I am so glad to be out of this FOMO mindset. I spent way too much audiophile releases the past few years, that it burnt a hole in my wallet. Now focusing money on used clean original/early pressings and saving a little more money, plus enjoying spending more time in record stores. Now I can focus on saving up some money on a new amp, currently on a very long waitlist for the Decware ZMA amp

Kick, one of my all-time favorite albums, the album of which I have the most versions :-) Nice episode again.

It’s about time you guys are finally getting hip to these shysters.

I think you bought that Sting album on my recommendation! It sounds INCREDIBLE! Also worth mentioning Stings other early albums are RL cuts and super cheap, vs the Mofi copies that go for silly money!

Love this video. Very sobering.

Totally agree on The Soul Cages, often overlooked, great songs and sounds great!

“audiophile jail of want”, that rolls right off the tongue, Steve! Joking, thanks for this. Agree that the INXS OG sounds excellent. Cheers.

All Sting albums sound incredible. That dude knows how to cut a record!!

Great advice. 🍻 C'mon Rhino, please give us the Black Sabbath high-fidelity treatment! 🤞😁

Have the QUIEX pressing of VH 1984 and it sounds spectacular!

Thanks! Great stuff! Cheers from Texas!

The original pressing of Def Leppard’s “Pyromania,” still sounds fantastic

You're a prolific vinyl audiophile YT madman bud! 😉 PS You should add in more AV hardware vids intermixed in..... in your spare time.

I don't know when you last went out and bought originals of Ozzy or Van Halen, but 10 bucks is delusional. I am in Toronto, and I was in Vancouver at Christmas, and prices for those albums in VG+ or better condition are more like $40. So be honest with your viewers.

Never a big fan of INXS Kick, but oddly I own it and agree with you. Have everything you just featured, aside from that particular Sting lp

Nice vid - great picks. I'm pretty sure the Eye in the Sky was originally recorded digitally, but could be wrong. I've got an original pressing as well and it does really sound amazing! The Sting is crazy good too....

in the background .....I got that Unforgetable Fire mofi too ..was expensive but its probaby my fave record so i dont care coz it sounds fantastic! to me

Part of what i dont like about collecting originals is luck, i ended up with an OG of Women and Children First and it does sound pretty damn great, but lots of other originals that I've acquired dont sound all that great due to heavy use from the previous owner, even if the LP was advertised as "VG+." In Pacific NW for reference.

How do you like the Rocktober version of Kick that came out a few years ago by Rhino. I have the original CD from 1987 and bought the Rhino a year ago. I like it personally.

Another great one, the original US pressing of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Blows away any other pressing or mastering.

Great list!

The canadian pressing of Bowie’s Let’s Dance is an amazing pressing. Apparently they used the US RL plates and because of less pressed the record is one the best I have ever heard. Got it for $1.75 nm. I usually find canadian pressing don’t sound as good but this is an exception. That inxs so they say is a 16 bit digital recording like Brothers in Arms. Both just great recordings.

Steve, as a regular viewer, and although I agree with the general concept of "not needing $150 1 or 2 LP releases", there's a couple things that I disagree with in your discourse here. First of all, I don't know why many audiophiles bring the whole "tape degradation" thing to the table, when in reality, it might only be a small -not really noticeable- thing according to many of the mastering engineers you interview (specially KG and BG, the British ones seem to try to justify their digital step as much as they can). Of course I would worry about the whole Ampex tape era from the early 70s to the early 80s, but, in many other cases, like classic jazz albums, we now know for a fact that reissues blow away the original releases, same thing for many Blues and Soul records. Secondly, the access to OG copies in good condition is many times not cheap and/or easy for people outside North America/Europe (I live in Chile), many times not because of the price of the record itself, but because of shipping and also because many people lie about the condition of the records they are selling, and you could end up with an expensive, almost unplayable album (therefore, many people here buy Japanese copies, which are in good condition, but don't sound nearly as good as US ones). And finally, there's the fun factor about comparing different releases, and to be honest, many times you feel that your copy cannot sound better, until you compare it to another edition -an original one, and audiophile release, etc -. To me, that's a key part of the hobby, meeting with friends and comparing different editions, it's super fun!! By the way, I love some of my originals like my US copies of many Earth, Wind & Fire albums, Quincy Jones "The Dude" or Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (I even got the Mofi One Step and sold it after a couple days, because I liked my original more). But yeah, I don't think we need $150 versions AT ALL, but please bring out more $40 (or less) 33 RPM audiophile releases like VMP, AP, Intervention, Impex or SAM record are doing, they're awesome!! Anyway, sorry for the long text, best wishes from Chile Steve, looking forward to a Ryan K Smith interview.

it's "couldn't" care less, not "could" care less. Sorry -my pet peeve! Enjoyed the video!

I get it Steve why spend 100-150 on a single album when originals in a lot of cases are fantastic ! ! Or if you want to step up a little then research Acoustic Sounds all analog 180 gram vinyl usually Kevin Gray or Ryan Smith engineered 38-40 dollars each and are fantastic as well.

This is a turn around for you Steve. Not so long ago you were One of THE promoters for MFSL and UHQR. What's changed your tune fella? Nobody needs any rock music in MOFI or UHQR. It sounded good when we first heard the versions that were released and these are the ones we will always keep and love. Best promoting the search for a good quality original recordings- now that's a purpose!

The Ozzy album was once absurdly reissued without the original bass and drum tracks. All replaced because of Sharon. Ridiculous.

I agree we should boycott buying ridiculous price vinyl

Many people think that the MFSL version of Supertramp's "Crime of the Centtury" is great, but I think exactly the opposite. To me, the guys at MFSL tried hard to make an already great-sounding album to sound even better, and failed miserably. I think they think that lots of people associate the "smiley" EQ curve (which is what they applied to this album) with "hi-fi sound", and that's definitely wrong. An original pressing of this fantastic album can be found for cheap, and sounds infinitely better.

I’m all in on originals, but NM copies are still pricey. $10 days are long gone

Are we just now realizing that so many titles have cheap fantastic sounding originals instead of the MoFi? MoFi has been doing this for years now.

FAKE

Thanks Steve… (with all due respect, Sting sounds like elevator music on any HiFi system 😳)