal pain, so I don't listen to them often.  They're definitely not worth it to me for casual listening, but are my go to collection when I'm in the mood for focused or analytical listening.

I think the 45 speed lends the greatest benefit to the inner grooves, simply because at the faster speed there's physically more room for the music.  It's not really about the  stylus negotiating the modulations with less difficulty as the increased physical spacing of the modulations is completely negated by the increased speed.  What the stylus is negotiating is the same on a 45 or 33 or the music would sound drastically different.  Technically, there is more room for detail at the faster speed - I can't say whether that's audible or not.

It's a subjective and personal experience.  My best advice is to buy a copy of an album you know well in the 45 format and give it a listen to determine if it's worth it to you.  Do research to find if the remastering for it is respected though - there's a good number out there with very poor remastering.

To better clarify, pinch distortion is a result of the angle at which the cutting stylus produced the groove modulations during the mastering process. At slower RPM's the angle of the rise and fall of the modulation curves would be steeper.  Due to the shape of the cutting stylus, the groove width will narrow as the angle becomes steeper. When the groove narrows this causes the playback stylus (conical being the worst) to rise up higher in the groove (the "pinch" effect) reducing the amount of contact with the groove wall.  As the wall contact is reduced distortion increases and miss-tracking can occur.  At higher RPM's the modulation angles of the cutting stylus are less steep, thus the groove width narrowing is less.  This reduces the pinch effect and consequently lowers distortion and/or miss-tracking during play back.

Best Regards,
Charlie

Thanks for the insights, everyone. Guess I'll pick up a couple and A/B them with some 33s I've got. Guess I'll also start doing deep knee-bends so I'm in shape enough to flip the 45s over. Or else find an old Garrard changer . . .