jafant - Marston records can be found at https://www.marstonrecords.com/ He has won Grammys for his work on other labels and does many Naxos label CDs. The defunct Romophone label and nearly so Biddulph were great sources of excellently remastered 78s. Pearl label didn’t remaster, just copied with all the record noise remaining.
Inna-who says that 78s aren’t audiophile quality? The late great Michael Lane made early acoustic 78s of pianists sound like great 50s mono, limited in bandwith but gorgeous sounding mids and dynamic. He made junky labels like Remington and Plymouth sound audiophile-like on his fantastic equipment. 78s often sound quite audiophile-like on my equipment as well. Stereo recordings sound more impressive if recorded and mastered well too but so much of the recordings of the past 60 years sound mediocre to awful. I’ve sold 18,000 records which I found lacking in performance and/or sound quality. I’ve kept 32,000 records in my permanent collection (7,000 CDs). I’ve found it easier to find great sounding CDs than records, mostly based on who did the mastering.
Watch out for those English jazz box set knock offs such as RealGone Jazz. Sure, they’re cheap and comprehensive but often use bad LPs as source material poorly copied. I’ve purchased two dozen of their sets. Some are quite good. None which are CD copies are as good as the original CDs. The Chico Hamilton set is excellent with some really great sound. The Ramsey Lewis sets have some truly awful LP copying on some of the CDs. Many CDs on the sets sound compressed and/or harmonically thinner than the originals. It's obvious that they don't license the original material despite claims of "remastered sound."
I try to buy the original/licensed CDs or the original LP (which can be difficult and/or expensive such as Blue Notes and Pacific Jazz labels).
Inna-who says that 78s aren’t audiophile quality? The late great Michael Lane made early acoustic 78s of pianists sound like great 50s mono, limited in bandwith but gorgeous sounding mids and dynamic. He made junky labels like Remington and Plymouth sound audiophile-like on his fantastic equipment. 78s often sound quite audiophile-like on my equipment as well. Stereo recordings sound more impressive if recorded and mastered well too but so much of the recordings of the past 60 years sound mediocre to awful. I’ve sold 18,000 records which I found lacking in performance and/or sound quality. I’ve kept 32,000 records in my permanent collection (7,000 CDs). I’ve found it easier to find great sounding CDs than records, mostly based on who did the mastering.
Watch out for those English jazz box set knock offs such as RealGone Jazz. Sure, they’re cheap and comprehensive but often use bad LPs as source material poorly copied. I’ve purchased two dozen of their sets. Some are quite good. None which are CD copies are as good as the original CDs. The Chico Hamilton set is excellent with some really great sound. The Ramsey Lewis sets have some truly awful LP copying on some of the CDs. Many CDs on the sets sound compressed and/or harmonically thinner than the originals. It's obvious that they don't license the original material despite claims of "remastered sound."
I try to buy the original/licensed CDs or the original LP (which can be difficult and/or expensive such as Blue Notes and Pacific Jazz labels).