Any advice on buying quality vinyl

Dynaquestst4 you are obviously a troll! I never post in these sites because of the ridiculous things people say! I had to this time. The same old response from someone who obviously has no clue about the sound of analog and how much better it is than digital. I went right into digital in the beginning of cd’s. I believed the same  quack statement that they’re so much better than analog. I listened to digital for twenty years until I made a comparison on the crappy Technics turntable, with an Audio Technica cartridge I had kept. Boy were my ears, yes ears were opened. All those years, there was something bothering me about the sound. It never quite sounded like I remembered albums sounding. I couldn’t figure out why my ears would hurt after a listening session until I made the comparison. I’m sorry but their is more information in the grooves of a record than any digital can accomplish. Especially if you clean, yes clean, your vinyl with an ultrasonic cleaner. Pops and clicks are almost nonexistent. More information is retrieved from the grooves. The better equipment you buy, especially the cartridge, has shown more and more revealing sounds that have always been on the tape, but earlier turntables and cartridges could not reproduce them. Even digital recordings, yes digital, sound better on vinyl then in its digital form ie: streaming, cd’s etc. Probably because it has been put into an analog waveform. Every person that has heard my system has switched to vinyl. Young and old friends. I wish people could just hear what really good analog sounds like. Digital cuts out a lot of the music information because of its waveform. It’s not nostalgia or the cool factor of the equipment. IT’S THE SOUND!!! If you like digital great. I like it for things that are not on vinyl. I just wish people would get over this debate. Digital does not sound better than analog. It is convenient. That is all. I’ve heard top notch digital and I still get listening fatigue. Digital has come a long way, but it has not surpassed analog. Sony knew in the beginning that digital did not sound better, but they wanted to give people convenience. If you did not live at that time, then you do not know what things sounded like. I lived through it. I drank the Kool-Aid in the beginning along with everybody else, except Michael Fremer. I wish I would have listened to him. It would have saved me a lot of money!

Dynaquest, I recorded all my vinyl to R2R tape; consequently, I no longer do all the cool stuff that you mentioned, I only enjoy a higher quality audio.

When CD's came out, everyone except audiophiles in HEA, thought the same as you; including me.

While it costs a few extra Pesos, Yen, Drachma, or whatever currency you have handy, Analog, meaning vinyl and high end rig will handily exceed CD. Scrape up some funds and join the party.

dynaquest writes "Scientists and audio engineers way smarter than you and I have trumped that notion."

Not scientists. Marketing types may say that, but it's not true. Some scientists can read a theorem and understand it.

udog, the last time I got Audio Intelligent fluids from Elusive Disc. I like those people. Soak with each fluid except water for 3-5 minutes before vacuuming off, regardless of how records look. When spreading the fluids with brushes for each fluid before leaving it to soak, I do 5 revolutions clockwise then 5 counter-clockwise and then again 5 clockwise. The same with water - final step, two times with water. I suggest Archivist for Step 2, it contains no alcohol. Good results, not the best but very good.
I soak for longer and multiple times if I feel that the record is very dirty, but this rarely happens in my case.

I seek out best pressings, in my experience they are all first release pressings either in the country of origin of master tapes or Japanese from 70s, and the best condition. Within reason, I always choose better sound quality over better condition. There are exceptions when sound quality is very close and slightly worse record is in much better condition and the music recorded requires that silence be silent. In other words, I don't want any clicks or pops or even soft crackles where they have absolutely no place to be. Example is Cielo e Terra by Al Di Meola. Japanese is best, I accumulated ten copies of this album just to have one almost perfect and another a small step below it. So, I ended up with four Japanese, one Dutch and five American. It was recorded in the US, and US copy sounds pretty good but no match for Japanese, Dutch is close to US, as I remember. I would sell eight copies that I don't need if it was worth it but as things are I keep them all.