Analog Productions, Rhino High Fidelity, Original Jazz Classics - comments

@whart I appreciate you spiritual view of record collecting.  I stopped collecting records for several decades after one of my snotlings broke the cantilever on my Blue Point cartridge on my Thorens TT.  I started back into it seriously in my early sixties when I could afford it better.  Now that I have my LP12 based analog chain where I want it, I simply want to listen to whatever i want to listen to at the best possible quality/cost ratio.  Quality/cost ratio sounds a bit analytical but I now have a slightly less romantic view.

For the records I really love I will buy UHQR where available.  If not available from Quality Record Pressings, I will research to find the best SQ available elsewhere that sometimes leads to OPs. 

For records I really want, I look for the best SQ issue I can find, but limit the budget to the $40 -$60 range which covers most every high SQ reissue. 

For those records that I should have, I look for the best SQ under $40.

As for record cleaning, I have run the gauntlet and settled on the Humming Guru record washer.  I only use it once per record and then follow a very strict process ever time before I play a side and also after I play a side.  True or not, I feel that using a felt pad and antistat brush after each play picks up anything that may have been missed when the record was played - believing that the stylus has also performed a bit of cleaning as it traced the grooves.

In between all that - I enjoy the music.....

@slaw Thanks for the recommendation.  That is one that I really need a good modern copy of.

@maam522a .

Your buying parameters and priorities mimic my own. I do go overboard at times. 😉

I tend not to purchase audiophile reissues, preferring original, or early, pressings with provenance. Now there are records that are unobtainium or usuriously priced, in which case I am glad that there is a reissue to purchase.

The reissue game is pretty limiting as well, if you want to hear bluegrass, country, bossa nova, tropicalia, reggae, samba, ragtime, international or many other genres, there are certainly some audiophile reissues out there, but pickings are slim and, generally, very safe. I just don’t want sound quality, or convenience, to define the breadth of music that I listen to. And I find nothing more distracting than having a record that I know well on a single disc spread out over two discs at 45rpm, which just breaks the spell for me, YMMV.

The Electric Recording Company and Speakers Corner may be of interest to you for sound quality. SAM records, from France, has some adventurous product in audiophile sound quality as well.

@viridian I agree with you in every way.  There are a few records that i have where the best issue was an Original Pressing and the cost was stupid high. Most of the older releases that I have from many years ago were not the best SQ so if it a must listen I will buy the best I can find - new or old.  I still keep the other.

As for 45RPM.  That is another decision all together.  The are very few 45RPM records in my collection that I do not have in 33 1/3 also.  Which one i choose to play depends on my mood, but I find the 45 RPMs to be stunning.

Thanks for the suggestions as well.