Definitive Audiophile pressings

RHANDMJ said:
But even more, it was the forum. It's just a vile place, and record labels, particularly majors, steer clear because they don't appreciate the assholes there picking apart every last nuance and continually complaining and trying to kill their sales. Not to mention the personal trashing of their employees, mostly house engineers, which Hoffman let run rampant as it served to elevate his self-curated stature.

A very sick place, a very sick guy.

You know Hoffman hasn't worked in over a decade, right? He derives his entire income from his forum.
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I've been on the Hoffman forum for years and Audiokarma for a bit before that, but very rarely go over to what I call "The Dark Side" which is the Music Forum threads. I usually just stay in the "Listening to on Vinyl" threads down in the The Long And Winding Threads discussion area.

My one interaction with Hoffman was back when a new cut of Moondance was released in 2018. And he was a douchbag then, too.

forums.stevehoffman.tv

Van Morrison Moondance best vinyl pressings

Yeah, the Rhino 180G that Steve & Kevin did sounds fabulous. I highly recommend.
forums.stevehoffman.tv forums.stevehoffman.tv
 
Mather said:
Totally, I mean I love KPG and I've probably just gotten the iffy ones, but after those first 3 I just stopped looking for them from Sundazed. Probably just bad luck on my part...
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I've gotten several that have been very meh. But the newer cuts he's done for them have all been good. Specifically the ones he's doing from the Mainstream Masters. They've been great. A couple of the Sun Ra too. But many of the older titles he cut were either pressed at terrible plants or had some other issues in my experience.
 
Jbraswell said:
Or he just got shit files and had to do the best he could.
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To my knowledge, there are no KPG-Sundazed mastered by KPG, with one exception. All were cut from mastered digital files, not high res, sent to him.

Some are very good. Crown of Creation, for example. Runaways another.

More recent Sundazed are more often cut analog, but not KPG, except Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Blacknuss, which is really no better than a decent original.

The bigger downside of Sundazed is insisting on pressing at MRP.
 
Mather said:
Totally, I mean I love KPG and I've probably just gotten the iffy ones, but after those first 3 I just stopped looking for them from Sundazed. Probably just bad luck on my part...
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The old ones are also a huge pain in the ass to find. It’ll either be a WG/NRP or a KG cut with the same UPCs. I like the Leonard Cohen cuts KG did, the Simon and Garfunkel Bookends, and a bunch of others.
 
Joe Mac said:
Just looking back over the last few pages and as much as I can love these nice sounding records a lot of this is kinda why I’ve been falling out of love with the hobby, if not the music.
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This thread does attract the most insufferable nitpicky bunch of us on here 😂

You gotta go over to the King Gizzard or the pop thread to counterbalance it with excessive enthusiasm and music love.
 
Joe Mac said:
Just looking back over the last few pages and as much as I can love these nice sounding records a lot of this is kinda why I’ve been falling out of love with the hobby, if not the music.
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Yeah, I feel ya. Hope you are enjoying other hobbies if this one isn’t doing it for ya any more. As I am sure you are aware, there are several threads around with a more music based themes and discussion, they’re just a bit less active. For a forum based around record collecting, I find lots of ways to discuss music itself. If you started a thread talking about music topic that interests me I would be happy to deep dive into a subject.
 
Portland Sheriff said:
Point taken but also, this is the “definitive audiophile” thread, and that’s kind of the point of the thread.

More importantly, this aspect of the hobby isn’t a binary situation. For me at least, talking about the sq minutiae here isn’t at the exclusion of and is not paramount to the music. It’s in addition and complementary to it. Perhaps that’s not how it is for you or others who feel this way, and that’s fine.
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I just like buying things with KG in the deadwax! We’re supposed to like the music now too??
 
Joe Mac said:
Just looking back over the last few pages and as much as I can love these nice sounding records a lot of this is kinda why I’ve been falling out of love with the hobby, if not the music.
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Joe WHY ARE YOU SO OLD AND CRANKY

I enjoy this aspect of the hobby, I don't do it out of a desire for some sort of bragging rights at having the best version of every record.... I truly just really enjoy hearing the differences between pressings, I find it interesting and I love doing shootouts with my listening buddy who comes over every few weeks AND IS NOT IMAGINARY HE IS ACTUALLY A REAL HUMAN FRIEND IT'S NOT AT ALL A FIGHT CLUB SITUATION

Anyhow, in this case I sold some records and will sell whatever copies lose the shootout and in the end it'll actually have more money after the purchase than before due to the selling so it's fiiiine.

And now that I find myself standing on what appears to be your lawn I'm just gonna go over here and smush this hedge down a buuuunch and then kinda dig a little hole over heeeere and I think this plastic flamingo with sunglasses will look just super riiiight abouuuuut here.
 
Mather said:
Joe WHY ARE YOU SO OLD AND CRANKY

I enjoy this aspect of the hobby, I don't do it out of a desire for some sort of bragging rights at having the best version of every record.... I truly just really enjoy hearing the differences between pressings, I find it interesting and I love doing shootouts with my listening buddy who comes over every few weeks AND IS NOT IMAGINARY HE IS ACTUALLY A REAL HUMAN FRIEND IT'S NOT AT ALL A FIGHT CLUB SITUATION

Anyhow, in this case I sold some records and will sell whatever copies lose the shootout and in the end it'll actually have more money after the purchase than before due to the selling so it's fiiiine.

And now that I find myself standing on what appears to be your lawn I'm just gonna go over here and smush this hedge down a buuuunch and then kinda dig a little hole over heeeere and I think this plastic flamingo with sunglasses will look just super riiiight abouuuuut here.
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This thread makes me feel a bit like a recovering alcoholic watching the messy drunks fall out of the pub covered in vomit. It’s not even the people bigging up the nice new fancy record they’ve bought, it’s the need to tell people they’re wrong for thinking something that sounds nice sounds nice.

Also increasingly getting jaded by the conspicuous consumption element of the hobby. I’ve saved almost €3k in 3 months of just slowing down to what I want rather than what I feel I need to buy and selling a few other bits.
 
Joe Mac said:
This thread makes me feel a bit like a recovering alcoholic watching the messy drunks fall out of the pub covered in vomit. It’s not even the people bigging up the nice new fancy record they’ve bought, it’s the need to tell people they’re wrong for thinking something that sounds nice sounds nice.

Also increasingly getting jaded by the conspicuous consumption element of the hobby. I’ve saved almost €3k in 3 months of just slowing down to what I want rather than what I feel I need to buy and selling a few other bits.
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I totally get it and have been feeling this way for a while myself. If I had easy access to trade/sell records I would have got rid of half my collection by now I think. And yet I still have to fight that FOMO urge to buy the latest reissue of something I owned on cd 30 years ago.
 
Joe Mac said:
This thread makes me feel a bit like a recovering alcoholic watching the messy drunks fall out of the pub covered in vomit. It’s not even the people bigging up the nice new fancy record they’ve bought, it’s the need to tell people they’re wrong for thinking something that sounds nice sounds nice.

Also increasingly getting jaded by the conspicuous consumption element of the hobby. I’ve saved almost €3k in 3 months of just slowing down to what I want rather than what I feel I need to buy.
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I don't think most people on this thread are in the habit of telling people their records don't sound good. As said before, it's literally the audiophile thread. This is the place to be bougie assholes, and for the most part I think we're all really good about it. I mean I would hope that when I say I like one pressing better than another it doesn't come off like I'm telling everyone with the other pressing that it sucks. I mean it's kinda the point of the audiophile thread in my mind to find the best pressings of albums.
 
Mather said:
I don't think most people on this thread are in the habit of telling people their records don't sound good. As said before, it's literally the audiophile thread. This is the place to be bougie assholes, and for the most part I think we're all really good about it. I mean I would hope that when I say I like one pressing better than another it doesn't come off like I'm telling everyone with the other pressing that it sucks. I mean it's kinda the point of the audiophile thread in my mind to find the best pressings of albums.
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Then tell me which pressing of Aja is the best? Ha! Trapped in your own logic now Mr Mather.
 
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