Just in case you’re ever looking for MORE ways to connect with me, I also post on Instagram. It’s a great way to see what I’m listening to and get more of my recommendations for great sounding records.  If you do look me up there let me know, I’d love to connect!

One of my favorite people to follow on Instagram is Ken Golden of Laser CD. When he’s not posting keto porn of giant slabs of meat Ken posts an insane variety of records from his collection, the vast majority of which I’ve never heard of. Ken’s taste centers heavily on prog rock, spiritual jazz and more generally music that regularly pushes me well out of my comfort zone.

Ken exudes a “smartest guy in the room” vibe that compels me to take all of his recommendations with the utmost seriousness. Frustratingly a lot of the records he recommends are rare, highly collectible and expensive to acquire. So needless to say many more of the records Ken posts end up on my want list than in my collection.

Still, I have picked up a few things that I learned about from Ken, and he was instrumental in my acquisition of one very special record – an Australian OG of Madden & Harris’ Fools Paradise. I read about Fools Paradise on the Laser CD website and it sounded right up my alley. I bought the 2014 Spanish reissue from Guerssen Records that, while not very good, WAS good enough for me to fall in love with the album and eventually seek out an original.

The OG copy I bought is that rare and wonderful record that is both highly collectible AND a sonic powerhouse. This was a pleasant surprise for me. I love the album and gushed over it here not too long ago, but I could tell that the 2014 reissue was not re-mastered well and only hinted at the album’s potential.  I never expected the OG would sound SO good!

Let’s face it, more records sound bad than good, and spending big bucks on rare records as an audiophile collector can lead to a lot of disappointments. After all, what is the point of having a rare record in your collection that you never play because it’s a dull listen? When you’ve heard the way a GREAT SOUNDING record can bring a performances to life then it’s records like THAT you want to play. And THAT can leave A LOT of records sitting on the shelves collecting dust, including some very valuable ones.

As an audiophile collector I look for the best SOUNDING records I can find, and those are not necessarily the most COLLECTIBLE ones. If I had an unlimited spending budget I promise you I’d be buying rare records just to see how good they actually DO sound and I’d tell you about them here. After all, do we not want to know if a rare record will even sound good BEFORE we buy it? I  know I do. But there ARE limits to what I can spend and therefore I look for options that deliver BIG on SOUND with the smallest possible hit to my wallet.

A few years ago I spent $100+ on a US OG of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World. I shot this US OG copy out against a Simply Vinyl reissue from 2001 and wrote about it here. The US OG IS a great sounding version, and while not cheap to come by it’s a far cry from the $2000 clams a UK OG will set you back.

I expect that the OG UK sounds very good, but I’m not going to spend 4 figures to find out. In fact, when I see a record that I’m coveting selling for that kind of money I see it as a personal challenge to find a cheaper alternative that may very well sound just as good, or BETTER, for A LOT less money.

Even at $100 the US OG is a great example of a just such an alternative, but on my copy the bass is a bit boomy and I thought I could do better. So recently I added an 80’s RCA International green label copy to another order coming from the UK and I’m very glad I did. It’s clearly cut from a first generation tape and cut very, very well. It’s got the HUGE bass and TERRIFIC vocal presence I’ve enjoyed with my US OG, but that bass is tighter and better controlled with more space and clarity in the midrange, giving the album’s shimmering highs more airiness and sparkle.

Typically when I beat a more “collectible” copy of a record with a cheaper one I’ll just sell the more collectible record and spend the profits, but as a BIG Bowie fan I’m hesitating. I feel COMPELLED to keep the US OG in my collection. Sometimes I just can’t make sense of this compulsion to collect all these records. It’s unlikely I’ll ever sell them off and I have so many now there are 100’s that literally NEVER get played.

This brings up the question – which of my two copies of The Man Who Sold the World is more valuable TO ME? I imagine a scenario where Trump shows up, comes into my house, grabs the two records and says “I heard what you’ve been saying about me on your website LOSER and it’s VERY, VERY BADD!!!” He then promises to bust up one of the records and leave the other alone. Now I have to choose which one to save. I MUST decide RIGHT THEN, which copy do I REALLY care about the most?

I look forward to the day that I can cull the bad sounding records from my collection with the same ruthlessness that Trump has cut environmental regulations, but I’ve so far not been able to conjure it. In the meantime, if I ever want to play my second best sounding copy of The Man Who Sold the World with some very big but somewhat boomy bass, I’ve got the JUST record to do it with!