0-07-08: DcstepI didn't buy too many LPs in the '80s, but these days, I've bought *lots* of used LPs from the '80s, and I find the opposite to be true. Whether I buy LPs of blues, classic rock, new wave, country, or especially jazz from the '80s, they sound superb nearly without exception. This includes everything from The Police, The Cars, Huey Lewis and the News, Men at Work, Dwight Yoakam, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, the Eurhythmics, Stevie Winwood, or Steely Dan's one '80s album, Gaucho. Only the Stray Cats strike me as hashy and compressed with a fast bass rolloff.
This is the way it was in vinyl's heyday, prior to CD. More LPs sucked than sounded great.
The jazz pressed in the '80s is astounding, but then, I gravitate to Pablo, Concord Jazz, ECM, and Geffen. Concord Jazz from the '70s and '80s is unbelievably good.
As for good latter-day pressings, I love the 150g red vinyl pressing of Diana Krall's Christmas album, I've been happy with the $10 Original Jazz Classics reissues, my 200g Classic Records reissue of Kind of Blue is actually crackle-free, the 180g Speakers Corner reissue of Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 couldn't be better. The pinnacle of my collection is the 45 rpm 2x180g EP issue of Ry Cooder & VM Bhatt's "A Meeting By the River" recorded in analog with a Blumlein mic array by Water Lily Music.