I agree with and would like to expand on Mothra's post. I have gear from many eras. My theory is that music typically sounds "best" -- that is, most enjoyable, to me -- when played on the equipment it was expected to be played on when the recordings were created.
With exceptions I tend to enjoy my 1950s 45s best when played on an upgraded RCA 45 changer, my accoustic-era 78s best on a Victrola, 1940s and 1950s 78s on my mono Fisher consol. Phil Spector sounds good on a cheap car radio.
Of course, there are other factors that have to be considered like convenience and preservation of rare or valuable records.
The quality of LPs and CDs of 78s transfers varies a lot. If I have a reasonably good copy, I'd generally rather listen directly to accoustic 78s of violinists than the Pearl LPs. There are some smaller lables reissuing 78s today with offensive excessive digital processing. On the other hand, I have a few CDs that got results far better than those I can get for the amount of money and space I'm willing to invest in my own system, transfers that preserve all the life of the original.
But most of all, they compile recordings that I'd never have the commitment to collect in the original format, and in the case of some rare pre-war blues and country, could not justify paying for even if I could find them.
I have a couple hundred 78s that I care about (down from considerably more at one point). If I didn't, I would't start getting into 78s from scratch (so to speak).
With exceptions I tend to enjoy my 1950s 45s best when played on an upgraded RCA 45 changer, my accoustic-era 78s best on a Victrola, 1940s and 1950s 78s on my mono Fisher consol. Phil Spector sounds good on a cheap car radio.
Of course, there are other factors that have to be considered like convenience and preservation of rare or valuable records.
The quality of LPs and CDs of 78s transfers varies a lot. If I have a reasonably good copy, I'd generally rather listen directly to accoustic 78s of violinists than the Pearl LPs. There are some smaller lables reissuing 78s today with offensive excessive digital processing. On the other hand, I have a few CDs that got results far better than those I can get for the amount of money and space I'm willing to invest in my own system, transfers that preserve all the life of the original.
But most of all, they compile recordings that I'd never have the commitment to collect in the original format, and in the case of some rare pre-war blues and country, could not justify paying for even if I could find them.
I have a couple hundred 78s that I care about (down from considerably more at one point). If I didn't, I would't start getting into 78s from scratch (so to speak).