Half-Speed Masters - are they worth double dipping?

@mahler123 

Perhaps the answer lies in the mastering process for the intended audience.

For example, 'Redbook' CDs reportedly have a dynamic range of 96dB.  While I own hundreds of them, only a few of them come close to the dynamic range of a decent LP.  Why... compression.  Like cassette tapes, CDs were strongly marketed for use in cars, where significant compression is required.

Of course, other digital formats may lessen this constraint.

These things are always going to come down to individual releases, individual tastes and individual systems and on a macro level, it is hard to come to a consensus on the matter for those reasons. Still, in my experience there’s been no single half-speed master that I’ve ever heard or owned that I didn’t find was bested, often handily, by a well-regarded analog pressing from pre-1985. Some I have found sound really amazing until or unless you put them up against a vintage pressing. Then not so much.

With two exceptions, I’ve sold all the half-speed master version and kept the OG pressing. Not because these two--both 80s CBS Half Speed Master series releases of Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom and Barabra Striesand’s Guilty--were better than original pressings, but because I can demonstrate to someone "Sounds incredible, right? Well this one, the original, sounds way better."

Buy a few, see what you think. I decided it wasn’t for me. I especially find the Abbey Road HSM jobs to be not good at all. They just sound like digitally-sourced vinyl to my ears. No thank you.

@inagroove 

I listen primarily to classical.  There may be compression used on some recordings but I haven’t encountered it.

  CDs will always beat LPs for dynamic range because they eliminate the noise floor.  This isn’t just opinion, it’s been validated constantly.

  Dynamic Range is only one variable in audio appreciation and it is perfectly valid to appreciate listening to vinyl for other reasons but if compression isn’t used there simply is no comparison re digital vs. analog for that parameter

mahler123

CDs will always beat LPs for dynamic range because they eliminate the noise floor.

CDs have a noise floor too, and most are compressed. Some are compressed more than an LP counterpart and I offered two documented examples of that earlier in this thread.