Definitive Audiophile pressings

MikeH said:
The Acoustic Sounds video is interesting for those who didn’t watch.

The upcoming Ray Charles AS pressing was done by my boy KG. RKS cut the Gil Evans that is coming out from the original master tapes. This year is shaping up to be mostly Impulse! titles which should be rad. It’s for the 60th anniversary of the label.
Click to expand...
And if you can find one similarly priced item you want, these are part of the Target 2/1 sale!
 
MikeH said:
The Acoustic Sounds video is interesting for those who didn’t watch.

The upcoming Ray Charles AS pressing was done by my boy KG. RKS cut the Gil Evans that is coming out from the original master tapes. This year is shaping up to be mostly Impulse! titles which should be rad. It’s for the 60th anniversary of the label.
Click to expand...
How much do those UHQR's go for? I have a first mono Kind Of Blue but its one of those which I have often been tempted to pick up a reissue as well.
 
You guys are crazy for thinking $100-$200 is reasonable if $500 isn't. $100-200 is collectors pricing as well. Especially the KOB UHQR where they already have the plates. They are charging what they think they can get because of the collectors market, not remotely related to cost to produce.
 
dhodo said:
You guys are crazy for thinking $100-$200 is reasonable if $500 isn't. $100-200 is collectors pricing as well. Especially the KOB UHQR where they already have the plates. They are charging what they think they can get because of the collectors market, not remotely related to cost to produce.
Click to expand...

No I agree. It clearly costs more to produce because there has to be a new lacquer cut for every stamper but I’d be shocked if it caused them to need to more than double the price for the same margin.
 
dhodo said:
They are charging what they think they can get because of the collectors market
Click to expand...
Agreed, and that's how every market works, then its up to consumers to decide. We may be crazy, but we all have our own limitations on what we spend on what. Look at what some people spend on RSD releases in the aftermarket, blame the flippers all you want, somebodies buying them, and always will, so this logic isn't going away any day soon.
 
Joe Mac said:
No I agree. It clearly costs more to produce because there has to be a new lacquer cut for every stamper but I’d be shocked if it caused them to need to more than double the price for the same margin.
Click to expand...
Oh did I misunderstand that they are using existing plates that were already manufactured by Classic for the KOB? Or was it advertised as being the same as one-step and I missed it?
 
AnthonyI said:
Agreed, and that's how every market works, then its up to consumers to decide. We may be crazy, but we all have our own limitations on what we spend on what. Look at what some people spend on RSD releases in the aftermarket, blame the flippers all you want, somebodies buying them, and always will, so this logic isn't going away any day soon.
Click to expand...
I agree and there is nothing wrong with people wanting to spend that, I guess I was just getting the implication that $500 was just collector markup where $200 wasn't and I disagree. But, I suppose I misunderstood.
 
dhodo said:
I agree and there is nothing wrong with people wanting to spend that, I guess I was just getting the implication that $500 was just collector markup where $200 wasn't and I disagree. But, I suppose I misunderstood.
Click to expand...
Oh, I'm with you, anything north of $50 is honestly something to wonder with this hobby now a days along with limited runs. But as I said, and I know it makes @Joe Mac sad, but it is what it is. If anyone thinks and or can explain to me how consumers collectively decided that enough is enough and not pay inflated prices please do so.

Pricing in this hobby like most is based on supply and demand, on the consumer side, it's too many willing to pay whatever because it's colored, limited, RSD Only, etc...

So ya, it blows, but we all make our own choices and decisions, pick up what we want and hopefully have the willingness to walk away when it's just too much.
 
AnthonyI said:
Oh, I'm with you, anything north of $50 is honestly something to wonder with this hobby now a days along with limited runs. But as I said, and I know it makes @Joe Mac sad, but it is what it is. If anyone thinks and or can explain to me how consumers collectively decided that enough is enough and not pay inflated prices please do so.

Pricing in this hobby like most is based on supply and demand, on the consumer side, it's too many willing to pay whatever because it's colored, limited, RSD Only, etc...

So ya, it blows, but we all make our own choices and decisions, pick up what we want and hopefully have the willingness to walk away when it's just too much.
Click to expand...

Yeah I’m, as I’m sure you’ve noticed in the politics thead, an ardent critic of profiteering and the excesses of modern capitalism. I agree that as things stand there is no way of preventing businesses from acting so reprehensibly but it doesn’t have to make me happy. Whatever happened to making a product to a cost and setting a fair price to allow for a proportionate profit rather than thinking screw these poor suckers let’s extract every last pound of flesh out of them.
 
MikeH said:
The Acoustic Sounds video is interesting for those who didn’t watch.

The upcoming Ray Charles AS pressing was done by my boy KG. RKS cut the Gil Evans that is coming out from the original master tapes. This year is shaping up to be mostly Impulse! titles which should be rad. It’s for the 60th anniversary of the label.
Click to expand...
I REALLY hope a focus on Impulse! brings us a AAA pressing of 'Blues and the Abstract Truth'. That is by far most most wanted Audiophile repress.
 
Joe Mac said:
Yeah I’m, as I’m sure you’ve noticed in the politics thead, an ardent critic of profiteering and the excesses of modern capitalism. I agree that as things stand there is no way of preventing businesses from acting so reprehensibly but it doesn’t have to make me happy. Whatever happened to making a product to a cost and setting a fair price to allow for a proportionate profit rather than thinking screw these poor suckers let’s extract every last pound of flesh out of them.
Click to expand...
Again, I agree completely with you @Joe Mac , just tired of fighting it to be honest. There's so much, as you mentioned, in "Real" life, to irritate you and make you sad, I don't need this to add to it. I've done a lot of thinking on this hobby as of late and as it pertains to what I spend and on what, when it comes to vinyl, and it really is becoming only things I really want and at a price I'm ok with........grant it, there are exceptions for each of us individually, but overall, that's the war cry.

It just takes extra work unfortunately, for instance, I've been wanting to upgrade my 3 Doors albums to the AP versions, I have ok early presses, now since stuff seems to be going OOS, OOP and so on, I bit the bullet and picked them all up at retail because I'll be damned if I pay what Cogs will be charging for them in time. Seems like there's this big bump in "Audiophile" pressings in Cogs as of late.
 
AnthonyI said:
Oh, I'm with you, anything north of $50 is honestly something to wonder with this hobby now a days along with limited runs. But as I said, and I know it makes @Joe Mac sad, but it is what it is. If anyone thinks and or can explain to me how consumers collectively decided that enough is enough and not pay inflated prices please do so.

Pricing in this hobby like most is based on supply and demand, on the consumer side, it's too many willing to pay whatever because it's colored, limited, RSD Only, etc...

So ya, it blows, but we all make our own choices and decisions, pick up what we want and hopefully have the willingness to walk away when it's just too much.
Click to expand...
The thing is, consumers have decided, and that decision is that they will RUN to grab anything promoted as the latest, coolest, most limited, new formulation, ultimate sonic masterpiece, by a NAME masetring genius, at margins that would make Gucci envious.

I'm with you. I seriously question, and in 99% of cases pass on, anything north of $50. It as to be something VERY important. I paid more than that to get Japanese Blue Note pressings of a few Chihiro Yamanaka titles, and to get some Hank Jones, Michael Brecker, John Scofield and Marc Johnson titles from Korea.

But ANOTHER rehash of Kind of Blue - a fairly minimal 3 track recording? NO. I'm done with that. There are no sonic holy grails. This is all about status and one-upmanship. Lush Life? Why? It is by far not Coltrane's best on Prestige, nor are his Prestige recordings his best overall. $100 for that??

Chad is robbing people. He has plates for KOB that he bought for next to nothing. He has zero remastering costs, zero costs to get the tape and insure it, zero lacquering and plating costs - just put it on the press and pour in that special sauce vinyl. His margin must be like $85 a pop.

And Chad doesn't know jazz. He is a blues guy. He just runs with the warhorses that he knows will be sellers. You won't see Pharoah Sanders on his Impulse/AP list, nor Archie Shepp - cornerstones of Impulse. You won't see Roland Kirk, or Alan Shorter, on the Verve series. You will get two great Bill Evans Verve albums, because Bill sells.
 
Last edited:
dhodo said:
You guys are crazy for thinking $100-$200 is reasonable if $500 isn't. $100-200 is collectors pricing as well. Especially the KOB UHQR where they already have the plates. They are charging what they think they can get because of the collectors market, not remotely related to cost to produce.
Click to expand...
It sucks, but this is how anything in the world works now. Most prices of things are not related to what it costs to produce. Nike sneakers don't cost $100+ to make. Mac laptops don't cost $1000+ to make. I don't think anybody here thinks that it actually costs anywhere near $100 to press a record. And I'm certainly not saying that it's a bargain.

I also think that $550 is WILDLY different in price than $100. Its not like the ERC is $130 and the UHQR is $125 and I'm saying $130 is clearly WAY too much. They are both expensive for sure, but $550 for a single LP, especially one that just doesn't have good QC it seems, and is in a non-gatefold jacket is crazy to me. $100 for the UHQR is still expensive but I'm willing to pay it for certain titles.

We can all talk to death about whether or not $100-$125 is worth it for a record. I'm also not arguing that it isn't "collector's pricing". But there's a pretty stark difference for me between the hand-inspected and pressed UHQRs for $100-$125 and the $550 ECRs that arrive with bubbles in the vinyl and messed up sleeves. Neither of them costs anywhere near that to make and if it does, those companies are doing it wrong. You could buy 4, already expensive One Steps for the price of a 1LP ERC. And again, $100 for a record is definitely expensive and it can be frustrating to see titles I really love being pressed in that format for that much money instead of a cheaper $25-$35 format since we know the Tone Poets and AS series both sound great for that price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top