Choosing between Reissue and Original pressings


Reissues have been common since quite some time but these days as vinyl has picked up momentum again, there have been some very high quality reissues from labels like Classic, Analogue Productions, Speakers corner, MFSL, Boxstar etc. For any particular album how do you decide whether buy a good reissue or get a good copy of original pressing from ebay ?

For the sake of discussion lets keep out exceptions where the original pressing is too hard to get or too expensive. In most cases it is possible to buy a copy of original pressing for sane amount of money if one shops carefully on ebay but I have also found that quite a few times a high quality reissue can sound better. Whats the general thought among hardcore vinyl followers here ?
pani

Showing 2 responses by playpen

I agree with Viridian about 40 to 50 year old tape loss,music I listen to.I stopped buying reissues years ago.There are so few exceptions it's not worth wasting the money to find out for me anymore.I got tired of wasting 25-30 bucks for an LP and after 2 minutes of play it comes off the TT never to be played again,original better.The tape loss on Zappa's Hot Rats classic reissue is unbearable for me to listen to.Reissued vinyl of 45 year old recordings is just not happening for me or worth the gamble to buy.
I'm surprised that some original LP's from 40 to 50 years ago sell so cheaply for their rarity.IMO this is last chance gas to hear the best sound quality of some of them.As a consumer and audiophile I would rather pay the price for a company to come out with even a standard red book CD recorded off the best expensive state of the art TT and equipment from an original first press or promo and sell it as such like off of a half a million worth of TT and gear.Then I would like to put that recording up against what's out in today's reissues on my modest system.I believe most would be better.