Kevin Bresnahan

I prefer the "No Room For Squares", "The Turnaround" and "Straight No Filter" in session order, like the original CDs from the 80s/early 90s. When I picked original LPs, the change in pianists was noticeable to my ears. The RVGs were based on the 1960's LPs and added some bonus tracks. To reissue the Straight No Filter 3 track session they created a new limited CD with the leftovers. If you're talking about the Connoisseur CD, they duplicated the original 1986 LP track order, which was issued to get all of the unissued tracks from "No Room For Squares" and "The Turnaround" out. It had 3 different bands/pianists on it.

Sonny Stitt - Constellation (Cobblestone). One of my favorite later Stitt dates. Great band and Sonny's in fine form.

Nice date! That's a different cover from the CD. Is there any different material?

Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine (Columbia) Two eye mono. Nice sounding pressing. I still think the latest CD sounds better but I got this for a good price so I thought I'd see what it sounded like.

Dave Brubeck - Re-union (Fantasy). Nice red vinyl pressing. OK music but certainly not all that adventurous. The red vinyl makes it tough to tell that the pressing's a bit beat up but not too bad. I wonder if this is why they did this.

Max Roach +4 = Newport (deep groove Mercury). I still can't get into Draper's tuba solos. They just don't sound... musical?

Scott - I was just becoming an adult when CDs were introduced and even then, I was an serious audiophile. CDs definitely started out as a format marketed to audiophiles. The first players were big bucks and weren't found in your average audio Hi Fi store. I first heard a CD being played on a Phase Linear CD player hooked up to a high end Mcintosh system standing among a group of fellow audiophiles, both young & old, who had all seen the write ups of this new "perfect sound forever" format in one or two of the stereo mags of the day. We all loved what we heard. I immediately started saving my money for a player. I bought one a short time later and within a few years, I had given away all my vinyl because I just loved the sound of CD. It was almost universally considered better by audiophiles. The "vinyl is better than CD" stuff started much later. It started out as a small protest among some of the vinyl diehards because back then, you could discuss the science of sound and prove that digital has better reproduction capabilities than analog. They had it rough back then. Science was against them. These days, the "golden ear" argument reigns supreme. Science is out the window. "Vinyl is better because it sounds better on my system" has become a irrefutable statement of fact. Forget the fact that the S/N, is 100s of times better. Forget that wow & flutter is non-existent as is rumble. Forget about surface noise. So now we're in this stage where a technically inferior playback medium has somehow taken over as the better format. I used to be able to silence the "vinyl is better" arguments for many years with a simple blind test with a CD-R needle drop of an LP. I would play the actual LP or the CD-R of that LP and compare it to the CD. The "vinyl is better" listener could never distinguish between the CD-R of the LP and the LP itself. Once they heard the surface noise and its artifacts (pops, clicks, etc), they would immediately pick it as "better" whether it was on the CD-R or on the LP. It's really not the digital audio that the vinyl fans want and/or miss, it's the ambient noise associated with that vinyl that they want and/or miss. The CD playback system itself is not adding or taking away from the music. It plays back exactly what you feed it. Master a CD to sound good and it will play back with good sound. Master it to sound like crap & it will sound like crap on playback. But you know, it doesn't matter. I'm buying and playing records again because it's fun. I know that I have CDs of a lot of music that sounds better than it does on record but I guess I miss the LP playback rituals. I guess I miss the big artwork - hey, I can read LP liner notes without my reading glasses! I suppose I miss the surface noise too (sometimes... I still %$&^ hate pops during bass solos). But I really don't miss all those crappy pressings. All those scratched up LPs in the used bins. All the wear & tear (I'm on my third cartridge). And you know what I hate the most? Having to get up every 15-25 minutes. I miss being able to sit (and maybe fall asleep) in my chair for a solid hour and not have to worry about getting up to get the stylus out of the run-out groove. Kevin

When CDs first hit the market, *no one* was claiming it was any kind of "step backwards" much less a *major* step backwards. It has always been touted as an audiophile-level sound. And when done right, it can be audiophile sound, as mentioned in the initial post of this thread, quoting Ian Anderson, who has heard a master tape or two.

Dannie Richmond and the Last Mingus Band - Plays Charles Mingus (Timeless). What is it with these flimsy LP covers from this time period? They're like thick paper rather than cardboard.

Miles Davis - In Europe

I agree with you on these two. I tried telling people over on the Hoffman forums this but I was overruled. Hoffman himself has come out against these CDs so you're wasting your breath trying to convince them that they're not all bad.

Dexter Gordon - The Resurgence Of Dexter Gordon (Jazzland). This date never thrilled me all that much.

I brought an old CD into work today that I hadn't spun in a long time. It's a CD from alto/baritone saxophonist Del Dako on the Storyville label entitled "Balancing Act". It's a nice date and one I wish I had played more often. As I sat here listening to this CD, I got to wondering if Dako was still playing and touring so I Googled him only to find out that he died January 19, 2013. A nice obit can be read here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/del-dakos-saxophone-improvisations-matched-his-bold-approach-to-life/article8908538/. Interesting to read that he was forced to switch to vibes due to a bicycle accident. RIP Del Dako. Only 58. Gone too soon.

The sellers won't be "winning" much if they get reimbursed $14.00 for a CD that cost them $12.75 to ship. That's what the cost to ship a single CD to Europe from the US went up to. Add in the cost for that padded envelope and that $14 is pretty much gone.

But did he ever demonstrate this for you? In my experience, these black & white type of statements are rarely true unless there is something seriously wrong with one of the things being compared. My current "needle" on my Denon DP-500M is an Ortofon 3M Black. Before that, I had a relatively inexpensive Denon DL-160 on it (which I still have on my Pro-Ject Debut). Each cartridge has strengths and weaknesses but these don't result in a night & day difference. Tell me where the glass rattles and I'll play the records on my two turntables to see if I can hear them. FWIW, I once had a hi fi shop demo a high end (as in very expensive) AC power cord. As we switched back & forth, he pointed out these major differences he heard. I did not hear one of them. If you do - Bravo. I, for one, am very glad that I *don't* hear them. It saves me a bucket load of money that I can spend on more CDs/LPs or a nice bottle of wine.

Wayne Shorter - The Collector (BN/King).

Someone over on the Hoffman forums claims that every copy of this he's ever heard suffers from inner groove distortion. Do you hear it? Haven't noticed any. Sound pretty good to me. Me neither. Of course, it's rather impossible over there to tell someone that they're imagining it, so he'll keep on thinking that he needs a new vinyl reissue. His loss. Sonny Stitt - Blues For Duke (Muse). Other than the crappy, twangy bass sound, which even seems to affect the piano bass sound, Sonny was on for this date and the rhythm section is smokin'.

Someone over on the Hoffman forums claims that every copy of this he's ever heard suffers from inner groove distortion. Do you hear it?

My biggest concern about a lot of the vinyl proponents' arguments is when they (not talking Lon here) start spouting off something about a cost/benefit ratio. It's pretty rampant on some audiophile forums. Basically, the way it goes is if you prefer CD over LP, you've somehow cheaped-out on your stereo system. The implication is that if you haven't dropped a significant amount of money on your vinyl rig, you can't judge the difference. I find this attitude to be complete garbage. If you are playing a turntable and a CD player through the same preamp/amplification system, that's all that matters. There are many incrementally better CD players. There are many incrementally better turntables. There are very few *significantly* better CD players and turntables. I've listened to a lot of audio over the years. When comparing head to head, I have never been able to point to one CD player or turntable over another and stated with absolute certainty, "That's the one"! Subtle differences - sure - but absolute differences? Not really.

I've never been able to "fix" an over-compressed CD. How can EQ or level changes get back lost dynamic range? If the low level signals have been boosted up to be nearly as high as the levels that were already high, there's really no way to selectively lower them back. They're masked by the other signals. There is no tool out there that can do this as a post process. Hence, I don't believe it can't be done. Now, Lon, don't get me wrong and assume I'm calling you a liar here. There are things anyone can do to tweak their system to make anything sound better. All of the things you do are perfectly acceptable things to do and seem to help in your situation. However, the listening fatigue I get from listening to an over-compressed CD does not seem to be fixable on any of my many systems - it's always there and I hear it.

The reason I started buying vinyl in recent years is two-fold. First, for many Jazz recordings, it's still the easiest way to get some titles. There are quite a lot of them that never made it to CD or if they did, it is on some ultra-rare CD issued in Japan that will cost you big bucks to obtain. Second - and this was the killer - many of today's CDs sound like shit, particularly in the rock domain. Most of today's mastering engineers are squashing everything. I can' t even listen to some them for more than 10 minutes before I have to yank them off my system. A perfect example are all of the latest Jimi Hendrix CDs issued by his family. I get a headache after listening to them. So I'll continue to spin my old CDs but I'll continue to buy vinyl, particularly stuff I don't already own on CD.

Lester Young - Lester Young At Olivia Davis' Patio Lounge Washington, DC, 1956 (Pablo). Better recording than I thought it was going to be.

I've never been a fan of Mark West Pinot Noir. It's typically too light for me. When I want a nice Pinot Noir these days, I pick up a bottle of Meomi, which is a Caymus Family vineyard. Beautiful Pinot with a nice heavy mouth. More Burgundian than the Mark West Pinot. Yeah, it's double the price but you only live once. Life's too short to worry about an extra $10 for a nicer bottle. When you're laying on your death bed, you don't want to be thinking about all that great wine you could've had. Weird that your Rare Red bottle didn't have the grape varietals listed. This is what the label is supposed to look like:

Paul Desmond - Skylark (CTI). Typical original Van Gelder CTI pressing. Looks mint and plays with several spots of crackle. This one is actually one of the least crackly one yet. Other than the dated electric piano sound, which has never been one of my favorite sounds, this is a pretty, enjoyable date.

It's lawsuits like this that make me realize that Shakespeare had a very good idea.