Gramming in the grooves. The debate continues...

I definitely get all that. And I guess the imperfections part I would concede, and I didn't really think about, although my records are majority lightweight pressings that were not anywhere near new when I bought them and they still play pretty well. Plus those imperfections, unless we're talking serious warping or sword damage on account of you used your record as a shield, are often what gives a record its character. Personally, if a record is too quiet or silent when it hits that startup groove, I'm unsettled. Need at least some initial pop. On the complete other side of the spectrum from the 200s, I definitely have some compilation records from the seventies that obviously crammed as much possible music as they could onto each side of the record, making for a horribly thin sound. Too lightweight definitely makes for a crap record.

But with the sound part, my whole take on it is, you have a record that was released in, say, 1968, on a lightweight pressing. Since its first release, that's how it's been heard and that's how it's been judged, that's how you've always heard it, that's how you've fallen in love with the recording, based on the sound that was made by that lightweight pressing. So, would getting a higher grammage of record, though it may in all measurable aspects sound "better," really be better than getting something closer to the original copy and something closer to the media that the artist would have originally expected their songs to be released on?

That's pretty much my take on it. I could full-on support new recordings being shipped from the outset on heavy records. (And crikey I wish they would be!) But all of a sudden wanting to amp up old recordings beyond what they were intended for doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I guess it's one of those many places dealing with records where the intangibles come into play. Like, yes, I know that if I buy that 180 gram version of Astral Weeks I'm probably going to hear a lot more of that album than I've ever heard before. Different parts of it will probably pop out at me and I could get a different perspective on the album. But is that what I want out of the record, or do I want the record that I already love?

Of course, the result of all this talk is only that I want to get both an old copy and the new 180 grammer. Of COURSE!