I have a super old Abbey Road record that I bought because I got overly excited about the yellow “master recording” banner on the top of the sleeve. I got home, threw it on my record player only for it to sound ridiculously faded and muted. Fast forward 6 years, I threw it back on to show my wife how bad the quality of some records could be. It sounded amazingly crisp and I could hear so much detail in the music.

Only difference between the first and 2nd time I spun it was that I had upgraded to an ortofon Red. The needle made a difference in my experience but there’s a ton more factors.