Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2019 13:24:49 GMT
There must be a lack of drooling poats over STeVE and his “work” so it’s time to quote the best expert STeVE knows: himself.
Hoofy on November 27, 2016:
Hoofy March 17, 2019:
Hoofy on November 27, 2016:
Sigh. Look, I've gone through the exact same thing that most of you are going through now, except it was back in the 1990s.
In 1992, Marshall gave me a newly minted copy of ART PEPPER MEETS THE RHYTHM SECTION on Analogue Productions. It was on this thick vinyl I'd never seen before, heck I'd never even heard of the album before! I played it in my office and it sounded great, warm and cozy with this funny, radical ping pong stereo that was crude but when I looked at the early recording date, I understood.
I asked if they had issued any more and we ordered up SONNY ROLLINS/WAY OUT WEST, etc. and I liked them (music I had never heard in my life, on nice, thick, natural sounding records).
So, that was the year I became an audiophile (or started on the journey). Got a new Thorens table, Signet cart, new amp, speakers, etc. The same year that DCC Compact Classics started the Gold and 180 gram vinyl series and I took a crash course in "jazz of the 1950s-60s".
Jump ahead a few years and I'm hanging out at this stereo store (Acoustic Image) in Studio City right across from Jerry's Deli and they are all raving about this new Classic Records RCA-Victor Living Stereo series of LPs that were being reissued at the time.
I played one in there (Witches' Brew) and thought it sounded TERRIBLE! The strings were steely, thin, bright, dreadful. It had dynamics, but nothing else. But the fact that everyone was RAVING about the wonderful sound influenced me and I grabbed a bunch of them. For actual money, no freebies. Each and every one sounded the same to me. I kept on buying them.
WHY?
Because I had a collection of them and I needed all of them to complete my collection, such as it was. Yes, I was one of you.
Then, Tom Port of Better Records befriended me, took me aside and played me a 1960 RCA-Victor Living Stereo pressing of WITCHES' BREW.
Ahhhh, that was more like it. Gone was the terrible string sound, gone was the thin, piercing tone, the orchestra had body, life, but more restricted dynamics. I could live with that to hear a natural orchestra.
That's when I bought my original Living Stereo LPs, got most of them, all minty, all cut from 1958-64.
But still, since I was a ****ing collector, I kept buying all of the Classic reissues, until they went nutsy with the 45 RPM versions and the warpy 200 gram versions, then I stopped.
As my system got better, the Classics got worse until I finally sold the lot as a package for an amazing amount of money. The guy was happy, still is. He LOVES the detail in the Classic versions, has no use for the more natural sound of the original RCA pressings. So be it. Everyone is happy.
Years later I was told that Bernie (the cutter) disliked the underpowered, trebly tube cutting system that Classic made him use on their reissues but he did what he was told, and who can blame him?
But after all of these years, pretty much they all are dead to me.
Edit: No, wait, I still have one. That Strauss Waltz album , with the white cover, still have that one, not as bad as others, and of course I have the blue vinyl KIND OF BLUE and a few other Classics. Can't play them though, I hear that peaky cutting amplifier killing insects at 20 paces on all of them.
Understand?
In 1992, Marshall gave me a newly minted copy of ART PEPPER MEETS THE RHYTHM SECTION on Analogue Productions. It was on this thick vinyl I'd never seen before, heck I'd never even heard of the album before! I played it in my office and it sounded great, warm and cozy with this funny, radical ping pong stereo that was crude but when I looked at the early recording date, I understood.
I asked if they had issued any more and we ordered up SONNY ROLLINS/WAY OUT WEST, etc. and I liked them (music I had never heard in my life, on nice, thick, natural sounding records).
So, that was the year I became an audiophile (or started on the journey). Got a new Thorens table, Signet cart, new amp, speakers, etc. The same year that DCC Compact Classics started the Gold and 180 gram vinyl series and I took a crash course in "jazz of the 1950s-60s".
Jump ahead a few years and I'm hanging out at this stereo store (Acoustic Image) in Studio City right across from Jerry's Deli and they are all raving about this new Classic Records RCA-Victor Living Stereo series of LPs that were being reissued at the time.
I played one in there (Witches' Brew) and thought it sounded TERRIBLE! The strings were steely, thin, bright, dreadful. It had dynamics, but nothing else. But the fact that everyone was RAVING about the wonderful sound influenced me and I grabbed a bunch of them. For actual money, no freebies. Each and every one sounded the same to me. I kept on buying them.
WHY?
Because I had a collection of them and I needed all of them to complete my collection, such as it was. Yes, I was one of you.
Then, Tom Port of Better Records befriended me, took me aside and played me a 1960 RCA-Victor Living Stereo pressing of WITCHES' BREW.
Ahhhh, that was more like it. Gone was the terrible string sound, gone was the thin, piercing tone, the orchestra had body, life, but more restricted dynamics. I could live with that to hear a natural orchestra.
That's when I bought my original Living Stereo LPs, got most of them, all minty, all cut from 1958-64.
But still, since I was a ****ing collector, I kept buying all of the Classic reissues, until they went nutsy with the 45 RPM versions and the warpy 200 gram versions, then I stopped.
As my system got better, the Classics got worse until I finally sold the lot as a package for an amazing amount of money. The guy was happy, still is. He LOVES the detail in the Classic versions, has no use for the more natural sound of the original RCA pressings. So be it. Everyone is happy.
Years later I was told that Bernie (the cutter) disliked the underpowered, trebly tube cutting system that Classic made him use on their reissues but he did what he was told, and who can blame him?
But after all of these years, pretty much they all are dead to me.
Edit: No, wait, I still have one. That Strauss Waltz album , with the white cover, still have that one, not as bad as others, and of course I have the blue vinyl KIND OF BLUE and a few other Classics. Can't play them though, I hear that peaky cutting amplifier killing insects at 20 paces on all of them.
Understand?
Hoofy March 17, 2019:
Good times.