For a long time I was ambivalent about whether the 45 rpm audiophile pressings, particularly the ones from Analogue Productions, were worth the extra money and time spent flipping sides.
A couple nights ago I put on the Analogue Productions 2x45 rpm pressing of the Leibowitz/Royal Philharmonic 1962 RCA Living Stereo album called "
The Power of the Orchestra," which features Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "Night on Bare Mountain."
Three days later I'm still basking in the warmth of that experience as though I'd just heard a live 100-piece orchestra play the performance of a lifetime. It's not that the record played on my limited rig sounded just like being in the 3rd row of a concert hall, but it was the closest I've heard in my house, and the additional resolution in clarity, musicality, and dynamics afforded by the 45 rpm mastering easily pushed the playback into the realm of readily suspended disbelief.
I also have a couple of 45 rpm classical pressings done by EMI/Angel in the late '70s--the first half of Holst's "The Planets" and Pepe Romero playing Rodrigo's guitar concerto. I trotted out the Rodrigo and also played a 45 rpm side of Cooder/Bhatt's "A Meeting By the River."
In short, I can still listen to and enjoy 33-1/3 RPM, but the 45s are in another category altogether. I think the reason the difference is so much more noticeable than before is because I upgraded my electronics and cabling considerably since the last time I'd played a 45.
I have a tweaked/modded Technics SL1210 M5G, Audio Technical AT150MLX cart, Jolida phono stage and line stage, and an up-to-spec 1981 Heathkit SS AA-1600 driving a pair of Mirage OMD-15s through Zu cabling. My rig is probably in the bottom 20% of what's represented by A-goners, but the resolution is plenty good to show up the differences between 33-1/3 and 45 rpm. When I was using an Onkyo A-9555 integrated prior to the Jolida->Heathkit chain, the differences weren't so noticeable.
So anyway, if you estimate that your rig is at least as resolving as mine (which shouldn't be much of a challenge), you can probably count on enjoying the sonic differences of AP's 45 rpm pressings. Yeah, they're expensive and you have to flip sides about every 12 minutes, but at least for that special recording, perhaps delivered on your birthday, Christmas, or Father's/Mother's day, it's easily worth it.
