You will need to contact them to ask. It depends on the album. If they don't respond through the site, try social media. You cannot go by deadwax credits since one of the mastering engineers they used for a long time does not sign lacquers in recent years.
Here's an interesting write-up on a shootout between an original and the PP reissue of Clifford Jordan Quartet "Glass Bead Games": Clifford Jordan- Glass Bead Games Shoot-Out - The Vinyl Press
It's always well and good for reviews like this to say the original is better. And maybe it is. But it's almost a pointless comparison when for most people the original is unobtainable. There's also a certain bias concerning the source, and I wonder how much differently the reviewer would have reacted if told beforehand that the Pure Pleasure was analog -which the label has since confirmed to be the case -instead of assuming it was something suspect and kind of implying it came from the cd.
From my own communications with Pure Pleasure, I would agree with this reviewer’s opinion that PP “seems to go out of the way to cloud the issue” regarding source and chain. Their responses do not instill confidence, at least not for me. Ultimately, there’s bias in any review. You just glean what you may and go from there.
Thanks for the heads up. I preordered from DG as well. They are still at $34.99 for this title, whereas Acoustic Sounds and other outlets are $41.99. DG has reasonable shipping too.
River, my order for Charles Tolliver/Music Inc Live in Tokyo got filled yesterday, just need to pick it up
Peter, you’ve probably already acted on this but I have all those and Compassion is easily the one I play the least, music is more mellow. The Live at Slugs and Tokyo and All Stars are must haves imo.
Thanks for the tip! I did pick up both Slugs, really enjoying them. From streaming it sounds like Tokyo has less of a rough edge (not meant in a bad way), but still has some of that mystique? I will probably get to all of the others too eventually, I don't mind mellow, but with so much good jazz to buy it's always good to get input on what to prioritize
Listening to these I can’t believe people claim PP uses digital transfers. Digital transfers don’t sound this way.
Really, though, I'd be flabbergasted that master tapes are being shipped overseas to England. That doesn't seem very practical considering the delicate nature of 50ish year old tapes.
I've always assumed these would be from copy tapes, like those used for early UK/German pressings etc. The customer service reps in these companies don't always seem too understanding of these kind of nuances. But those tapes can still sound pretty good
Stop messing around now guys and sit quietly. We'll have a listen to this one OK and you can tell me then if you like it.
That seems a pretty reasonable assumption. It would also be good news, as you say copy tape can produce excellent results.
I pulled up this thread because I'm set to order several Pure Pleasure titles in the Acoustic Sounds 10% sale. Love their Strata East and Nimbus collections.
Their Strata East titles are mostly just vinyl rips. Given the price of some of the OGs, they are still a decent deal, I guess. But that’s apparently what went on. Buy knowing what you’re getting.
To a user further up the thread, they stated: "We only reissue audiophile, analogue reissues, with original master tapes by Ray Staff at Air Mastering studios." They also responded to inquiries about Clifford Jordan and Charles Tolliver releases ('Glass Bead Games,' 'Live at Slugs') that those albums were AAA. So it seems like AAA is the rule rather than the exception for them. But if you want to know about a specific title one way or the other, they seem pretty amicable and forthcoming about responding directly.
I'm not here to convince anyone. Believe them if you wish of read what they write more attentively. One of my friend's is one of the world's biggest Strata East collectors and is well familiar with their reissue program. He even knows some of the collectors who provided them vinyl to use for their reissues. This isn't a criticism. Nothing I've seen about most of their reissues says anything about "CUT FROM THE ORIGINAL ANALOG TAPES." And certainly not the Strata East reissues they did. Or buy one and listen on headphones. It's obvious. The SE catalog is a mess. I'm not sure anyone knows where the tapes are or if they even exist. Read what you've put in bold carefully. It's carefully worded and requires careful reading.