Music Matters Definitive Blue Note 45 RPM and 33 & 1/3 RPM vinyl series (pt7)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MilesSmiles, Jun 13, 2014.


  1. Nope, the MMJ 45rpm is top notch within the MMJ subscription series.
     
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  2. Tim1954

    Tim1954 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    Yeah, The Sidewinder is one of those albums where Van Gelder’s cutting is kind of a part of the whole artistic statement. It is brighter than some of his other cuts I’ve heard and in exactly the way you describe.

    I don’t own any Grado cans but their carts I like a lot. Not sure their cans would be for me.
     
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  3. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Um....you're not accurate with regard to those Grados, from what I hear. There's PLENTY of bass when warranted. I have the SR-325is model. I have also heard the RS1 model of the same vintage. The latter has a warmer tonality overall, but both are great headphones. What Grados don't do is put out a huge quantity of bass, but frequency response is plenty on both ends. They have a sort of planar-like speed, but with lots of detail, which is astonishing. I don't hear any midbass hump at all (and I know midbass hump, as my loudspeakers have a bit of it). In any event, I'll be listening to some music with a lot of bass and I'll be surprised with how much authority and clarity there is in the bass, but Grados will never be close to anything like Beats or Bose. And the 325is were rated put in Class B components in Stereophile. If it had all of the things that you cite, it wouldn't have been placed there.

    I looked at your profile, recstar24, and saw no amplification. What are you using to drive your Grados? That makes a lot of difference, and a good tube headphone amp is recommended for the better Grados. I tried Grado's own solid-state headphone amp and I thought it was smooth but lacking in dynamics, sort of boring. A tubed amp will fill out the body of the higher end Grados while softening the top end a bit. Still, my SR-325is cans can be thrilling to listen through. In contrast, something like the Sennheiser 600 can sound too laid back.

    But, we digress...
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2019
  4. Leonthepro

    Leonthepro Skeptically Optimistic

    Location:
    Sweden
    Blue note originals dont sound particularly great, there, I said it.
     
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  5. SoundDoctor

    SoundDoctor Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    They sound really good but not MMJ-level great IMO. Though my audio writer enemy Ken Micallef will tell you otherwise regarding the MMJ LPs. (BTW: my strong dislike for Ken Micallef just comes from him saying stupid things I don't agree with. He's never actually done anything bad to me...)
     
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  6. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana
    Certainly a lot more fatiguing than the MM versions.
     
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  7. ausgraeme

    ausgraeme Forum Resident

    I Enjoy his YouTube channel but yeah geez he really says some (wilfully) ignorant stuff about the MM releases.
     
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  8. SpeedracerF

    SpeedracerF Forum Resident

    Location:
    Roosendaal
    Took my MMJ copy of Dexter Gordon - Our Man in Paris (33rpm) for a spin this morning, after having kind of forgotten about it for the last couple of months. What an incredible album, especially A Night in Tunisia and Willow Weep for Me, which might be my favorite versions of both songs. The MM pressing really does it justice as well.

    Somehow I feel like this album is never mentioned when talking about the best Blue Note has to offer. Definitely in the conversation for top 5 Blue Note records of all time, for me personally at least.
     
  9. nosliw

    nosliw Delivering parcels throughout Teyvat! Meow~!

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON, Canada
    I checked out a bit of The Amazing Bud Powell - The Scene Changes on Youtube last night and it's actually quite good. I like Bud Powell's piano play in the few tracks I checked out, namely Cleopatra's Dream and Gettin' There. And it seems like it's an overlooked Blue Notes album, let alone through Music Matters Jazz.

    From what I noticed, that album, Dexter Gordon's Our Man in Paris, and Jackie McLean's Right Now! seems to have more availability outside of MMJ's website and is sitting there without getting picked up.
     
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  10. musictoad

    musictoad Forum Resident

    Location:
    Salt Lake City, UT
    I just ordered the original 1990 CD of The Soothsayer for $6 including shipping. It'll be nice to have another jazz album available for car use.

    On that note, what I'd really love to do eventually when I have the equipment is to needledrop all of my MMJ/Tone Poet/MFSL Miles Davis albums for car use. I need to research what's needed to do this.
     
  11. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    This is the guy that owns jazz record center in NYC/Chelsea, correct? The family and I are visiting New York City next week, and jazz record center is one of our stops :)
     
  12. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Ask him if he has any MMJ's for a good price. :cussing:
     
  13. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    Of course! At minimum they will be significantly less than his originals :) hears hoping he doesn’t scream at me :laugh:
     
  14. YEX 750-1

    YEX 750-1 Long-winded Brother

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I think he works there? I believe Fred Cohen owns the place. For a jazz record addict it is quite the candy store.
     
  15. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    I had a set of Grado headphones back in the day. I can't remember what model, but I do remember them sounding exactly the way Recstar24 described them. I hated them, as they never seemed to have any real presence. I'm not a diehard headphone guy, so I wasn't gonna go through a lot of gyrations making them sound good. I think ended up giving them away, or selling them cheap.

    To me Blue Notes sound more or less the same way. They have good slam in the mid bass/kick and snare region, with a shiny top end, but in a lot of cases (most) I'd like a little more presence in the low bass and a better overall balance. In general, I greatly prefer the way Roy DuNann engineered his sound for Contemporary over RVG and his BN sound nearly any day of the week. But I prefer the stable of musicians that RVG had access to.

    Honestly, it makes me sad that DuNann didn't record for Blue Note. That West Coast stuff that he recorded doesn't really do anything for me, outside of a few titles. But I love his sound.
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2019
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  16. Where are you seeing our man in Paris? MMJs site is the best price I’ve seen recently in the US for both the 33 and 45, besides a VG+ copy on discogs.
     
  17. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    I hear you! I love my Grado rs1’s (the older vintage with button) but they are definitely not an everyday or every record kind of listen for sure. And I’m with you in regards to DuNann, at minimum you’ve got to respect that man’s mic placement and technique.
     
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  18. nosliw

    nosliw Delivering parcels throughout Teyvat! Meow~!

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON, Canada
    There's a seller on Discogs that is selling a brand new copy for $49.95 USD.

    Coming from Canada, shipping from the USD to Canada easily goes for between $15-18 USD for a single album of 500grams (0.5lbs) or less. Combined that with our current currency exchange rate between CAD and USD and the possibility of duty and brokerage fees, buying from MMJ is too cost prohibitive for me. :(
     
  19. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    I was spinning my MM copy of JuJu during my "just got out of bed" meditations this morning... Mahjong is a great start the day cut for me. I'm not sure who would say it's not recorded well. It sounds as good as any Blue Note is gonna sound.
     
  20. timzigs

    timzigs Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Central PA
    Guys, I stand corrected. The references earlier in this thread (and apparently in others) were that Juju may not have been one of Rudy's better recordings...nothing about the MMJ version being subpar. My apologies.
     
  21. Leonthepro

    Leonthepro Skeptically Optimistic

    Location:
    Sweden
    Try me, 25$ shipping + custom fees from 10-25$ extra. No way Jose.
     
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  22. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Playing them through what??

    And you can't remember which model?? Man, the entry level models are very different and require different quality of amplification than their higher end models. The lower end models (from the 225 on down) are very forgiving. Soundstage isn't their forte. It's the human, revealing midrange. They're not about huge slam or rocking out.

    But the models from the 325 on up are in a different category. They use distinctly different drivers. They're VERY detailed and revealing. Still not the slam kings, so full rock and roll may not be their calling card. And if you listen to bright, hard sounding records, you'll hear that. They're not forgiving like Sennheiser 580s or 600s. If you want a big soundstage and a very forgiving presentation, those Senns will be better, but you won't get the breathtaking detail that you get from Grado, where you hear the way the skin on a snare is being brushed, or the intake of breath by a vocalist. And I have heard these upper end models sound the way you've described when not put through good amplification (such as a smartphone or headphone out on a computer).

    But Grados also need much higher quality amplification, and I'm talking quality, not necessarily quantity, to allow them to do their thing. Playing them through the headphone jack in your Onkyo amp is not going to get them to be their best. It would be like putting regular gas into a Corvette engine. It's not going to perform the way you want it to. Inadequate quality amplification for the better Grado headphones, such as the RS1 and 325 will render deeper bass with more presence, and will calm the spotlighted detail of the top end.

    If you own a pair of Grados and get the performance Spin Doctor and Recstar24 are saying they hear, try to borrow and a very good quality tubed headphone stage. If you do, you might find that the Grado's performance becomes extraordinary.

    I'm not saying it's the only headphone out there, or that they're for everybody. Obviously not. Their strengths are tremendous, though, and you have to know how to get the best out of them.
     
  23. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    Nope, don't remember, since it's been a long time and I haven't looked back. I already said I didn't care about headphones. Still don't.

    To me either headphones were good or they sucked. At that time, for my taste, Grados sucked and I wasn't interested in spending money on them, improving this and that, yadda yadda. If you like them, hey that's lovely.

    But back to the topic at hand...
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2019
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  24. Cervelo

    Cervelo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY
    I picked up MM's issue of Jackie's "Right Now" a few years ago for $34 with a discount code (remember when you could use them on MM titles) and never really gave it a chance. I rediscovered it a couple of weeks ago and it's been been getting a lot of play. Really nice sonics and "Poor Eric" has become one of my favorite Jackie tunes. I believe this is still readily available for $39.95.
     
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  25. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    Can’t dismiss Clifford jarvis - that guy bangs like a mother****** - he is one bad dude lol
     
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