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Not new. The remaster is from 2010. But it sounds REALLY good. And you're right: The album is fantastic.

That's a great album! Is that a NEW remaster? Now Playing

As I've told many people when I'm asked about stuff like this, try both side by side and see for yourself. I'd never stop someone from buying anything they like. We're all different. Personally, I have heard several transport/DAC set-ups recently. One had a very expensive DAC. That system had an NAD CD player in the system as well. We went back & forth between the two playback systems and we just couldn't hear any differences. No change in the highs or lows and certainly no change in the noise levels. To our ears, there was no difference. As I've said before, this is a good thing to me, because it saves me a bunch of money by not forcing me to upgrade. To be honest, back in the days when my hearing was much better, I sampled a lot of CD players, probably close to a hundred players, and I was never able to tell much difference between any of them. There were stereo shops where I would compare CD player to CD player to CD player with the same CD with no discernible differences. I expected this because digital audio kinda works that way. The 1's and 0's get converted to analog and unless the player has a really shitty DAC, and I've yet to hear one that does, it will sound pretty much the same. The identical set of 1's and 0's simply cannot change the frequency response through a different DAC. Error correction can be improved, but error correction doesn't mess with the audio frequencies. Poor error correction just adds noise.

Indeed! (I like that bass/drums groove as well)

I do agree, that Kelley's Monk biography is not the best example of someone sticking to the essentials and only the essentials... (for instance, I am just reading John Chilton's Bechet biography and imho that one is perfect in keeping the balance between biographical information, gossip and music; also in talking about the music without getting overly technical), then again, genealogical research is not cockroaches in Texas; and while Kelley makes (iirc) some new contributions to our understanding of Monk's family history, I hope very much that the authors of that Dorham bio do not expand the world's knowledge about cockroaches in Texas...

Ts find

Kevin, I have had many cd players. . . the sound of my Transport and DAC together is MUCH better. There are so many more factors besides "jitter." Of course the combo is more than many would spend for an entire system, so they should be.

I've often skipped ahead ... so thanks for letting me know I can probably just start with Chapter 3. FWIW didn't the universally lauded Monk biography start with a veritable crapton of information about his ancestry, to a level of detail few people got anything out of?

Not Abe. But will confirm the sax player is Japanese. Glad you enjoyed it!

Ha, it's nice to have options.

If I were in the market for a straight-up player, I would likely look at Marantz or NAD like Lon recommended earlier. I wish Oppo Digital didn't exit the business. Their players were great bang-for-the-buck. I personally think a transport and an external DAC is a solution looking for a problem. Most of the claims of improvement using this type of set-up revolve around jitter, which is proven to be 1) not a problem with almost any CD player made and 2) not audible even if it is really really bad.

Sounds like people want an abridged version of the book. Reminds me of Mark Lewisohn’s bio of the Beatles “Tune In” – there is an extended UK version with a ton of historical detail and an edited USA version without the ton of historical detail.

Is Track 3 Kauro Abe? Great blindfold test. Really enjoyed track 2 and the heavy Basie vibe of track 4.

Not that Parker album, but it's his leader date. Track 3 isn't a Taiwanese player, but if you remember that name please drop it. I'd love to check that out.

I'm not sure I know an album where Parker plays it without Hamid being there too. Some sleuthing brought this up as a possibility https://www.discogs.com/release/10654938-Gary-Joseph-Hassay-Dave-Liebman-William-Parker-Tatsuya-Nakatani-Deep-Within As for the other clue, there's a Taiwanese free jazz player who I can't think of right now

Hell of a tenor sound...

You're not far off on the folk element geography. I was worried that maybe I was hearing things, so I'm glad that my hint made at least some sense to you. And you got William Parker on 9. Not Hamid Drake or Carter though...

Lao Dan was my banker, I'm sure I could hear Chinese folk elements having listened carefully as suggested... Now I could start listing shakuhachi players but I won't. With Shabaka and Andre 3000's flute playing it's had a bit of a revival I think. Unless you're being a bit sneaky and it's William Parker, the percussion could be Hamid in that case. The second flute player Daniel Carter And that's my last guess, I promise

Not Lao Dan. I've actually not heard him before but will be checking his music out. Yes, shakuhachi is on 9. Good call.