Kevin Bresnahan

Thanks for the reminder. I ordered up a vinyl copy of Walter Smith III's latest: https://waltersmithiii.bandcamp.com/album/twio

Thanks for bringing this up. I ordered a copy myself.

A Sony STR-D365 (Manual here: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W001/W0010459M.pdf) is rated at 100 Watts/channel, which is more than enough power for most normal audio settings. These older Sony amps can sometimes sound bright, but that's not what you're describing. Looking at the specs, you might need to check your step-up voltage transformer to make sure that it can deliver ~200 Watts (~1.7 Amps). Some less expensive step-ups might not be able to "keep up" with this amp if they can't supply that current quickly. However, I still don't think this is your problem because you are probably not cranking up these small bookshelf speakers... which brings me to... I still think your money would be better spent on upgrading your speakers. If the sound is fine for Jazz combo or Classical chamber music but can't seem to reproduce the full spectrum of an orchestra, you probably need an additional driver for the mid-range. I would recommend auditioning some larger speakers, maybe even a nice 3 way speaker, by bringing the orchestral piece that you want to hear. See if you can find an affordable pair of speakers to replace these fairly-inefficient (90 dB) 2-way AR15's. BTW - bigger, 3-way speakers does not mean louder. Yes, in general, they can produce louder sounds, but you shouldn't have to crank them up to get the better frequency response that you're looking for. But that brings up why you should audition speakers before buying. Go to a shop and listen at your normal listening levels. Some larger 3-way speakers sound fine at lower listening levels and some don't. One of the dumbest speaker purchases I ever made was a pair of Klipsch Fortes. These speakers could really "crank it up" but didn't sound very good at normal listening levels. I don't miss them at all. Unfortunately, I know how true this can be. Thanks for nothing, Foghat. My ears didn't work right for 3 days after that concert.

Your speakers likely have more to do with your sound than your amp. If you list the specifics of your system, i.e. Sony model number, Cambridge Audio model number, Speaker make/model number, we could better understand the interactions between these items. For instance, if you have very large, inefficient speakers and you're trying to drive it with an underpowered amp at high volume, you're probably not gong to like the result. Also, yo need to tell us what it is you don't like about your playback. Too little bass? Too much treble? Not enough of either? The more specific, the better. And I would not necessarily recommend the SH forums for audio advice. That place has a lot of snake oil salesmen who couldn't build an affordable system if their life depended on it.

CJ - pressing details aren't the thing here... the original poster is asking for a sealed original pressing. "Pressing details" in this case is, "Well, I bought it new sometime near when it came out". The only way to know if it is a first pressing is to open it and look at the dead wax. Look, I'm into pressing details as well anyone else and I do look for certain pressings. But I'd be the first one to tell you how hard it is to get a certain pressing when you crack a sealed record, particularly one that was so popular when it was released. It's a little like buying a sealed pack of 1986 Fleer basketball cards and hoping to find a Michael Jordan rookie card in there. BTW, I've played this game before. One time I was in Stereo Jack's and he got in a batch of older sealed Blue Note LPs. He was selling them for a very reasonable price so I bought about 5 of them, hoping I might hit the "Blue Note lottery". When I got home and opened them, they were all late-70s pressings. Even worse - there was not one RVG pressing in the bunch.

What kind of seller do you think is going to remember that he or she bought a certain LP during it's first production run... 45 YEARS ago? I think you're expecting way too much here. I was buying a lot of records in 1975 and I can't remember what records I bought much less when I bought them. And again, with nearly all sellers, once you buy a sealed record, you own it. So if that seller's recollection is faulty, you're not getting your money back.

Can I ask how you will know that a sealed LP is from the original press run? You can't see the dead wax info through the cellophane. Do yourself a big favor and go to discogs and buy the highest graded opened copy of the pressing you want. That way, you know you have the right pressing and you also know that the record isn't warped from being stored in a shrink-wrapped LP sleeve for the past 45 years. You should also know that most (all?) sellers will not take back anything they sell sealed once it's opened. So if you open that sealed LP and find that it's a newer pressing, you won't be able to return it.

If this is for the CD set, I would think that an original 1984 release, either US or Japanese, would be in a longbox, so you should try to find a collector that is offering sealed longbox versions.

Either way, this will be a tough one to find... The chances of finding someone with a sealed LP from 1975 or a sealed original release CD from 1984 are very very slim. There aren't a lot of sources for stuff like this. BTW - buyer beware with older sealed items. Back in the old days of vinyl, unscrupulous sellers would re-seal records to sell them as new. There was growing market for shrinkwrap sealers for a while in the late 70's and i can imagine with the growing market for old vinyl, this may rise up out of the ashes.

There are a couple of copies for $24 on discogs: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2173500?ev=rb

Dammit, I forgot I have a King copy of "The Collector". Now I have 3 versions on LP too. I agree that the Tone Poet of "ETC" is much better than the LT LP, as I did a listening comparison when I got. Unfortunately I now add the caveat that my hearing isn't the best days, so take this with a grain of salt, especially if my "winner" ends up have way too much treble, which is what I don't hear as well these days. I have to say that with the exception of Andrew Hill's "Black Fire" and Lee Morgan's "Cornbread", these Tone Poet LPs sound great. Hill's record has that warbly piano that I just can't get by and the Morgan was not much better than my old Liberty RVG pressing. But the rest, particularly the Kenny Burrell & Lou Donaldson's "Shing-a-Ling", are very good. I wish they weren't so damn expensive. And now I have to go get that Lonnie Smith.

I would like that Turrentine. PM coming.

According to the article linked above, "Even though he was in poor physical and financial health, he was taken by the telephone call he received from Scher in the middle of his three-week run at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco".

Was it an upgrade over the OJC CD though? I've often found that those older OJC CDs are the best version. After all, they were made with the master tape while Japanese pressings usually used a tape copy.

Spinning Pete LaRoca's "Basra" off the recently released 80th Anniversary LP. This is a very nice sounding LP. Kevin Gray seems to be able to coax the right sounds out of these master tapes. Side 1 actually has what looks like the right amount of dead wax too. Side 2 is back to the typical inch and half of dead wax though.

My old PC speakers died and I found a pair of Klipsch R-41PM speakers on sale at Best Buy for $249 (normally $399), so I grabbed a pair. They sound very nice and I'm glad I got them. I even like the dynamic bass boost that everyone complains about.

Nick Brignola - On A Different Level (Reservoir). This is a great bari sax recording.

A mono copy of Lou Donaldson's "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" is most definitely a fold-down. And the Tone Poet LP is a very nice sounding LP. I was surprised at how good it sounded. So far, I still think "Introducing Kenny Burrell" has the best sound in the Tome Poet series but this one is close.

I picked up a couple more Tone Poets for my birthday yesterday. Hank Mobley's "Poppin'" and Lee Morgan's "The Cooker". I have an older pressing of "The Cooker" but I was never able to find an affordable copy of that Mobley LP, which used to go for big bucks for a while.

That is a very nice date too. I'll have to give that a spin later.

My favorite version of "Summertime":

Aren't these the labels that were most affected by the Universal fire? Are there any Decca masters left?

It's been a while for me too. I have this on a gold CD. Were all of them gold or just some of them?

Wally Traugott's Blue Note cuts are fine. There's always someone wanting to complain somewhere. I bet the ones complaining are back to the "All Wally LPs are cut with a digital master" stuff. I've talked at length with Ron McMaster about the cutting system there are he says that LPs are not cut digitally unless they are only supplied with a digital master by the label. Blue Note did not do that. They always cut Blue Note LPs with master tapes. Nowadays, that might not be true, as they now store the Blue Note masters at an Iron Mountain facility but back when Wally was cutting, the masters were close by. FWIW, if you're into Bob Seger's "Live Bullet" at all, the Wally cut is the only cut you should be looking for.

It seems weird to me that Kenny is 77. He was always one of the "younger" of the Jazz greats I saw regularly. I guess that means I'm getting old too. I had tickets to see Kenny in Boston but it got cancelled as the pandemic rolled across the country. It's too bad too, since he was touring in a trio with Dave Holland on bass. I was so looking forward to seeing that.