I would expect that the faster speed made it possible to cut higher quality disk recordings. So 45's and even 78's, for that matter, could have been made very good, I imagine. But it just seems like they weren't made for sound quality as much as they were made to promote individual songs cheaply, and targeted for use on portable record players with heavy needle weight. Were the "not for resale" distribution copies sent out to radio stations made differently? Were they maybe of better quality?

What's the word on 45's?