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In Reply to: What does it mean when the vinyl pressing is labeled 'audiophile'? posted by magiccarpetride on April 18, 2017 at 09:40:16:
In fact people put way too much importance in labels. Its like calling an auto a "classic". Truth be told, calling anything a "classic" just means its at least 25 years old.
Calling a LP an "audiophile pressing" has less descriptive information associated with the term "LP" than "classic" has to do with "automobile". Audiophile pressings used to be associated with half speed mastered LPs which were pressed on some kind of virgin vinyl and released by a special label.
Please note that the description above says nothing about how it sounds. That is a harder thing to put into language and whether a pressing is pressed on heavy weight virgin vinyl, how it was mastered, who mastered it and from what master tape still does not guarantee any sort of sonic nirvana.
If someone goes through the trouble of getting the original stereo master tape, masters the lacquer at half-speed (or takes some sort of special care in mastering the lacquer) and the plating and pressing is performed by a top quality vinyl pressing plant, hopefully this all means that the LP is going to be a winner. But like I started above, none of that ensures that the LP will be great.
The real truth is if they screw up any of the above steps, the LP is very likely to be a bad pressing, but nothing guarantees a sonically great LP. There are too many things that can go wrong. Labeling a LP an "audiophile pressing" is more likely to be a marketing step than anything else.
If you talk to someone and they tell you that anything labeled "audiophile" means its bad is just as stupid and calling an "audiophile pressing" some kind of great product. The rule of thumb is this...anyone who tells you something or someone is guaranteed to be any kind of great this or that, be sure the source knows nothing about the subject they claim to know so much about.
There are way too many self appointed experts around. The internet has a way of bringing them out and giving them some sort of credibility. It just isn't so.
Ed
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
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Follow Ups
- The term "audiophile" in and of itself means nothing... - EdAInWestOC 11:01:23 04/18/17 (0)