For anyone wanting to hear what superior LP mastering/plating/stamping can afford, try the two Buddy Holly titles offered by Analogue Productions. Then find original copies of those LP’s (good luck ;-), and compare them with the AP reissues. Michael Ludwig (45 RPM Audiophile on YouTube) includes one of them in his "10 Best Sounding LP’s Of All Time" list.
Chad Kassem (owner of Analogue Productions, that company’s Acoustic Sounds Distribution, and Quality Record Production) has spared no expense in creating the best LP manufacturing facility in the world at QRP in Salina, Kansas. That expense includes the kind of tweaks audiophiles install in their systems, like vibration isolation of the LP pressing machines. Too bad Max Townshend doesn’t make Seismic Pods that can handle the weight of those presses!
As for price: the AP reissues are $35 for a single disc, $55 for doubles. Original pressings of the two Buddy Holly pressings will run you many times that amount, and will in all likelihood be in pretty bad shape.
By the way, the improvement in sound quality QRP made to the Beach Boys catalog is off the charts! I have multiple copies of most of the originals, as well as later reissues. They all pale in comparison with the sound heard on the Analogue Production LP’s.
Another company doing great reissue work Is Speaker’s Corner, based in Germany. Try their version of the fantastic debut by The Flying Burrito Brothers (Gram Parson and Chris Hillman’s post-Byrds group). I have an original (bought at the time of it’s 1968 release), which is pretty darn good. The SC is better. They also offer a goodly number of excellent Classical titles, including a 4-LP boxset of Janos Starker preforming J.S. Bach’s Suites For Unaccompanied Cello ($99, I believe. I got my copy during last year’s Black Friday sale). Analogue Productions offers the same on 8-45 RPM LP’s, supposedly in slightly better sound. Again, originals will cost you far more than will either reissue.
