An audiophile vinyl record is a high-quality pressing made with extra attention to sound fidelity, often sourced from original master tapes or high-resolution transfers. They’re usually pressed on heavyweight vinyl with stricter quality control, resulting in less surface noise and more detail in the music. These releases are aimed at listeners who want the most accurate and immersive listening experience possible.
Audiophile pressings come in many forms, but all have the same goal - to enhance the sound of the music you're listening to. Read on to discover more about each type of audiophile pressing, and how they can enhance your collection.
Classic Records and Quiex Vinyl:
Classic Records are a reissue label, specialising in audiophile LP reissues of classic albums. They employ custom-built tube-based mastering equipment on all of their releases. Their earliest releases were reissues of classical box sets, but they then switched to newer releases.
Classic Records were pressed on standard 180g vinyl until 2001, when they switched to Quiex SV (Super Vinyl), before eventually settling with a 200g Quiex SV-P vinyl in 2002.
Quiex refers to a high-quality, translucent vinyl formation used in the 1980s and 1990s for audiophile and promotional records. These pressings are known for their superior sound quality, hence why they were favoured by Classic Records.
Half Speed Mastered:
Half speed mastering is a technique where the original master recording is cut into a record at half the playback speed of the original, intended to create a more detailed sound quality. The speed difference is then corrected by copying the original onto a different record size, making it the same process to play on a standard record player.
When an album is half speed mastered, the lower frequencies are compressed, which makes half-speed mastering unsuitable for bass-oriented genres like metal or hip-hop.
Most commonly, half-speed mastering is carried out at Abbey Road Studios in London, usually by Miles Showell. If a record has been half-speed mastered at Abbey Road, in the matricies of the album will be etched: MILES ABBEY ROAD 1/2 SPEED R00M.
MFSL Records:
The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) were founded in 1977 and are the argued leader in creating audiophile pressings. Their catalogue is comprised of more than 600 albums, and source nearly all of their releases from the original tapes.
They are globally recognised for their distinctive strip at the top of their album covers, and because their reissues are often released as numbered limited editions, they are highly collectable.
Nimbus Records:
Founded in 1972, Nimbus records specialise in the recording of classical music. They adopted an Ambisonic (full sphere) surround-sound system, which perfectly enhances the nuances of classical music. They have a sub-label, Prima Voce, which specialise in the transfer of records on 78rpm discs onto more modern equipment using a gramophone.
Along with producing classical music, Nimbus Records was the first company to produce and sell CDs, holding up to 1500 stock CD titles by 2014.
S180 Series:
Reissued by Simply Vinyl, this run of limited edition pressings aimed to encompass a broad range of classic albums on newer, 180g vinyl. Each album was enclosed in a heavy-duty wallet for protection, sealed with a customised 'Simply Vinyl' sticker. They endeavoured to reproduce the original release's sound as closely as possible, while bringing these classic albums to a more modern generation.
If you'd like to get your hands on an audiophile pressing, we have a dedicated section of our website listing all of the audiophile pressings currently in stock, so keep an eye on the audiophile page and our new arrivals page for anything that might catch your eye.
