Vinyl reissue labels to avoid?


There is a wealth of music being reissued on vinyl, but not all labels are equal.

There are some excellent vinyl reissue labels that use original anaolg sources and produce very good lps such as Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner Records, RhinOvinyl, Classic Records, Impulse!, Sundazed, etc.

Then there are some dubious EU labels that use cds as "remastered" sources from 50+ yr old recordings due to copyright loopholes (Doxy and WaxTime come to mind). I don't want 180g cds!

Some labels I now avoid:
WaxTime
DOXY
Not Now Music
Jazz Wax Records
Scorpio

Who should we be avoiding, and who should we be buying? I am only interested in 33rpm lps, which we flip as they were meant to (as opposed to the 45rpm reissues which may sound good but take us from sides A&B to 4 unnaturally truncated sides).

For 33rpm reissues, who are the good, the bad, and the ugly?

toronto416
I own a few Jazz Wax recordings and find them very good. Their Coltrane Lush Life has great separation between instruments and vinyl was quite. No problem here with their catalog

I also agree with Syntax. Compared to the originals most reissue labels are a waste of time and money. Unless these originals are in the 'trophies for the rich' category.....

I make an exception for the blue note reissues by Music Matters (both the 33.3 rpm and 2x45 rpm editions). They are fundamentally different from RVG's original masterings (which were mostly cut very 'hot', delivering explosive dynamics), but they are very convincing nonetheless. The earlier Classic Records BN reissues sounded soft and bland by comparison. The Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo reissues by Classic were pretty good though, some even spectacular. The Ansermet Ballet Gala set and the Solti Venice are actually better than the originals (or at least my originals, which admittedly are not the earliest 1S lacquers). It's hard to explain the quality difference, as Classic supposedly had access to the original master tapes and Bernie Grundman behind the console in both cases. It's a complete mystery to me.

Another exception would be the Japanese Polygram reissues of the three Nick Drake LP's, originally on Island (and all three high priced trophies for collectors). They were part of a short lived series on 200 gram vinyl about 10 years ago. I don't know about the other titles in this series, but the Nick Drakes are really outstanding, better even than the UK pressed Fruit Tree edition from the late '70's that I have for comparison. They're out of print and probably collectable in their own right, but definitely worth hunting down.



I’ve been very happy with anything on MOV (Music On Vinyl).

Id say some of the best sounding discs I have are from MOV.

i stay away from:
Plain Records
Men with Beards