EMI Japan and Disk Union are not advertising that this new series are sonically superior to originals or other reissues and I'm not intending to judge which sounds better than which in this thread. Still, I personally think that probably MM's 45rpm vinyl editions are the best choice sonically but as I said in one of my earlier posts, they are far too expensive in Japan for me so I currently own none of them sadly.
Hi I signed up on this forum, just to post my experience with these albums. I got them as a christmas present so have not listened to them, but from a visual standpoint, besides matrix info, there is NO difference to how the albums were back then. I read someone thinking the maiden voyage had a flat edge? It definitely does not and looks just like my original mono, just in better shape The best part about them is if you are filling spaces with those rare titles, especially the lexington ones, or the 1560-1590 tough titles, these will make you "feel" like you have the originals. I'm waiting on the announcement of 1568 eventually. I bought it from a seller that did ship to the US. They were 80 each plus shipping, making them about 90 each.
Hi. Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post! Wow, so you got five of them now? I'm looking forward to your report on how they sound. Perhaps after Christmas?
Like I said, visually, besides the matrix differences, they look identical. I own originals of blue train and maiden voyage, and there is no difference, and even feel the same. I will say that since I own a lot of original blue notes, it WILL be interesting to compare those recordings to these. My plan is to pick up the rare titles that would cost a whole whole lot to get as originals. My lifetime goal is to get the whole mono blue note catalogue( a big undertaking sure) but in the 3 years I have been doing this, I am up to 75 albums I believe. These will be acceptable replacements to the originals I would ideally want to get. One pretty cool them about them is they come with an additional plain white outer carboard sleeve to actually put the album in and a rice paper style sleeve. It's also interesting to see the liner notes in japanese on the insert in the album sleeve. So far without listening to them, my favorite part is they do not SMELL like original blue notes (50 year old cardboard stinks)
I was able to sneak a listen to the lee morgan indeed that I got(shh don't tell ) and here are my thoughts on it. keep in mind I have no reference to go by since I have never heard this album before, though have heard other original blue notes of the same period. The lows, mids, and highs all felt the same to me when compared to the old albums and all the parts came out strong on the album. I've never heard an audiophile album before or have heard a blue note with such little wear (in this case none) but at the beginning of the tracks in the dead wax, there was a sound similar to a drying machine really far away, but you could feel this deep thumping sound. It was strange to me at least, but could be something standard on a really new album. Please also keep in mind that I'm not using really high end equipment, but vintage sansui stuff and a shure cartridge, so may not be sensitive enough for me to know if they are bad records. All that said, they sound good to ME, and thats what matters.
I must disagree, I love the smell of old records (vintage Blue Notes all the sweeter!), call me crazy...
Many years ago, I had a turntable that made that light "thumping" sound in the lead-in groove and I eventually determined that the cartridge was tracking too heavy. Now, if I ever hear any noise other than surface noise, I check all of my turntable's settings.
Thats pretty crazy as its tracking at like between .75 and 1 so fairly light. The recommended setting I think is 1.25! If this is the case, I'll lower it to a point where I don't hear that any longer and see if that's it.
You are probably tracking too light. Try the recommended tracking force. It's not good to track too light, do a search on this forum.
well I should say the recommended setting is .75 to 1 with the stabilizer brush up and 1.25 with it down. however I just got a gauge to accurately check the force to see what its actually measuring at.
I wanted to post an update on the upcoming batch. They were originally slated to be released today, but was pushed back until next wednesday, the 21st I think of the next group the only one I will get will be the cool struttin one, and the 3rd group jutta hipp with zoot sims. I can tell you that a seller that is shipping to the US, ateliersawano.com, is also selling all 5 in a group on ebay for 95 more than he is selling on his site directly, but so far, no one has bought any of the 20 listings he has for them. Most likely the price is putting people off. That are there is literally no information about them online.
Still waiting for you to tell how you *know* that Blue Note Japan is lying when they say that they are cutting these from the original mono masters. Kevin doesn't seem to respond to inquiries on his website and Michael Cuscuna has no info on it, so tell us where you are getting such concrete information. When you state that a record label is lying in their advertisements, you need to back that statement up with proof or it's just libelous.
Well for me, the plan is to get, the sonny clark in wave 2, the jutta hipp zoot simms in batch 3 and the hank mobley in batch 4. Really the last hugely expensive title I guess they could release would be a Tina Brooks title, or some of the other mobley/dorham ones. Oh about the sources: There is a very close resemblance of these albums to the ones on Prestige that are coming out: Deep groove, flat edge where present, 200 g, original style sleeve, mono, cut by Kevin. If the prestige titles are from the mono tapes, I can believe these blue notes are too, especially since EMI Japan is responsible for releasing them. I sadly wish they were priced like the prestige titles though
Just came back from holidays in Tokyo, and bought myself 5 titles (2 at disk union, and 3 at Yamano Music): DBLP-002 Lee Morgan Indeed! DBLP-003 John Coltrane Blue Train DBLP-007 Sonny Clark Cool Struttin' DBLP-008 Bud Powell The Scene Changes The Amazin DBLP-010 Wayne Shorter Juju can't stop listening to Blue Train whole day. also emailed Kevin while was on the trip, he said that his masters for EMI and MM differs, quoting him "The Music Matters are mastered differently than the EMI Japan titles. They are looking for a different Sound.". I also think that EMI wouldn't lie, and OBI clearly states that they are mastered from original master tapes. (p) is EMI Music Japan, so i think they have access to master tapes, it's a matter of prestige for them i think.
I might fly over to Tokyo next week and hit the record stores myself. I'm bored with the stores around here.
Kevin answered my email about master tapes and digital files, and he says they are from master tapes. "I don’t know where that rumor got started, I’ve seen it too, but it’s FALSE!!!" (c) Kevin Gray
