It's very much a caveat emptor situation. Has anyone noticed how many Mobile Fidelity records no longer say Original Master Recording in calculator letters across the top of the album?
The absence of Original Master Recording doesn't mean that the record is crap, but it does mean the original tapes weren't used, so you're paying a premium for mastering from a copy. At least Mobile Fidelity is upfront about it.
Joe
It should be a requirement to state on the label whether the original master is analog or digital and if digital, at what bit and sampling rate.
I played quite a bit last night delving further back into the library, and frankly the older records sound absolutely incredible.
The two that stood out the most were Michael Jackson's "Thriller" from the LP, and (I'll ignore the groans, I was 12 years old and I still like this), the 45RPM 12" single of Five Star's "The Slightest Touch".
The soundstage is clear and absolutely massive, it's all beautifully vibrant, the trickery of the effects on the Jackson one (that door) is, well, thrilling.
About the only thing I'd criticise with the Jackson one is the mic-ing of Jackson's vocal which is just a touch blurry around the edges compared with Price's, and also compared with the Five Star one; while I have quite a decent source, a better amp and speakers might bring that out nicely as might a 45RPM copy (versus 33).
Then you go forward to most pop music from today and it sounds, well, appalling; squashed, compressed, no attention paid to stereo imagery so mastered completely flat with everything overlapping, truncated, artificial-sounding, no sense of fluidity and so on.
If someone just popped down to the pressing plant with the CD (instead of a higher quality master) and got them to run off a few thousand vinyl copies, I'd like to be able to know about that before buying so as not to waste the money.
At least sites like HD Tracks do seem to make some attempt to verify the provenance of the master they're provided with and clearly state what you're getting with your downloads though of course just because something is at 24/192 doesn't mean it will sound brilliant especially if it's a re-mastering of an old tape that didn't sound great to begin with and that has been sat in a cupboard slowly losing magnetism for the last 50 years.