I can only speak on the material from "Beggar's Banquet" through "Undercover", as I don't like their music outside of that range. My first RS album was "Emotional Rescue". In time I owned about 4 Atlantic distributed copies on the Rolling Stones records label, and all sounded muddy, especially the very first track, "Dance Pt.1". None of these were brande new sealed copies.
About 4 years ago, I found on Discogs a sealed copy and I quickly bought it. I think I paid about $25 for it. "Emotional Rescue " is not a highly prized album. The record was sealed, and it did not come with the poster (by now I had 3 of them in my collection). It was a Columbia pressing, as for a time, the Rolling Stones got a better deal with Columbia to release their albums, and some of them were re-pressed. While the label skimped on the poster, they delivered a much cleaner, sharper sound. This was like listening to the record for the first time. Mindful of not ruining it, I played it only once, and today it resides in my collection.
And, finally, the same can be said of "Black And Blue", another unloved, underrated album, but full of good songs. Not a single dud in my opinion.
Last month I went to a record fair, and founf a sealed Atlantic pressing for $45. I got it for $37. I haven't opened it yet, but when I do, I hope I will be pleased with the following two things: (1) that the record will sound clean and sharp and (2) that the record is properly pressed CENTERED and not OFF_ CENTER, as I found on two copies I owned. Even between Atlantic pressings, there is a difference as the record appears to have been remastered but with a duller sound. The catalog number is the same, but you can tell from the inner wax, that these were different stampers, and the copies did not sound alike. I kept the better sounding one and sold the other one in a bundle.
