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Replacing old LP’s with new copies

Oneandtwo

pfm Member
I am thinking of replacing some of my more “well loved” LP’s with new copies, for example my original copies of various New order albums and of Guns and Roses appetite for destruction have a lot of surface noise and all can be replaced with brand new copies for £20 each, and it even seems that I could probably recoup most of that by selling the old copies on eBay - even being totally honest about the sound quality people are still buying them.

I am no record collector, am more interested in the listening to the album and can’t really see any downsides to this??
 
TBH, given that you're only really interested in the music (nothing wrong with that), there are no downsides, provided that the sound quality is as good as the originals. Where you have to be careful, is that for some of the most popular, acts, where their records have been re-released over and over again, SQ can sometimes be dire.
 
There have been complaints about the quality of modern pressings with some having to be returned multiple times.
If you're going this route check your new copy before selling the old one.
Alternatively buy your new copy from a good second hand shop. That's what I do. Carefully check it before you purchase.

Andy
 
Some reissues sound poor and some are poorly quality assured so arrive with pops/clicks/scratches/warps - buying new you can return/replace though.

I’ve replaced a few LPs from Discogs by looking for mint vinyl but naff covers, means they are cheaper and as my covers are all in great nick I just swap the LP over in a new liner after a clean.
 
TBH, given that you're only really interested in the music (nothing wrong with that), there are no downsides, provided that the sound quality is as good as the originals. Where you have to be careful, is that for some of the most popular, acts, where their records have been re-released over and over again, SQ can sometimes be dire.

I think this is my main issue - Appetite for Destruction first pressing still sounds brilliant but the clicking and crackling drive me mad now, despite many cleans - it is surface wear to the LP. It seems far more noticeable since buying an okki nokki, as the rest of the dust crackles have gone,

I guess I’ll buy a new copy and compare it!
 
Watch out for remastered releases of your originals. They can often sound like a bag of spanners falling down a stairs in comparison
 
I think this is my main issue - Appetite for Destruction first pressing still sounds brilliant but the clicking and crackling drive me mad now, despite many cleans - it is surface wear to the LP. It seems far more noticeable since buying an okki nokki, as the rest of the dust crackles have gone,

I guess I’ll buy a new copy and compare it!
Mint with the banned original cover art is worth a few quid, guess even a gnarly copy would be worth a few bob if the cover is in good nick.
 
I'm sort of going the other way - replacing recent (i.e. last forty years!) issues with earlier pressings. Partly record nerdery, partly that as a jazz fan, even with a bit of surface noise, I tend to prefer the sound of original/early pressings.

No right or wrong - just whatever works best for you.
 
To my ears, and based on a lifetime of obsessively comparing stuff, there are very few occasions I’d swap a mint 1st pressing from country of artist origin to any later issue including expensive audiophile reissues. There are of course exceptions, but as a rule of thumb that’s a pretty good one IMO. The logic is that this is the mastering the artist themselves, their producer or management actually signed-off. It contains the original intent. Anything that came later is someone else’s interpretation, and that can sound quite remarkably different. Also a lot of modern classic rock etc reissue vinyl has no audiophile pretensions whatsoever and may well just be from a digital source, likely the last CD remastering. Some artists do care though, e.g. Neil Young really curates his catalogue.

I buy new music on vinyl (ideally nice limited editions directly from the artists), old music on original issue (ideally first pressings) second hand, and on occasion audiophile reissues if they are of a known good quality (e.g. Japanese, Blue Note Tone Poets etc) if originals are prohibitively rare or expensive.
 
New Re-masters - Prices from $4 per hour Online AI mastering ( $8 per hour Dolby Atmos )
Audiophile Labels - Kevin Gray / Bernie Grundman $350 per hour normally $10K per title
These apps have complex algorithms which use artificial intelligence capable of analyzing, detecting and applying different adjustments to every song in an individual way.
1st pressings way to go or Audiophile labels will be 100 % analogue records New will be Digital Vinyl

cloudbounce-library-automatic-online-mastering-apps-artificial-intelligence-algorithms-1280x716.png
 
I’m disinclined to add to the vinyl collection. I like the rituals and occasionally add an LP just because it’s a nice parcel/ cheap or so brilliant I just have to have it in all its large scale glory. I’d check if the music is acceptable to you on any of the streaming services before spending what’s quite a lot of money.
 
I am thinking of replacing some of my more “well loved” LP’s with new copies, for example my original copies of various New order albums and of Guns and Roses appetite for destruction have a lot of surface noise and all can be replaced with brand new copies for £20 each, and it even seems that I could probably recoup most of that by selling the old copies on eBay - even being totally honest about the sound quality people are still buying them.

I am no record collector, am more interested in the listening to the album and can’t really see any downsides to this??


I admire you, I really do. I feel a compulsive need to hang on to my original albums for dear life, and on the very rare occasions I've needed to replace them they too need to be originals of a similar ilk. Maybe it's an illness.
 
Personally, I'd rather have a VG+ vinyl record cut from an analogue master in the golden age of vinyl than a new record. The only exceptions being the few that have been cut directly from analogue masters.

I've been vacillating over replacing my less than lovely copies of the Bon Scott AC/DC albums with NM Blue/Green label copies of their first five Alberts albums, but it would probably cost me about £900.
 
Are your records physically damaged i.e. scratched or suffering from bad quality vinyl or manufacture?

If not, you may want to try cleaning them several times with an ultrasound record cleaning machine. Sometimes dirt and stuff that conventional vacuum cleaning can't remove properly are contributing to the noise. Some people will tell you that there is no significant difference between the cleaning methods provided you use the proper technique and liquids. As someone who uses both methods, I disagree strongly especially when it comes to badly soiled records.
 
Beware that ultrasound will damage vinyl depending on the frequency of the bath and duration/repeat cleans. It will etch aluminium for example and will certainly damage plastics under certain conditions. It shouldn't be overused on valuable LPs, I'd suggest.
 
Interesting, I didn’t know that about ultrasound. I assume the dedicated cleaners are designed to be gentle/benign, but I’d like to see some evidence. The run-in/run-out of a mint record is always a good place to look for visual evidence of bad cleaning techniques or machinery. If you are leaving marks you will see them clearly there.

PS As far as the OP goes cleaning old records properly can make a simply staggering difference to how they sound and is highly recommended. I couldn’t cope with vinyl without my record cleaner (a conventional VPI 17i wet-vacuum machine). Even with brand new vinyl it is the equivalent of a significant cartridge upgrade sonically. With used vinyl it really can work wonders. Certainly not every time, some vinyl is just damaged for whatever reason, but if the issue is simply groove contamination, and it often is, it can usually be restored.
 
Interesting, I didn’t know that about ultrasound. I assume the dedicated cleaners are designed to be gentle/benign, but I’d like to see some evidence. The run-in/run-out of a mint record is always a good place to look for visual evidence of bad cleaning techniques or machinery. If you are leaving marks you will see them clearly there.

This is a very good discussion - he concludes that he's a fan of AS cleaning but he urges caution and understanding of the process.


Sorry @Oneandtwo this is drifting off topic. I agree with what has been said along the lines of modern reissues often being inferior to old records.
 
Definitely this

Try the new ones before selling the old.

Listen past any record noise, and ask yourself - does the MUSIC sound better on the new one?

Amongst quite a few others, I have an original Rolling Stones first album nearly 60 years old :eek:, bought a newer copy which sounds cleaner BUT I still prefer listening to the original - more drive/excitement for me.
On the other hand; I did the same with "Exile on Main Street" and struggle to hear any difference, but it is nice to have a newer copy in order to prevent more wear on the original.

Perhaps, if funds and storage space allow, it would be best to keep original and buy new copies (even CD versions?) for general listening?
 


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