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As Vinyl Grows, High-Priced Audiophile Editions Are More Popular. Are They Worth It?


Vinyl audiophile reissues are expensive, so are they worth the money? Rating editions for artists including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Gram Parsons.

Over the past dozen years, vinyl records have grown from an indie-rock subculture to a significant, established part of the music business. A few caveats: I have no real audio expertise; I listened on a very good home stereo, and it doesn’t make sense to buy records like this unless you have one; your mileage may vary. To get another perspective, I also listened to a 2005 CD reissue of the album, which I kept because it came with a disc of extra tracks, and I immediately noticed that it sounded lousy — shrill, unexciting, and hard on the ears at any volume.

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