About good vinyl reissues

After many years of digital oblivion, I recently went back to vinyl. Reading the threads here, I realized that the vinyl market is not what it used to be in the good old days. I've read about reissues released on vinyl with the recording taken from a CD, rather than using master tapes.

My local store is now offering a good selection of new vinyl, but I noticed that many records have been released by Simply Vinyl, Black To Black, Vinyl Lovers, 4 Men With Beards, Earmark/Get Back and others.

I've read many comments here questioning the quality of these releases, some are even saying these stuff should be absolutely avoided.

So my question is, what are the most reliable companies that release vinyl in these days? I know that, for example, Sundazed offers really good products. Can you suggest any others?

I'm talking about general overall quality here, I understand that quite often it would be a case by case matter.

 

I am in a similar boat to you, trying to navigate some of the recent vinyl reissues and wondering what the safest bets are. I know there are lots of threads about this here, so it's definitely worth doing a search for "vinyl reissues" or something similar.

A few things I've learned so far from reading here (and I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Rhino reissues are generally very good to excellent
2. 4 Men With Beards and Get Back are not particularly good
3. Black To Black is very hit or miss...I think in general they are not well received but I think there are a few that are worthwhile.

I'm about to test out the Rhino theory right now as I just picked up their reissue of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and am about to put it on.

Good luck!

 

All the companies you mentioned are crap, with the notable exception of Sundazed. Rhino is good too and so are Acoustic Sounds, Pure Pleasure, MFSL, Classic Records. My advice is to simply avoid buying vinyl from those companies. You will be better served with a cd. I only found reward on analog mastering from the original sources.

 

I will add ORG, Speakers Corner, Music Matters, OJC, Analogue Productions, Acoustech Mastering (May be a new name now) it's not a label. This website and musicangle.com is good for reviews.

 

Right! Forgot about them. I bought their reissue of the first Traffic album and it's fantastic.

 

MFSL or Audio Fidelity titles can sometimes be found in regular stores, but we warned that they're rare and they're expensive. Of the ones that you can find in stores and record fairs more often, here are a couple of labels that deliver good stuff on vinyl:

Sundazed: Their Dylan monos are fantastic and their releases were confirmed here as all analogue. You can't go wrong with these
Music On Vinyl: Digitally sourced at times, but sound is always excellent. Their standards in packaging and pressing quality are also top notch.
Neil Young's vinyl reissues: Superb all analog sound, excellent packaging and pressing quality, a no brainer. Some later titles please!
Pure Pleasure: I love their pressing of Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry and I've read postive comments about other releases. Interesting titles as well, not just the mainstream stuff.
Rhino: Excellent Warner titles, some of them cut by Steve or Kevin Gray. Not hard to find cheap. Recommended.

 

In general stay away from simply vinyl or back to black.

 

i have had some good luck with music on vinyl, but I know some here have not

 

oh and i agree with the statement on 4 men with beards, they have shotty pressings

 

Their Alice In Chains Jar of Flies/Sap sounds quite good.

 

I picked up a Sundazed Santana Abraxis and it was much poorer than my original Columbia and had a lot of surface noise to boot so even on what are normally safe labels you can get lemons.

I have pretty much stopped buying re-issues except for Rino in the "affordable" catigories
Kevin

 

How are the 4 men with beards vinyls?

 

The German artist reissues on the Back To Black label have been absolutely fantastic as reissues go, IMO. While they are probably cut digitally at GZ, they at least seem to be sending them flat files. Very neutral sound. There was some info shared here that they may well be doing these from flat transfers of the masters and I would not be surprised if that were true. Jane, Scorpions, Grobschnitt, Sperrmull, Lucifer's Friend, Yatha Sidhra, etc. ... all sound really sweet.

Also: Gong's Continental Circus sounds very nice.

The only other Back To Black reissue that I have heard was the s/t Tudor Lodge album. Unlike the other stuff I mentioned, this was flat out abysmal. Tinny, shrill garbage. The old Repertoire CD (1990) sounds infinitely better.

 

I'm not sure about all Sundazed either. I have Bob Dylan BOB Mono that I thought was mastered by Bob Irwin and it has different initials (WG?) and mastered pressed at United. I have these initials on a few lps. I'm not saying he is bad but this pressing may be digital from what I read in a thread on here. Who knows?

Interesting to here about the MOVs? Some titles are interesting.

 

I will add my vote to Rhino, I have 4 of the Doors releases and they sound better than any Doors I have owned/heard before.

I will also add my vote to Back To Black that they are disappointments. I have Guns N' Roses UYI 1 and 2 and my cd's of them sound better.

 

From what I read here, and on other boards, spotty. But my recent purchase of their Kinda Kinks Mono reissue was excellent.

 

Rhino is great with the exception of the first four Tom Wait's albums that were re-issued. Something went totally wrong there.

 

Elaborate on those Waits reissues, would you?

I've heard the 2007 'Beggars Banquet' and 2010 'Exile On Main St' and
both sound bad to me, nothing like the earlier pressings.

- - - -

I have never heard a bad masterring or pressing on Sundazed. I think they are the most reliable label out there today.

 

The Waits reissues sound like someone is listening through a wet towel. Or something of that sort. I have nothing to compare with, but I bought two of them and am frightened to open them now

 

Sundazed is highly respected for using original analogue sources but it's worth mentioning that it doesn't sell itself as an audiophile label, its LPs are relatively cheap and the pressing quality is very variable - you may get lucky and you may not. If you're me, it's nearly always the latter.

Universal Back to Black is a real mixed bag with many, many duds but also some gems. Let's not forget they did the all-analogue Axis Bold As Love which was highly praised here (not by me!!) and most recently they have also done the 1964-69 Rolling Stones vinyl box set which has also been very highly praised. You really have to pick and choose very carefully, using knowledge gleaned here.

 

No, they weren't.

 

Sundazed themself claim that their Dylan reissues are all-analogue: http://www.sundazed.com/shop/dylan.php

I have few of them, and I like them a lot.

 

About Simply Vinyl: they never told what sources they used, but their older pressings used to be flat and quiet, and I like most of them that I have a lot.

I've heared some newer pressings that are rubbish: not flat, very noisy.
Their are easy to recognize: the sticker on the sleeve is small, round and grey, does not mention the weight anymore, just says: "limited edition classic album", sleeves are also thinner than they used to be.

 

I'll add that Speakers Corner has some of the best pressings (shiny, flat, Pallas Pressing). Their sources are supposed to be analog and their prices are $35 a pop. I have some of the Motown titles and their great! In perspective though, $50 MM title is a better value. Well, in the long run they (MM) are probably the best value although expensive. I only own 5 titles.

I don't even mess with Simply Vinyl. I've heard way too many bad things.

Legacy did a good with the Hendrix reissues as sell.