This is not particularly new, but there exists a multi-laser device for picking up the once-new sounds of LPs. The lasers find the groove, measure down from the most worn part of the ridges to a part not scraped by the original stereo needle, then interpret it as sound. Cost is under $10,000 well within the extreme audiophile's sonic grasp.

As for "At the Drop of a Hat" DaveRo, I interpreted the lyrics exactly as you do from the LP I listened to as a child, but I input the version I located on the internet. Flanders and Swann made many performances on both sides of the pond, so maybe, just maybe the internet version was one of them, but I remember with certainty Swann singing "make a Caruso sound like Hutch" and I never made sense of it either.

Storage is a caution. I have recovered some old recordings off of reel to reel tapes and found the DECCA albums in very fine playable shape, alas the London tapes with Gilbert & Sullivan were subject to the 'sticky shed' phenomena. I 'baked' these tapes and was able to play them into a digital conversion process.

I trust magnetic media more than CDs or DVDs. They have a better track record. I'd be interested to know what the better libraries and private storage facilities are doing.