Re-issue vinyl vs. the original pressing

You can't generalize about this, it all depends on the quality of the original pressings and masterings vs. those of the reissues, with the present-day condition of the source tapes thrown in as a remastering variable. Then you have to consider the condition of the available vintage vinyl and its price. Just because something is an original pressing is no guarantee of superior sound; plenty of vintage records never sounded really good to begin with, and later remasterings can often yield major improvements, although certainly not always. Collector value, of course, is another topic.

Hdm: Not knowing anything about what you say, I'm curious, for what reason would a lathe be equipped with a built-in delay, digital or otherwise?

Thanks guys, I will check out those articles. I assume if "previewing" is a necessity and that it's made possible by a delay, then the delay must have been implemented by analog means in older lathes, which would of course degrade the signal as well. But since the most common method of analog delay before digital was magnetic tape -- also what the source being mastered from was -- the whole thing begins to seem a bit convoluted. What I immediately wonder is, why not simply use a pair of spaced playback tapeheads to play the mastertape, with the first one generating only the preview signal and the second, later-arriving one going directly to feed the cutterhead's amplifier? But I will read...

"Most people like original pressings cause it is what the people at the recording studio wanted it, the final product, to sound like. Even that could have changed because someone else higher up in the chain thought a more intense guitar playing from say Clapton would sound better or sell more records so they make that change. Now it is not the original sound agreed upon in the studio."

Fact is, the sound on the record always changes from what was heard in the recording studio, and that can't be helped, even with the most faithful of intentions. What was heard in the studio will never be heard again outside of it. That's not really different in concept than saying a record played at my house will never sound the same as that record played at your house. But even given all that, and aside from questions of eventual mastertape deterioration, there really isn't much reason to think that an original pressing will best conform to an artist's or producer's conception. Historically artists and producers have had little say and even less participation in the mastering process, be it original or re-. (Heck, more of them than you might think haven't even participated in the mixing process. A lot gets left to engineers, not necessarily a bad thing.)

Everybody on the pro-original side is taking only the best examples. When it comes to jazz for instance, plenty of good music was released on labels like Prestige, Atlantic and EmArcy that didn't have very good sound, but has been improved in reissues. Blue Notes, Columbias and RCAs on the other hand more often sounded just fine. Same deal for rock and pop on labels like Capitol and Imperial -- a lot of that original mastering was just bad. Some stuff was great. It all depends on the particular example and generalizations are of limited usefulness. But if you're only going to discuss the most audiophile-approved old examples, then of course you're going to come to the conclusion that remasters are usually not as good. And throwing budget-line, no-remaster reissues from the 70's into the equation just muddies the waters. The other thing, of course, that's limiting this discussion is the insistence on vinyl for the reissue. Personally I'd much rather own a high quality remastering on CD than a repressing of questionable provenance on vinyl. There's a lot of reissue vinyl out there, especially of classic rock, soul and jazz, that is simply a scam. If someone insists on buying new vinyl not made by a reputable reissue house, just because it's vinyl, they pretty well get what they deserve IMO.

Cello: Perhaps you're not familiar with Audiogon's (*) button at the top of each thread?