Experience Hendrix extend Sony Deal ...................

Its a tough call on this, I have my own thoughts which I'll not fully share fully for no other reason than its not worth the childish debate that ensues with some!
I know from research and even posts on this site that Stirling NY re-equipped the mastering suite for these 2010's [done in 2009?] and used all analogue mastering. The question would be, what tapes. I'll accept EH's claim for All Analogue on face value, why would they mislead?

Maybe I'll sit with these again .................... one day!

What I would question here is A/B'ing vinyl against a digital copy, just does not work at all. Buy the albums [2010's] and do the A/B again.

Also, better!!! Really? Clearly subjective, but I found the 2014 AYE purple Newbury AYE to be the best sounding copy ever and I compared it to a number of other copies I own. Likewise, the ELL Newbury was outstanding and my go to record by a mile [I own a spare copy for when I wear this one out, honest!]. The 2010 issue of ELL I have has a small degree of sibilance yet the re-issue from Newbury does not. It does sound like a different master but it could easily be explained by the change of pressing plant / stamper.

 

My experience was the complete opposite. I compared needledrops of a 1st UK Track pressing and the 2010 and the latter sounded *so* much better, it was laughable. The UK Track sounded like they were being played back through tin cans or AM radio. Condensed soundstage, mid-centric, no real extension on the bass, just comical.

I did that with numerous needledrops of that album. Some systems were ridiculously expensive and still, my turntable setup made the 2010 remasters absolutely sing but the needledrops of the UK Track didn't sound good in comparison. Not even close.

 

I just do not get any A/ B session that involves any digital against vinyl. Just can't be done with any degree if accuracy. Plus, there was never a 2010 reissue of the UK Track Records release. The 2010 was a reissue of the US Reprise so again an A/B is impossible!

 

My bad. It never occurred to me that speculating about the AYE Anniversary via the SONY EH deal extension thread would turn into a Gordonian naught.

That's entirely up to you, but the flip side is we can always celebrate 51st Anniversary next year and bring Purple Haze along for the ride.

If Janie's attorney's were involved in renegotiating future contracts with SONY for EH projects, that could factor into the delay of anniversary releases. Just sayin'.

Tsk, tsk. Technicalities. If it were a wedding anniversary or an actual birthday celebration, I'd agree, but stretching the definition of anniversary to encompass the entire year of a historic release probably won't get much flack from Hendrix fans. OTOH, missing the 50th year altogether would be a serious oversight, and indeed, an opportunity lost.

I haven't given up hope on the possibility of a Bernie Grundman remastered CD/BD release of AYE from SONY/EH this year. We'll see.


Cat

 

You misread. I was talking about the 2010 remasters. I'm aware it's not from UK Track. A few mentions of a UK Track 1st press in my post should have been enough but I guess I'll mention it again. This was multiple needledrops of 1st pressing of UK Track VS live playback on my VPI Prime of the 2010 remasters.

And I'm fully aware of the limitations of such a test. However, other tests were *much* closer and in some cases, the needledrop sounded better than whatever pressing I had.

It was not the case here. Feel free to deny the validity of the test but I put at least *some* level of stock in the fact that the results were overwhelmingly in the favor of the 2010 remasters.

 

I don't think it's a joke about the 51st anniversary. I can totally see that happening.

 

Nope.
I don't get what any needledrop has to do with an A/B comparison let alone a needledrop of a record that didn't get a 2010 reissue but is put up "against" the 2010's!

 

Ha ha, I'd reply fully to the anniversary comments if they were posted in that thread, at least we could find them at a later date!

As for releases this year under a new Sony deal, nothing has changed. Janie stated a Dagger [we got that] and Maui [yet to be delivered].

 

don;t say that.....they might just put out a 2 CD set of 30 versions of the same song!

 

Love to hear that, along with the between takes banter between band and desk. How awesome would that be to chart the progress of the title track through its studio development.
I can't be the only one who would snap this up?

And to satisfy Purple Jim, on Dagger of course

 

Was tempted to buy it at Sunshine Records yesterday. They had both a Stereo & Mono copy for sale. $29.99 each.

 

But no surround sound?

 

Yeah, clearly you don't get it.

 

In terms of vinyl, are the 2010 versions of the core studio albums (AYE, Axis, and ELL) the ones to get?

Also, am I right in that the 2010s are the versions currently in print in the US?

 

Nope, not even close!

I have no idea why anyone would want to A/B a needledrop against vinyl?!!!?
I don't get why anyone would want to compare a needledrop of an album that wasn't part of the 2010 reissues!

To what end purpose is the exercise designed for?

It presents as many, if not more questions than it may [wont] solve!

Its fine to generalise a digital format against an analogue format but it would remain a simple generalisation. If the digital format is a needledrop then even a generalisation goes out of the window.

 

The 2010 US pressings are the ones to get but be aware that they have been re-issued of late. They may well carry the 2010 date on the sleeve but they are re pressings.
2010's were pressed at RTI while the re issues, standard blacks or coloured Newbury or Barnes and Noble are QRP's. These later pressings appear to be better pressings than the initial 2010's.

Different story outside of the US btw.

 

Obviously I agree with you on comparing various needle drops, it doesn't make sense given that no two setups will sound alike and cartridges in particular vary wildly and same with phono-stages. I simply mentioned it because I did a needle drop at a later date when someone said the live LP playback of the reissue sounded very similar to the CD. With the needle drop and the CD we were able to gain match.

When we did our actual comparisons of the vinyl we were playing the LPs on the exact setup on an incredibly transparent TOTL Dynavector cartridge so it was a more than fair comparison. In our group of five there wasn't a single person that thought the reissues sounded better or wanted to continue listening to them after we put on the best originals. FWIW these were the pressings we compared- AYE mono was the Barclay France pressing, stereo was a US original tri-color, ABAL stereo was a US original tri-color label, mono was Classic Records 200g and for EL the original UK Track with scratched out matrices. This is not a controversial opinion, plenty of long term members I trust think the same Even people that think reissues are always universally better thought the AYE mono reissue was dreadful; if there is some chance that this comes out in the future on digital they need to redo this transfer.

If you have some other insider information about the reissues that's fine, I'm not here to debate because I simply don't know. I mentioned it because not one of us thought they were all analog sourced after that second comparison, I am more inclined to trust what I hear than the dubious wording that EH choose to use.

Anyway to stay on topic as I've said in another Hendrix reissue thread someone that worked with Bernie Grundman posted on AA that the original three studio albums were transferred to hi-res PCM (I think he said 24/192, but this part I am not completely certain on and AA has a poor search engine) but he couldn't say one way or another if we'll see this uncompressed mastering come out. I for one am holding out hope and made sure to mention it to Chad Kassem the last time I saw him!

 

You're entirely wrong and appear to do everything in your power to avoid understanding the concept so there's no real point in trying to point the obvious to you. Enjoy your misconceptions!

 

All I can say is that it wasn't EH who changed the set up at Sterling Sound. I get what EH state on the stickers [though they do have a habit of putting US stickers on EU pressings and that just is crazy] and its quite true, what I don't do is read into them what is not claimed! Sterling stated they cut these 2010's from tape!
As for comparisons, I was lucky that I could A/B original pressings against the new pressings, 2010's and re issues of those 2010's.

I use a set up that gives a very transparent playback set up for this. But that's by the by because the simple fact is it is A/B'ing like for like.

Can we take this to private chat so as not to derail the thread?
Some questions I want to ask. What French pressing was it? Which Classic 200g, 2000 or 2013?

 

Sony's not doing SACD titles themselves. And Blu-Ray Audio is a dying format. LP makes money for Sony and EH. We need really good unfutzed with CD issues with good tonality well mastered. And keep those the rest of the CD era. Basically Polydor and Reprise pre RE-1 tonality but transferred from good tapes on new equipment, and have 24/96 or higher downloads with it. And keep the dynamic range intact.

 

I would like to add something like this to the wish list of what a Dagger release could be. it's probably a little to esoteric for a Sony release. I have a CD called Variations on a Theme:Red House. It's got seven versions of Red House, plus John Lee Hooker doing a version. (Berkley 1970, Newport Pop 1969, Studio version 1969, LA Forum 1969, Albert Hall 1969, & Winterland 10th if you are wondering.) It's really interesting to hear these different versions against each other and really shows where Hendrix took the song. I think you could easily do a set of Machine Gun, Hear My Train Coming and maybe even Tax Free off the top of my head, and get some really intriguing almost "scholarly" sets of Jimi's playing. I think it would be cool anyway.

 

If its Bold As Love I'll take two copies.

 

That's what I am thinking. Let's go ahead and make more Bernie Grundman SACDs. I wouldn't mind a nice CD/DVD package either.

 

At this point, I would rather have the complete shows released and simply make a playlist to compare the versions.

 

The catalogue with new stamps