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Replacing old LP’s with new copies

Nothing quite matches the joy of bringing an old favourite back to life. An example was Jimi Hendrix - Smash hits, that my parents bought me for Christmas all those years ago. The vinyl was in good shape, but the cover was beyond redemption. I kept my eye out on Discogs and eventually found a copy with a good sleeve that matched the catalogue number etc of my LP, with the record not in such good condition, for not much money. Obviously more sentimental value than anything else, but that really made my day!

Another example was Warm Dust - And it came to pass, 2xLP, 1970. My copy had a bad scratch on side 4. The Discogs seller had a copy with a trashed sleeve, and LP1 was beyond redemption too, but LP2 was VG+, so I ordered it; the seller sent me a message asking if I had read the description and did I still want it? Yes, I said, so I was able to upgrade my copy for peanuts; a good deal. That one came all the way from Russia.

You do have to bide your time though, it can take ages sometimes to find what you want.
 
Nothing quite matches the joy of bringing an old favourite back to life. An example was Jimi Hendrix - Smash hits, that my parents bought me for Christmas all those years ago. The vinyl was in good shape, but the cover was beyond redemption. I kept my eye out on Discogs and eventually found a copy with a good sleeve that matched the catalogue number etc of my LP, with the record not in such good condition, for not much money. Obviously more sentimental value than anything else, but that really made my day!

Another example was Warm Dust - And it came to pass, 2xLP, 1970. My copy had a bad scratch on side 4. The Discogs seller had a copy with a trashed sleeve, and LP1 was beyond redemption too, but LP2 was VG+, so I ordered it; the seller sent me a message asking if I had read the description and did I still want it? Yes, I said, so I was able to upgrade my copy for peanuts; a good deal. That one came all the way from Russia.

You do have to bide your time though, it can take ages sometimes to find what you want.
Certainly whiled away a few lockdown days trawling Discogs and setting up alerts but as you say rewarding when you marry up a couple/three copies to get a minter.
 
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?

One of the main reasons I suggest keeping the old to compare with the new; back in 1980, when Pink Floyd released The Wall, I rushed out and got it immediately. British pressing, it had a fair whack of record noise in the quiet passages. A few years later, I saw a Japanese pressing on offer; they were in vogue at the time, and thought to be better than UK and American.

Gave it a listen, and whilst the pressing was whisper-quiet, the music was gutless. The UK pressing had heft, it had body, and it made an impact in a way that the Japanese did not.

The Japanese was sold a few years later, and the UK remained.
 
Definitely get a couple of your favourites cleaned properly before you get rid. My vinyl collection had been a little uncared for in the early 90s and when I played a few again they sounded pretty bad. I considered replacing with CDs but just a simple manual clean improved them tremendously…I recall Joy Division and Magazine first pressings being totally transformed back to their original state and of course they sounded amazing.
 
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.

Unfortunately they are damaged. None are scratched so they skip as such but when held to the light, the vinyl surfaces are dull and worn with lots of minor scuffing - standard non-lined card inners probably didn’t help. However in my defence in the mid - late 90’s to me they were just a very cheap medium to purchase music on.

I have lots of LP’s that suffered from poor, damp storage some years ago which sounded awful but were transformed by a cleaning session on my okki nokki and the surfaces came up like new but there is probably 20-30 records which are damaged as above.
 
Badly burned by half speed master reissues of Stones back catalogue. What is the point of having a decent system if the reissue LPs sound like crap? The quality of these records are awful. Stick with the originals
 
It's still worth a try with the ultrasound cleaner. Am not suggesting you buy one; let someone else with a machine clean it for you. Minor scuffs normally aren't an issue IMO.

But I agree with the general opinion here - new reissues are not necessarily an improvement. Your other alternatives are earlier CD versions (recent CD remasterings may be compressed) or earlier reissues.

Unfortunately they are damaged. None are scratched so they skip as such but when held to the light, the vinyl surfaces are dull and worn with lots of minor scuffing - standard non-lined card inners probably didn’t help. However in my defence in the mid - late 90’s to me they were just a very cheap medium to purchase music on.

I have lots of LP’s that suffered from poor, damp storage some years ago which sounded awful but were transformed by a cleaning session on my okki nokki and the surfaces came up like new but there is probably 20-30 records which are damaged as above.
 
I bought a new pressing of Bowie's Low. Dreadful to my ears. Joni's Blue (2015?) reissue sounder great though. So some winners and losers.
 
I bought a new pressing of Bowie's Low. Dreadful to my ears. Joni's Blue (2015?) reissue sounder great though. So some winners and losers.

None of the current Bowies are from the original masters. There was a nice Ziggy until quite recently though.
 
Badly burned by half speed master reissues of Stones back catalogue. What is the point of having a decent system if the reissue LPs sound like crap? The quality of these records are awful. Stick with the originals
Thanks for letting me know, I was vaguely tempted by those.

This thread got me perusing Discogs and EBay to fill some gaps in my collection. Turns out I only have a couple of tatty AC/DC albums on vinyl and George Peckham first pressings of all the UK Bon Scott AC/DC albums can still be had for £20-£40 each. So I've bought all 6 plus a mint '77 pressing of the Aussie High Voltage.

£250 all-in posted. Gotta be better than any reissues. Now to find my cardboard cut-out guitar.
 


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