Anyone playing the new Rhino Van release? Haven't seen much traffic on it? My copy hasn't moved in UPS system since 8/24.
Nice. I finally see my copy is moving again so hopefully it isn't baked into a pretzel shape by now.
How is it compared to the other AAA KPG version?
No idea. I only have this copy. I doubt it is drastically different... They did a nice job on the new one.
If mine ever ships I can let you know…
That’s an instant buy . Great album
That is a great album. I have the 2013 mono pressing that is real good. A couple of years ago it would have been an insta-buy but more discernment against duplicates has entered my buying algorithm.
Your mailman would be CORRECT! The dark horse of the early years. Virtually perfect record!!
Just bought one (Relaxin', that is) on Discogs for as low as I've seen 'em go (for a complete copy in actual VG+). It's certainly on the better side of what I've heard from Prestige tapes, but not a mindblower. Not upset as I needed a good copy of this one. Far and away the best Craft Prestige reissue I have is the Lush Life one step - that one truly does deliver the goods as a pressing of that caliber should!
My UHQR of Kind of Blue has quite a bit of surface noise during the last song on Side A. Even these "top tier" pressings have flaws. I should ask for a replacement disc, but it's been a long time since I ordered, and I don't want to prove to AS that I destroyed the original record.Mini rant and opinion incoming
Not that this comment is going to be a shocker to anyone here, but all "AAA", "Audiophile" pressings are created equal. We all know the MoFi saga and even with all that, there is no denying that some of their pressings are truly the best I've heard. So let's pick on Acoustic Sounds a little bit, who, in my opinion, after the MoFi incident had a bit of a puffy chest, again, my opinion.
I couldn't tell you why I never really got enticed by the UHQR line, it wasn't anything negative I'd heard or read, they just never jumped out at me for some reason. That said, my spending habits have changed drastically over the last few years, I've been preaching "Quality over Quantity" for a good while, but the reality is, our hobby, for those of us looking for great, above average, worth the purchase price pressings, is a money pit.
Case in point, AS recent Steely Dan releases, I know SD is an "acquired taste" around here, but lets put that part of the discussion aside. I'm a fan, I'd been looking for quality OG copies of "Can't Buy A Thrill" and "Pretzel Logic" for a long time (I have copies of both in meh condition, noisy, well loved, but the music sounds great), yes, I've come across them in shops here and there, but not to the level of quality I'd accept, so we had them on the upgrade list for when that day would come. Enter the AS announcement, at first I ignored it, told myself I didn't want to pay that much for something that I believed could be found in the wild. Small side bar, I have a 3 strikes Cogs rule, that honestly has become a 1 strike rule recently, poor grading makes some pressings a pain to chase down, case in point.
Anyway, when "Can't Buy A Thrill" released I pined over it for a good while and finally bit the bullet. Long story short, it sounds amazing, obviously the A/B with my beat up copy isn't really a fair comparison, but, the smoothness and fullness of the AS in comparison was worth the price..........in my opinion. At that point I decided that if I couldn't find a good upgrade copy of PL by the time that released at AS I'd go ahead and pick that up as well, I mean, Thrill was perfect, they obviously have the SD remasters dialed in.................
Pretzel Logic came out, I bought it, I cleaned it, I played my "filler" copy first and then went to the AS. Now, if I didn't have a point of comparison the AS would be more than acceptable in every way, but, when a pressing that you know really well seems to be lacking something you just can't put your finger on, well, that falls short, maybe more so because of how great Thrills sounded.
This got me thinking that unfortunately, as we all know, "you gotta crack some eggs", right? But who has the budget to do this? I mean, I can, but I really don't want to. Why the shortcoming on PL compared to how well Thrills came out? I bought it based on my previous experience, but apparently, consistency, isn't really a thing when it comes to vinyl. Let me say, if I was buying $20, even $50 records and was disappointed in the pressing, it'd be one thing, but shouldn't a $150 price tag have some consistency, some carry over, some pedigree? Or does it, is it, really a crap shoot every time?
Quality over Quantity is a great mantra for me anyway, but that notion, as simple as it should be, has it's own perils, more so for those in the hobby who don't have the budget to support the "inflated goodness" of these audiophile releases and those are the folks, which are numerous, that I feel for the most.
Anyway, the whole "Truth" thing that unraveled with MoFi is one thing, but the inconsistencies of these "high end" pressings matched to the price of entry, is getting ridiculous. If nothing else, ditch the fancy packaging and shave off $50, that's still pricey, but it's a step in the right direction. I LOVE vinyl, but, and I've said this in the past, I can see my CD collection growing a bit moving forward.
Part of me wants to pick up the $30 version of PL just to compare, but part of me doesn't want to know, pride is a terrible thing, lol. The solution, I have no fucking clue, lol, just wanted to share.
Now, what to do about Aja....................enjoy your weekend
The mono Kevs are absolutely stupendous. Don't know if the secret's out on the ol' resale site yet, but sans the ones I paid full $25 a pop for at RSD releases 10 (!?
) years ago, the others I've acquired I've virtually bought for peanuts.
Great read as always, Anthony, and I know this is totally geared at UHQR and those priced in that tier, but I really resonated with this paragraph and would honestly even take it a step further to say that with the amount of disappointing pressings across the board, with the average price point at which new releases are at, as a whole, is starting to become not worth it. My ear is starting to hone in one which lacquer engineers, genres, and sometimes labels are going to give me the enjoyment I want out of the format, and which releases I'll be happiest sticking to hi res streaming of.
Yeah, I relistened to the KPG monos and decided no real reason to upgrade. They sound incredible! Just a temporary bout of FOMO because I've been so pleased with the recent MoFi Miles LPs I've purchased, thought it may be an upgrade.The mono Kevs are absolutely stupendous. Don't know if the secret's out on the ol' resale site yet, but sans the ones I paid full $25 a pop for at RSD releases 10 (!?
I feel you, Anthony. And for me, this is exacerbated by the fact that at my age, I should know what the end game is; I most decidedly do not.Mini rant and opinion incoming
Not that this comment is going to be a shocker to anyone here, but all "AAA", "Audiophile" pressings are not created equal. We all know the MoFi saga and even with all that, there is no denying that some of their pressings are truly the best I've heard. So let's pick on Acoustic Sounds a little bit, who, in my opinion, after the MoFi incident had a bit of a puffy chest, again, my opinion.
I couldn't tell you why I never really got enticed by the UHQR line, it wasn't anything negative I'd heard or read, they just never jumped out at me for some reason. That said, my spending habits have changed drastically over the last few years, I've been preaching "Quality over Quantity" for a good while, but the reality is, our hobby, for those of us looking for great, above average, worth the purchase price pressings, is a money pit.
Case in point, AS recent Steely Dan releases, I know SD is an "acquired taste" around here, but lets put that part of the discussion aside. I'm a fan, I'd been looking for quality OG copies of "Can't Buy A Thrill" and "Pretzel Logic" for a long time (I have copies of both in meh condition, noisy, well loved, but the music sounds great), yes, I've come across them in shops here and there, but not to the level of quality I'd accept, so we had them on the upgrade list for when that day would come. Enter the AS announcement, at first I ignored it, told myself I didn't want to pay that much for something that I believed could be found in the wild. Small side bar, I have a 3 strikes Cogs rule, that honestly has become a 1 strike rule recently, poor grading makes some pressings a pain to chase down, case in point.
Anyway, when "Can't Buy A Thrill" released I pined over it for a good while and finally bit the bullet. Long story short, it sounds amazing, obviously the A/B with my beat up copy isn't really a fair comparison, but, the smoothness and fullness of the AS in comparison was worth the price..........in my opinion. At that point I decided that if I couldn't find a good upgrade copy of PL by the time that released at AS I'd go ahead and pick that up as well, I mean, Thrill was perfect, they obviously have the SD remasters dialed in.................
Pretzel Logic came out, I bought it, I cleaned it, I played my "filler" copy first and then went to the AS. Now, if I didn't have a point of comparison the AS would be more than acceptable in every way, but, when a pressing that you know really well seems to be lacking something you just can't put your finger on, well, that falls short, maybe more so because of how great Thrills sounded.
This got me thinking that unfortunately, as we all know, "you gotta crack some eggs", right? But who has the budget to do this? I mean, I can, but I really don't want to. Why the shortcoming on PL compared to how well Thrills came out? I bought it based on my previous experience, but apparently, consistency, isn't really a thing when it comes to vinyl. Let me say, if I was buying $20, even $50 records and was disappointed in the pressing, it'd be one thing, but shouldn't a $150 price tag have some consistency, some carry over, some pedigree? Or does it, is it, really a crap shoot every time?
Quality over Quantity is a great mantra, for me anyway, but that notion, as simple as it should be, has it's own perils, more so for those in the hobby who don't have the budget to support the "inflated goodness" of these audiophile releases and those are the folks, which are numerous, that I feel for the most.
Anyway, the whole "Truth" thing that unraveled with MoFi is one thing, but the inconsistencies of these "high end" pressings matched to the price of entry, is getting ridiculous. If nothing else, ditch the fancy packaging and shave off $50, that's still pricey, but it's a step in the right direction. I LOVE vinyl, but, and I've said this in the past, I can see my CD collection growing a bit moving forward.
Part of me wants to pick up the $30 version of PL just to compare, but part of me doesn't want to know, pride is a terrible thing, lol. The solution, I have no fucking clue, lol, just wanted to share.
Now, what to do about Aja....................enjoy your weekend
That’s probably the real problem! And I guess that means you should be upset that Can’t Buy a Thrill sounded so damn good haha! We suffer from expectations that would be best never reinforced.
Obsessions are a part of life that make our time on this earthly plane more interesting and rewarding. Being entirely rational isn’t really a part of the game we play here at N&G and reality is in our heads. Give in to the passion!I feel you, Anthony. And for me, this is exacerbated by the fact that at my age, I should know what the end game is; I most decidedly do not.
As far as I can relate to what you’ve written, the problem (for me) lies in getting caught up in “the chase.” The chase for the highest-fidelity pressing/rarest variant/must-have pre-release/best-possible sale price/best-sounding cartridge (because of course this extends to hardware as well), etc. It’s easy for me to be lured by this chase as a rationalization for purchases I know at some level are neither reasonable nor rational (and most definitely are not necessary), and that’s a perfect set-up for disappointment because, well, what I was striving for wasn’t reasonable in the first place! Having said that, it's also true that every once in a while this impulse leads to something that lets me feel like the entire enterprise is indeed worth the time/effort/money/mental gymnastics required to keep it in motion.
As for Aja, depends on what motivates your decision. I can tell you that an AB OG (like this one: Steely Dan - Aja) will not disappoint. Nor will an OG Japan pressing, which ends up being a lot easier to come by (like this: Steely Dan - Aja Records Mail Order RECORD CITY Japan). I own one of each of these, which are among the only truly AAA pressings of this album cut from the master tapes, right? I think that's relevant here. I also own a MoFi, which I decided to sell because I don’t need three excellent copies of this album. I’ll admit to being drawn in by the upcoming non-UHQR reissue which is “meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy” and its lacquers “cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision.” (Steely Dan's Jazz-Rock Masterwork, 'Aja,' Remastered From Analog Tapes And Reissued On Vinyl After More Than Four Decades; Due September 20 - UMe | Official Website). Not sure why, but it’s reasonably priced so I probably will give it a go. I definitely will not spring for a UHQR, though I’d love to hear one. (I'm curious about that digital step for the non-UHQR reissue. I haven't seen any specifics about the process behind the UHQR pressing, and I wonder whether it will have that same digital step.)
Thanks for your post....our obsessions should not go unexamined.
Haha! Thank you for that dose of reality. Passion, indeed. Sounds like an awesome opportunity with the Naia. You know we'll expect photos and a full report.Obsessions are a part of life that make our time on this earthly plane more interesting and rewarding. Being entirely rational isn’t really a part of the game we play free at N&G. Give in to the passion!
With that thought in mind, I am considering selling my Rega P10 ‘table in the pursuit of something greater, a supertable if you will. Why would I sell a Stereophile Class A rated turntable? Because Rega is coming out with a production version of their reach for the sky handmade Naiad that only 40 copies have been produced so far. At a something of a real world price for their upcoming Naia. Irrational? Possibly but hey, life is for living, sometimes on the edge. My wife hasn’t killed me yet. That’s the true endgame.
