Definitive Audiophile pressings

Selaws said:
Got to feel for the guy.

He opens with "This is the hardest video I have ever had to make" and this is someone that made a 15min video reviewing Steely Dan's Aja...
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I love all this nonsense every bit as much as the next person but I do wonder with guys like that, and reactions like that, if they’ve lost sight of the love of the music that got them into it all in the first place…
 
Joe Mac said:
I love all this nonsense every bit as much as the next person but I do wonder with guys like that, and reactions like that, if they’ve lost sight of the love of the music that got them into it all in the first place…
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100%.

Are they now going to remove previous videos praising these videos because they now dont like them? Its a mad viewpoint to have. If a record sounds good, then it sounds good.

Edit: Just to add to this, I read the comments under his video and it's now becoming a competition as to "whos the best youtube 'expert'" when it comes to records. Who cares??
 
Joe Mac said:
I love all this nonsense every bit as much as the next person but I do wonder with guys like that, and reactions like that, if they’ve lost sight of the love of the music that got them into it all in the first place…
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Well nonsense prevails, for sure, but in this particular video he’s pretty clear about distinguishing between the sound of the vinyl, which he continues to rave about, and the process by which it was created, about which he’s calling for greater transparency. You’re right that he isn’t saying anything about the music itself, but I think it’s safe to assume he holds in very high regard all of the albums he mentions. So I don’t think he’s lost sight of the music, and he maintains some credibility by not changing his tune about SQ. Mostly, seems he’s reacting to feeling duped (and maybe he’s thinking about all of his customers who he has inadvertently duped as a result?).

To be clear, I’m not defending this guy. The few videos of his I’ve ever watched have always come across primarily as efforts to hype his way to more sales. This one is unique (to my viewing) in being rather heartfelt.
 
Russ I said:
Well nonsense prevails, for sure, but in this particular video he’s pretty clear about distinguishing between the sound of the vinyl, which he continues to rave about, and the process by which it was created, about which he’s calling for greater transparency. You’re right that he isn’t saying anything about the music itself, but I think it’s safe to assume he holds in very high regard all of the albums he mentions. So I don’t think he’s lost sight of the music, and he maintains some credibility by not changing his tune about SQ. Mostly, seems he’s reacting to feeling duped (and maybe he’s thinking about all of his customers who he has inadvertently duped as a result?).

To be clear, I’m not defending this guy. The few videos of his I’ve ever watched have always come across primarily as efforts to hype his way to more sales. This one is unique (to my viewing) in being rather heartfelt.
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We’re going to have to agree to disagree, and I disagree pretty strongly. This, combined with him taking down his positive reviews of the pressings, felt like a spoilt baby throwing their expensive toys out of the pram for no reason at all.

I get wanting transparency but if these really are still the best sounding versions of the albums you’ve heard are there not far more important things to put that kind of energy towards.
 
Joe Mac said:
We’re going to have to agree to disagree, and I disagree pretty strongly. This, combined with him taking down his positive reviews of the pressings, felt like a spoilt baby throwing their expensive toys out of the pram for no reason at all.

I get wanting transparency but if these really are still the best sounding versions of the albums you’ve heard are there not far more important things to put that kind of energy towards.
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I didn't know he took down all his other reviews of the records. That's funny. I get that he feels burned, but that's a pretty big fit to throw. It's like those who feel cheated by ball players using steroids. They still did it, you still watched and cheered. Put an asterisk next to their names or say they were roided up and move on.
 
Hemotep said:
I didn't know he took down all his other reviews of the records. That's funny. I get that he feels burned, but that's a pretty big fit to throw. It's like those who feel cheated by ball players using steroids. They still did it, you still watched and cheered. Put an asterisk next to their names or say they were roided up and move on.
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I get the sports thing more. Well maybe not baseball because they just went through that phase of not caring and everyone being at it, but in other sports where it was attempted to be policed or banned it does distort competition.

Also this isn’t “cheating”. It’s a totally legitimate way of making a record, people just got led into thinking it was being done another way.
 
Joe Mac said:
I get the sports thing more. Well maybe not baseball because they just went through that phase of not caring and everyone being at it, but in other sports where it was attempted to be policed or banned it does distort competition.

Also this isn’t “cheating”. It’s a totally legitimate way of making a record, people just got led into thinking it was being done another way.
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I was thinking mostly of baseball and cycling. I suppose there's more policing in other sports, I just personally don't care. But maybe not a perfect analogy.
 
Hemotep said:
I was thinking mostly of baseball and cycling. I suppose there's more policing in other sports, I just personally don't care. But maybe not a perfect analogy.
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I suppose it’s the case of either allowing a free for all or policing it strictly. Its when you kinda have rules but people get away with it that it distorts completion and it’s not really sport without fair competition. I suppose given the real health risks it’s probably in the best interests of everyone to police it strictly. It will be interesting in the future if we see medical advancements that can artificially create improvements on natural human performance. Particularly surrounding bio mechanics. But we digress.
 
Joe Mac said:
We’re going to have to agree to disagree, and I disagree pretty strongly. This, combined with him taking down his positive reviews of the pressings, felt like a spoilt baby throwing their expensive toys out of the pram for no reason at all.

I get wanting transparency but if these really are still the best sounding versions of the albums you’ve heard are there not far more important things to put that kind of energy towards.
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Fair enough.
 
Joe Mac said:
We’re going to have to agree to disagree, and I disagree pretty strongly. This, combined with him taking down his positive reviews of the pressings, felt like a spoilt baby throwing their expensive toys out of the pram for no reason at all.

I get wanting transparency but if these really are still the best sounding versions of the albums you’ve heard are there not far more important things to put that kind of energy towards.
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I have no reason to defend him, but he did say they’re still the best sounding versions. And I’m not aware of any reviews removed. He said he’d pull Mofi from TIG website’s headline list of top 100 in-print AAA records bc he can’t verify they’re AAA.

To your point, though, I don’t know why he doesn’t just change the title of the list itself to his top 100 in-print records, removing the AAA limitation bc it seems irrelevant if they sound that good regardless of whether lineage is verified.
 
So I watched the whole video now, I tend to side a bit more with Russ I to some extent in that he did make a distinct point of separating sound quality from his assumed promises of All-Analog and I think a lot of this is him processing a lot of assumptions that were in his head.

Which leads me to think, in the words of the Wu-Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M. I went into M@TIG's Youtube. Here are his highest viewed YouTube videos

  • The Top 100 All Analog Records in Print for 2021
  • I Bought George Benson's LP...Unreleased MFSL
  • I Spent $40,000...MFSL< One Steps, UHQR, etc.
  • The 10 Best All Analog Rock Records of 2020 in Print
  • How To Get into Jazz.... (holding up MFSL Miles Davis)
  • Miles Davis - Kind of Blue Comparison
  • Pink Floyd - DSotM Comparison
It's less frequent as you go down the list but all-analog, MFSL, etc. are litter throughout his videos. He will constantly promote, sell, and push what he has believed to be all-analog pressings. He's one person who definitely doesn't have time to listen to every new release so he's relying on crutches as we all do: you see a name or term that usually indicates quality and go with it. Like, the Norah re-release, he and many others suddenly perked the heck up once they learned it was all-analog as it's a sell point. In reality, I don't know how much it mattered (the same mastering artist was behind Begin Again which sounded fantastic and my first copy was kind of a wreck so it still had production issues on the 20th) but it's a usable sell point.

He's made a great career on it. The Youtube business is pretty much just marketing even at his sub/watching level, but I am thinking he is working through a lot of it and feels like he has egg on his face from being a prominent face in pushing audiophile vinyl without knowing the details of what he's pushing. Can't imagine it feels good to feel like your revenue stream is in danger of taking a hit or you have to find different sell points.
 
mitchwagz said:
I imagine it has a digital chain in there somewhere if it doesn’t say cut from masters though George Marino was cutting analog at Sterling until he died right?
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I'm not sure of his career and death.
The etchings on this are dating back to 2003 and it was purchased recently from plaid.
So that was kind of strange. I guess they used the same lacquers?
Just thinking what is one supposed to take away with these labels making these statements?
It's intending to make me think all analog in my opinion, but it is a little squishy.

Here's an AP one.

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