Sun Ra saturn re-issues

first of all, thank you. incidentally I landed on this site through Google, but I have always wondered who made the reissues and how they were made.

so, Alton Abraham did all this? great.
but even when many of them were made from the original tapes, it surely will be quiet different from the original. transferring tape, A/D (I guess it won´t be a fully analogue process until the master-lacquer), and of course cutting and pressing all will make the difference. does this matter? to some, to others not.

we definitely have to ask what "better" sound is by the way. I love recordings such as these old Saturns as close to what they (Ra, Alton etc) heard back in the 60s and 70s on their monitors, so I love the original pressings. but what´s "original" by the way? I consider f.e. my Thoth version of Cosmic Tones... as original although the first version was with a different cover, and surely a different sound as well.

I want to point out that Saturns/Thoths did NOT sound bad over-all, like so many tend to write in their ebay or whatever descriptions. it´s just an excuse for a bad copy. I have about 10 Saturns/Thoths so far and they all sound fantastic. I know there´s bad ones, but that´s NOT the majority.
I´m audio engineer and quiet a critical listener, although I do not consider myself as an audiophile. I can perfectly live with a dirty 4-track machine sound if it represents what was going on on that particular recording.

maybe someone has even more details on the reissues, how/where they were mastered, and who exactly is doing them? is Alton Abraham just giving his ok or is he at the helm for these reissues?

and, there have been stolen quiet some mastertapes in the 70s, this should also be considered...

thank you, interesting!

as for the CDs: I don´t have a CD player. I mean, I have one in my computer (with the RME Hammerfall A/D), but no real CDplayer in my audio system. I don´t buy CDs. they simply don´t do it for me. I love vinyl.
in general I don´t listen to CDs as well as CD-Rs or mp3s, I´m really an oldschool vinyl lover.

listening to Sun Ra albums that I don´t have would be too bad, because I would hate not having them on LP, hahaha. so I don´t listen to such at all.

my general taste and "knowledge" about music is enough for me sometimes, or most of the times, to judge upfront (and then buy on LP) if I like something or not, when I read about the musicians, the date of recording or the label. so I often (most of the times) order without having heard the recordings before. every now and then I don´t hit my own taste (f.e. I have bought the Descendants Of Mike & Phoebe on Strata east for much money but hated it because of the "opera"-style vocals:) but most of the time I´m ok. I have to admit I do use the internet for MP3 previews, just those 30 sec. samples that you can listen to legally.

hey, so you own a lot of Saturns? I have a question, because I´m at the moment not sure if I have a bootleg or not. maybe you can help me with identifying it.
can you send me an email? ttabigorATgmxDOTat is my adress. would be great to talk about a few Saturnian matters then!

on another forum there was the comment that maybe some so-called-"sellers" will start trying to sell them as original ones but so far I thought the difference is too big, alone from the cover print.

but such cockroaches already started crawling out of their holes...

there´s 2 guys on Gemm selling the reissues for f.e. 126$, 149$, 169$ (f.e. for the recent Fate In A...), 181$ (for the recent Interstellar Low Ways REISSUE!!!).
now - taking the price into consideration and that they don´t state "reissue" anywhere, but even write "El Saturn" or "Saturn" (instead of Saturn Research) and also "used", you could think it´s the original. "used Saturn 181$" do you think that´s the recent 12$ reissue?
in fact they play the game consciously to rip people off.
I asked per email and they all confirmed without shame it´s reissues.
and when you see what they chrage for original pressings you know they´re out of their mind and just wait for the next idiot to pass their way: 385$ for the Base version of Nothing Is..., 567$ for Nuits De La...1 and so on. total rip-off.

or on cdandlp.com, there´s a seller called Rockhouse who also tries to sell the reissues for: Lanquidity 99Euro, Other Planes... and all other recent reissues for 56Euro (not like the Gemm people but still, that´s quiet some money if you think in $).

I don´t know what´s up with these people, but it makes me really angry. in the end, we´re talking about music, art, and a minimum of ethic maybe in this "business" where we all love weird music, don´t we? ok, if the old Saturns are sold for much money then why not, but there´s a limit where it becomes obscene I think, not so speak of the reissue rip-offs.