Vinyl album reissues: which ones are worth the money?

[Grace Preston]

Originally Posted by TinMan

I have all those artists in my CD collection, too, Grace. “Blue” on vinyl is something I definitely should consider...”Court and Spark” is already on my list.

For years, all digital audio was about getting more music in less space. Audio quality was not a priority. I’ve read some recent press that indicates the tide may be about to move in the other direction. I hope so...it still disappoints me that the iTunes Store doesn’t offer a lossless option.

I have "Court and Spark" as well, just not remastered.. that one is still the original. Most of my vinyl is not remastered. I have a couple remastered Ray Charles albums.. I think my personal favorite of mine that is a remastered copy is probably "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys.

Louis Prima is heavy on my rotation when I'm cooking. Along with Sinatra and a few others of that genre.

Once I get resettled into a house here in DFW.. I'll have to snap a pic of my collection. Vinyl and books are the only things in the world I collect.

[Crock]

Originally Posted by TinMan

For years, all digital audio was about getting more music in less space. Audio quality was not a priority. I’ve read some recent press that indicates the tide may be about to move in the other direction. I hope so...it still disappoints me that the iTunes Store doesn’t offer a lossless option.

Yeah, I've been skipping FLAC albums in favor of high quality MP3s for years now. I'm still a bit optimistic that FLAC will catch on, but the more years pass, the less optimistic I am.

I thought Apple had their own lossless format that they offered for many (all?) of the albums sold in their store? Yes, it's called ALAC, but I'm not sure how available it is (I don't do Apple if I can help it).

[TinMan]

I rip to FLAC, mainly because I can convert to any other format type without degradation. I learned not too long ago that Apple now allows FLAC playback on iTunes, so that’s progress.

I’ve never seen ALAC for sale before (although it’s been an option for ripping in iTunes for years). ALAC doesn’t work well on at least some 3rd party playback software, so I stopped using that codec several years ago.

[Crock]

Originally Posted by TinMan

I rip to FLAC, mainly because I can convert to any other format type without degradation. I learned not too long ago that Apple now allows FLAC playback on iTunes, so that’s progress.

I’ve never seen ALAC for sale before (although it’s been an option for ripping in iTunes for years). ALAC doesn’t work well on at least some 3rd party playback software, so I stopped using that codec several years ago.

I hate ripping and converting. It's just such a chore for me. I know other people love doing stuff like that, organizing and properly naming stuff and keeping it all neat and tidy.

I've bought some albums 5 times to have it in the format I want (vinyl/8track, cassette, CD, crappy MP3, decent MP3). I wish I had kept some of that old vinyl from years ago, but I didn't keep a single one.

For Apple users, it's too bad Apple hasn't pushed ALAC harder. For the rest of us, it's a godsend that Apple hasn't taken over even more of the music distribution industry.

[TinMan]

Once I settled on the software, it’s really easy (to me), and more cost-effective than buying all the different formats I might want. Money isn’t my primary motivation (if it were, I wouldn’t have 3 CD versions and going on 2 vinyl of Sgt Pepper’s); being able to do things like combine most of Abbey Road’s B-side into one track are the reason I invested the time some 10 years ago to figure that stuff out.

But I get it...my decision to buy into the Apple ecosystem was based on laziness.