Any opinions on Analogue Productions gold CD's?

Has anyone checked these out? I've seen ads for them, particularly new SACD's that have been tube-mastered by Doug Sax. I'd like to see how their "Waltz For Debby" and "Way Out West" compare with the K2's and the XRCD's from JVC.

 

Way Out West was remastered twice by AP... Chad Kassem couldn't "decide" who should remaster Way Out West. So Bernie Grundman and Doug sax did the remastering... 2 CDs at the same time. I have compared both... The Doug sax remaster has a little bit more air!

BUT the new xrcd remaster sound better...

 

The Weavers Carnegie Hall '63 disc is great. Though, this is such a great recording, it would take a lot of work to mess it up. I'd say judging by the sound of the applause, Doug may have added a smidgen of 13-15k top ("air"). I have a reissue on LP (which everyone's favorite "audiophile", Harry Pearson referred to as a "joke"), which I think sounds just fine too.

The original recording was made using three Schoeps condensors fed into an Ampex 300, using Scotch 201 - tube mastered by Doug.

P.S. I also remember when Absolute Sound had the "shoot-out", in print, between the two versions of "Way Out West". Always funny to listen to these audio types debate it like some kind of stinky-cheese, wine-tasting test...lol!

 

Mastering Lab:

 

I have several of AP's Gold cd's (including Art Pepper, Count Basie, Dizzy Gilespie, Sonny Boy Williamson, etc.) and overall think the sound quality is excellent. Highly Recommended.