Nat King Cole THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU SACD/45rpm from Analogue Productions

Got it Steve - after a 23 year wait I finally get the answer.....at last!

My Amazon review of the SACD version said it all at the time....

Mr. F. J. Coop

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Gold Standard for 'Nat King Cole' on CD

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2010

As an avid Nat King Cole Fan, I've collected practically all his work on CD since 1987.In my opinion most of these releases have been very good indeed,some have been excellent and a very few have been stunning.

Up to this point,the latter description had been reserved for the Nat Cole DCC Gold CD releases from around 1997 (mastered by Steve Hoffman) but with this new release from Analogue Productions I have to say that the New Audio Reference point for Nat on CD has been firmly established.

For example, making an 'A to B' audio comparison of the DCC version of 'The Very Thought of You' and this new AP disc it's clear beyond doubt from track 1 of this Hybrid disc that you're getting a far more 'dynamic' & 'direct' presentation.

It'd be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that around 15dB of gain had been applied and that everything is simply 'louder'- but actually the truth is that every space within the stereo image is now full of musical information, with clear & precise resolution allied to impressive scale.

For those of you with a CD player only, you'll hear one of the best audio restorations you'll probably ever hear on this format - If you're also fortunate enough to have the necessary SACD player, then all 14 original LP tracks (plus 2 bonus tracks) can be unlocked from the SACD layer of the disc in glorious 3 channel high resolution sound that is guaranteed to leave you breathless at it's sonic beauty.

(Technical Note - it's a shame the vocal 'drop-out' on track 6 at 2'54" that has been evident on all previous releases still exists).

Very Highly Recommended!