Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring - Craft 45 rpm LP, and SoTA digital

The 24/192 download sounds fantastic.

 

Vinyl repressing starting to show up in places in case anyone missed it previously.

 

I saw one at Plaid Room but then sold out

Where else you seeing?

Nothing at Amazon yet

 

Saw it there and Elusive.

 

Glad it does... a lot went into it.

 

I tried two or three copies of this record when it first came out. All were noisy.

Been waiting on a repress to swap out so when I saw it pop up I tried another

Arrived from RTI like this:



Scuffed, blotchy, finger-printed. RTI has been awful lately. I just had to send back Miles MFV to Music Direct the other day.

And yes, it's noisy

 

Yeesh.

I'm pretty tolerant of new vinyl having the occasional marks but that is just awful. How'd that get through QC?

I desperately want to buy this record (and the upcoming Evans OJC) but fear I'd get a copy like this and be stuck with it.

 

Sixth attempt at a quiet/acceptable pressing of You Must Believe In Spring. Another scuffed, noisy mess:





The only question is — is it worth it to keep trying, for Amazon to just lock me out of returns altogether

 

Quiet copies do exist out there.

 

I'm very pleased with the Craft SACD. A beautiful album!

Did Evans ever put out any substandard albums?

 

...Yes, more consistently than vinyl, in SACD format: Bill Evans – You Must Believe In Spring (Hybrid SACD - Craft Exclusive) – Craft Recordings

 

But the vinyl will sound better. All analog, cut at 45rpm, it's terrific.

 

Just get an original IMO. It sounds fantastic and my OG plays quieter than any of the 3 45rpm copies I tried from the first pressing run. I decided I would try again when it got repressed but these copies don’t seem to be any better.

 

I have two originals, one a promo copy (and cut differently from the standard copy. Both good (and similar sounding), neither as good as the 45rpm. There's a lot more ease, depth, and air with the 45.

 

This is a favorite album of mine. One of the first jazz albums I fell in love with. I wouldn't use "a lot" to describe any of the improvements of the 45, but that's just my 2 cents. It does have some of the typical benefits of 45 - weight, ease, etc. but it also lacks the sparkle and soul of my original to my ears. When this 45rpm issue was announced, I couldn't have been more excited and it was one of the more anticipated releases for me in recent memory. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was not floored by the 45rpm. Add in the QC issues and it is quite an underwhelming release IMO.

 

The original v Craft talk ignores that to get a clean copy of an original is going to cost a pretty penny. Quick discogs search shows VG/VG+ starting at $40-50. Assuming you get a clean copy of the Craft, that’s a no brainer.

 

The mastering is phenomenal but I appreciate your thoughts on the OG as I haven’t heard it personally. QC is abysmal and I don’t understand why some projects like Tone Poet seem to be without issue and others like this (and many of the Miles MoFi represses) are with such consistent issues

 

VG+/VG+ for $40. NM for $60. With patience you can find NM for $50 or less.

Considering the reissue has the QC of VG or worse, I'd definitely opt for the VG+/VG+ original. My keeper copy is visually VG+, but silent start to finish. YMMV

 

The recording is phenomenal. It would be a hard one to mess up IMO

 

Lots of great recordings are not served well by the mastering

 

Some recordings need fixed with great mastering. Some recordings would need to be ruined by source or mastering to sound bad. This one is the latter IMO. If there’s a poor mastering of this record, I haven’t heard it.

 

Well, as I said, in my system and to my ears, there was a subtle but significant improvement, as I experienced with the Blue Note 45s vs the 33s. And I suppose I was lucky to get an essentially quiet copy.

 

Sorry to hear that.

I went through the same thing as you last year and gave up. Bad pressings by RTI.

 

RTI hasn’t been exactly stellar with the Tone Poets either

 

Which is why it’s really tough to justify not auditioning the digital.