Vinyl records, original or remastered? Advice required

[slowwww]

A friend of mine has recently bought a new Hifi system focussed around a new turntable. He's spent some serious money on it, and I was wowed with how 'bright' and detailed the sound was compared with the CD equivalents when he played them back to back.

This has got me thinking about building a system too. I won't be paying the £5k that he spent, but it has occurred to me while seeking to work out the total spend, the vinyl itself is going to be a significant proportion. I flogged most of my vinyl when I bought my first cd machine in the mid 1980s, and what I have I suspect is not going to be in good shape.

Having looked at some sites, there is the option to buy 'original' or 're-mastered' vinyl, with the former usually being much more expensive. I imagine that it is the authenticity that drives this extra cost, but is there much difference in sound quality between the two? Would the re-mastered albums be less scratchy but lose out on the vibrancy that I heard from his system? He has an extensive back catalogue and so at the moment isn't buying any new re-mastered vinyl for me to compare.

All help gratefully received!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Varies, if sound quality is your watchword you'll need to research each purchase to make sure you're getting the best. New stuff by companies like Mobile Fidelity is expensive but it's generally very good, if it's a sought after original that's considered the best or it's just not readily available you could end up paying a lot more.

It's a good idea to get used to what the quality original releases are, quality reissue labels, who's done the mastering, etc.

There's a lot of new stuff out there that is sub-standard so watch out, just because it says remastered doesn't guarantee it's good.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Of course you can also invest in quality CD stuff, it's the same though, watch the remastering, there's a lot of duff sounding rubbish out there, again you've got to look at who's involved.

 

[accountantpete]

Done well, bog standard 16bit 44kHz CD's can be a joy to listen to.

The problem is that the digital signal is very delicate and easily swamped by noise. Most CD players have really naff power supplies and cheap components like no-brand capacitors which add to this noise. Get a well implemented transport, DAC and amp with low noise shunt regulators and you start getting a much clearer 3D sound effect and is in no way a poor relation to analog.

There's also the 24 bit 96/192 kHz stuff that is coming out - from what I gather the oversampling effectively reduces the noise a little bit further

 

[Profpointy]

... or load up your cds to a pc (lossless) and use a high quality dac or studio type soundcard and bob's your uncle

 

[Pale Rider]

When talking high-end sound I think the importance of room acoustics is often overlooked.

Your mate's system may - may not - sound as sweet in your listening room.

Regrettably, that introduces yet another variable.

A basic indication is to do a clap test.

If you can hear much of an echo, you may struggle to get the benefit from expensive kit and vinyl sources.

Trying the same test in your mate's room would be worth doing.

If your room echoes more than his, you are definitely up against it.

 

[nickyboy]

When talking high-end sound I think the importance of room acoustics is often overlooked.

Your mate's system may - may not - sound as sweet in your listening room.

Regrettably, that introduces yet another variable.

A basic indication is to do a clap test.

If you can hear much of an echo, you may struggle to get the benefit from expensive kit and vinyl sources.

Trying the same test in your mate's room would be worth doing.

If your room echoes more than his, you are definitely up against it.

We'll be sticking egg boxes on the walls next

 

[SteCenturion]

A basic indication is to do a clap test.

Your local GP can assist with this if you are inexperienced.

 

[pplpilot]

I had a friend who was a total out and out hi-fi bore... he though nothing of spending thousands on speaker cable alone. I always though it was a total waste of time in a 1970's 3 bed semi bedroom. That level of quality deserves the best environment.

 

[SteCenturion]

I always though it was a total waste of time in a 1970's 3 bed semi bedroom. That level of quality deserves the best environment.

 

[slowwww]

When talking high-end sound I think the importance of room acoustics is often overlooked.

Your mate's system may - may not - sound as sweet in your listening room.

Regrettably, that introduces yet another variable.

A basic indication is to do a clap test.

If you can hear much of an echo, you may struggle to get the benefit from expensive kit and vinyl sources.

Trying the same test in your mate's room would be worth doing.

If your room echoes more than his, you are definitely up against it.

Hmmm, you may be onto something here. Our rooms are broadly the same size, but his has carpet and lots of soft-furnishings and ours has a wooden floor, a lot more glass and is generally more minimalist.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Vinyl = waste of time imo. They scratch and on a decent system you will also hear the inevitable warps as a very low 'wow'.

For some reason they've been over-hyped by the rose tinted brigade.

I was listening to the boss of a small record label on a late night show (for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the show) about 3 months ago and he hated vinyl for two reasons - the inherent production cost of the disc and the sleeve/artwork and the fact that vinyl cannot record the same level of detail as a digital format.

Some people say that vinyl sounds 'warmer' than digital. From the off you've got to have one hell of a system to get down to that level of subjective observation and imo digital reproduces the live performance exactly so anything added in after is not faithful reproduction.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

[QUOTE 4631161, member: 259"]The remastered Physical Graffiti stomps all over the original, that much I know, but the scratches aren't in the right places. [/QUOTE]

My favourite album ever with two stunning tracks - Kashmir (magically evocative of the East) and Trampled Underfoot (stonking riff throughout).

I have the digitally remastered CD and was hoping they could've expanded the original LP's very small soundstage but they didn't.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Original.
Most remastered versions I have seem to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[Drago]

Although modern pressings are on better quality vinyl that just wasn't available back in the day, making the answer to 'which one is best?' very much a case by case exercise.