J.A.W.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26009575#" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/movies/philip-seymour-hoffman-actor-dies-at-46.html?emc=edit_na_20140202&_r=0

I totally agree with Mike. As a matter of fact, everything I've heard Gould do I found horrible, I avoid his performances like the plague. I have 2 versions of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, one by Ronald Brautigam, the other by Maria João Pires (her later DG cycle), but, as I said earlier, these works are not really my cup of tea.

Also available from third-party sellers on U.S. Amazon: Agharta http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B000024QNR Pangaea http://www.amazon.com/Pangaea-Miles-Davs/dp/B000024QMR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391361349&sr=8-1&keywords=B000024QMR

Released in Japan on September 21, 1996 and still available from third-party sellers: Sony SRCS 9128~29 Agharta http://www.amazon.co.jp/アガルタ-マイルス・デイヴィス/dp/B000024QNR/ref=sr_1_12?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1391361049&sr=1-12&keywords=miles+davis+agharta Sony SRCS 9130~31 Pangaea http://www.amazon.co.jp/パンゲア-マイルス・デイヴィス/dp/B000024QMR/ref=sr_1_13?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1391360770&sr=1-13&keywords=miles+davis+pangaea Maybe you know someone in Japan who can help you with these.

I'd say that given the fact that most of the music discussed here tends to be several decades old, it only stands to reason that conversation about them would eventually dry up. How much can one say about Kind Of Blue, for example? So I have to disagree with my friend J.A.W., I didn't see this as a negative comment. Just a reasonable observation. OK, but as I said this thread is about sonic preferences, not about whether a discussion like that is worthwhile or not; that's not the point here and would actually be off-topic.

I pre-ordered the Richter on Amazon Germany when their price was about 58 euros and it's on its way to me for that price. I guess I was lucky.

The discussion in the SHM Blue Notes thread about their sonic qualities made me post this thread, which is merely meant as a question about the sonic preferences of people here before the SHM discs appeared, not about the merits (or lack thereof) of that discussion itself. If you think it's ridiculous and/or if you're not interested - and some people who posted here are clearly not - why not ignore this thread instead of posting negative comments?

A little off-topic here, but do the inserts/booklets say who mastered these SHM discs? Couldn't find it in the other thread. Erwbol is right, Universal Japan are often using older masterings for their impulse! CDs, which they keep reissuing over and over again.

As far as I know all SHM Blue Notes have been remastered. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Not anymore, sold most of them a long time ago.

Although Mahler is one of my favourite composers (really), I'm not too fond of his song cycles. That said, I like Klemperer's version of Das Lied von der Erde with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich best.

Yep. I also have that one; great set.

I've always found RVG's to be a mixed bag. On one end you have excellent stuff like Rollins' Vanguard date and Dolphy's OTL, on the other you have Hill's Point Of Departure which is incredibly thin and brittle, IMO. That said, since I never had the pleasure of hearing the original analog LP's I would have to concur that the RVG's are the best of the bunch. The McMasters stuff was less than impressive. I had many original Blue Note LPs and later a lot of Japanese King LPs, which generally sounded great. Unlike most people here (it seems) I didn't like the RVGs that I had at all (and I had almost all of them at one point, used to buy this stuff in bulk - I know, not the wisest thing to do when you don't know if you'll like it or not) and prefer the XRCDs, the CD-layers of the SACDs, early McMasters (to my ears many of them sound excellent), BN Works (too much high-end roll-off) and early Connoisseurs, in that order.

There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm here about the Japanese SHM Blue Note CDs and it made me wonder which Blue Note CD versions people here preferred before, so I thought this would be a good (or perhaps silly ) idea for a poll.

Sheesh man, read my post again: I was referring to 2 members who were recently banned, not to you personally. Why so defensive?

Good grief, after the involuntary departure of 2 troll-like protagonists a while ago I had hoped it'd be a bit quieter here. Obviously I was wrong...

Scott, It's SHM, not SMH; it stands for "Super High Material".

Because they think it'll sound better and that's exactly why record labels are reissuing titles time and time again on discs made of "new" material or manufactured in a different way.

The fact that some titles were remastered for SHM release doesn't mean that SHM (not SMH) is a mastering tool; it isn't, as I said it's a manufacturing process.

I'm not saying that this is the case here, but some people seem to think that SHM does have something to do with mastering. It doesn't; SHM, like XRCD, is a manufacturing process, nothing else. I had quite a few 24-bit UCCI CDs and hated them; to my ears they sounded pumped-up and harsh, with boosted highs/lows. Got rid of the ones I could get other versions of.

I take it MDT, Crochet and Presto are classical music download sites. Do they all provide sleeve notes? Could you post links, please, as I've never heard of these firms? MG MDT, Crotchet and Presto Classical are CD stores that can easily be found on the internet: http://www.mdt.co.uk/ http://www.crotchet.co.uk/ http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/ Europadisc and Classics Direct are also recommended; their prices are often a bit lower: http://europadisc.co.uk/ http://www.classicsdirect.co.uk/ In many cases Amazon U.K. or third-party sellers on Amazon are cheaper than all of those: http://www.amazon.co.uk/ Thank you, but which ones can I rely on to include sleeve notes like Hyperion do? MG What do you mean? As I said they sell CDs, including sleeve notes on the inserts where available. Sorry, I'm not buying much in the way of CDs now, because I'm almost out of space; just downloads. I thought I asked which firms did downloads and which of those gave you sleeve notes. I may have phrased it badly, though. MG Can't help you there, I don't "do" downloads.

They adhere to the order of the 12 inch LPs (plus liner notes, artwork), I believe. The bonus cuts make this the complete sessions. So apart from any bonus tracks they're the same mishmash as the original 12" LPs. If I remember correctly (sold them a long time ago) even the RVGs had the tracks in recorded order. I prefer it that way.

I take it MDT, Crochet and Presto are classical music download sites. Do they all provide sleeve notes? Could you post links, please, as I've never heard of these firms? MG MDT, Crotchet and Presto Classical are CD stores that can easily be found on the internet: http://www.mdt.co.uk/ http://www.crotchet.co.uk/ http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/ Europadisc and Classics Direct are also recommended; their prices are often a bit lower: http://europadisc.co.uk/ http://www.classicsdirect.co.uk/ In many cases Amazon U.K. or third-party sellers on Amazon are cheaper than all of those: http://www.amazon.co.uk/ Thank you, but which ones can I rely on to include sleeve notes like Hyperion do? MG What do you mean? As I said they sell CDs, including sleeve notes on the inserts where available.

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but unlike the original albums the early McMaster versions of the Thelonious Monk/Milt Jackson Blue Notes had the tracks in recorded order. Same goes for the J.J. Johnson McMasters and Hank Mobley's early Straight No Filter, No Room for Squares (Hoffman's AP remaster followed the album sequence) and The Turnaround McMasters. How are these TYCJ reissues in that respect (as far as they've been released, of course)?

I was asking a simple question about the current "no politics" criteria on this board, in a thread I posted. If you see it as "unyieldingly riding a principle", fine; I couldn't care less about that and neither about your implicit and rather insulting suggestion about my apparent lack of common sense. I'll ignore your future posts.

Given who Seeger was, that seems close to unavoidable. I understand that, of course, but I was given the impression that political discussions are no longer allowed here since the removal of the dedicated forum. I know, but let's try to be commonsensical in this case -- both those who are praising Seeger here and those who have doubts are for the most part acknowledging that the man's music and its impact were significantly political (as you say). I'd say pull the shades down when the discussion is no longer directly linked to what Seeger himself did or didn't do. What if people are getting into a political fight about what he himself did or didn't say/do? I don't see the difference.