That $2 thrift store record that sounds better than my $40 reissue

I found a beat-up copy of Terry Callier's 'What Color Is Love' at a goodwill in Portland for $2 and it blows away the 2019 remaster I paid $40 for. The old vinyl has this warm, lived-in sound while the new one feels sterile and overproduced. Anyone else think older pressings actually capture more soul than these fancy reissues?

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jackson.sarah5mo ago

hold on, i gotta push back on this a little bit. i mean yeah, sometimes older pressings have that warm fuzzy sound people chase, but it's usually just wear and tear and groove damage that makes them sound "lived in" instead of just noisy. a $40 modern reissue from a quality label like acoustic sounds or verve is gonna have way less surface noise, wider dynamic range, and no clicks or pops from some kid dragging a cheap stylus through the grooves for 40 years. you're basically trading clarity for nostalgia and calling it soul.

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piper1755mo ago

Right? I grabbed a dusty 70s pressing of Innervisions for $3 and it just hits different than the digital version.

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