jazzbo

Dude, if you were to objectively read your posts you'd see where you are passively aggessively saying others are silly or deficient because they don't do what you do. Over and over. I'm sorry, I wish it weren't that way, but you keep coming across that way, especially with anything audio or mastering related. I'm just calling it as it comes across. If you don't want to see that cool. I'm going to stop addressing you in posts. Please don't address me.

Whatever Scott. You do what you're going to do. Let others do the same without feeling superior perhaps.

Thanks. For some reason I'm not having success with ordering that one. I'll look about.

Epic fail on my part, I wanted to see "2013" but it says "2011." Too bad. I wanted Crescent, and Living Space, seems the latter has already disappeared.

You do research, and you thank persons such as erwbol and etherbored for their reporting.

erwbol, Crescent was released in June 2013 on SHMCD. To your knowledge is this a new mastering as in those 11 you list above? Thanks.

e, yeah, it's a good mastering. Makes me appreciate the session more. Scott, all these in this series appear to be remastered. Not sure about ALL SHM-CDs on other labels, etc. Some are NOT, supposedly, according to what I've read. I have two Grateful Dead ones I picked up as they were as cheap as regular cds and they are the same mastering as the other cd versions I had, and sounded basically the same.

Jerry, this was truly a surprise to me. The neck felt far better than I thought it would, and even the frets were well-dressed and it intonated properly. I have never had another Douglas, I do have an Agile fretless Silverburst Les Paul copy that is also a surprisingly good guitar (but did cost twice what this one did I believe).

Well Scott, I'm happy for you. If if headphones sound great, I don't want to wear and listen to them.

I used headphones a lot for years and I just tired of them, and never enjoyed them as I do speaker listening. I live in an apartment now as well, but I guess I'm lucky in a way though it's at a cost: my only real listening time is on weekday afternoons when no neighbors are home, the rest of the time of the day and usually all weekend I am generally at my parents helping them out. That said, my apartment is set up so that my system fires away from any neighbors and I don't worry about the volume even when I get home after 9 or 10 pm. If I had to listen to headphones. . . I probably would move somewhere where I could listen to speakers, I dislike and distrust the sound that much.

Okay, I'm going to make a recommendation for a very cheap guitar that delivers. A few weeks ago one of my neighbors stopped me and said "I heard you playing your guitar." I thought uh-oh here comes some complaints and at least they're talking to me about rather than complain to the management. But instead she said she only hears my guitar when she passes in front of my place, not inside hers, and she liked the sound of what she heard, said I must have a really nice guitar and wanted some advice about what to get her son (13) who's getting interested in playing guitar and has a beat up old nylon-stringed acoustic that a friend sold him, but he wants to go electric. So I talked with her about her son a bit and her budget and looked around. I volunteered to throw in a cheap little Epiphone amp I never used that is lying around and she wanted to spend less than 200 so that gave me a bit more wiggle room. So I looked at Fender and Epiphone starter kits and guitars and I looked at Rondo music. Something made me think he would like the Douglas Hadron 625 Rondo sells so I ordered one to check out. It came in two days and blew me away. Neck through design, very strong pickups, very nice fit and finish, strikingly good looking guitar. All mahogany, decent hardware, and plays VERY easily, as easily as my Telecaster which is my benchmark for a really easy to play guitar. The neck through is a big plus for its feel and ease, and the neck is a good size for smaller hands (this guy has decent size hands for his age). Has a tunable bridge and strings go through the body. Decent sustain between that and the neck through. A Super Strat set up and looks very cool in its natural finish. Very nice sounds, you can get a warm rich sound or you can get a screaming sound, and it never sounds thin or really harsh. Honestly for 170 bucks I don't know how they do it. If I were to single out one flaw I would say that the middle (single-coil) pickup is a bit low in input and doesn't balance as well with the neck and bridge. But in the 2 and 4 positions it sounds pretty darned good, so there you go. The young man was BESIDE himself. He is very happy. He loves it. Every now and then I can hear HIM playing and though he's beginning, he really WANTS it, so who knows. I have happy neighbors and worry just a bit less about playing here myself. This is a very good guitar for the money. I was very pleasantly surprised. If you know anyone looking for a starter guitar, or a decent player that they don't have to shell out a lot for. . . . http://www.rondomusic.com/hadron625nafx1.html

It is a key distinction, and I'd add a third - as you say, is a new version of any kind true to the reality of the sounds, true to the tape, or (my addition) true to the feel of the original LP issue. All different things. Good point. My impressions of digital Blue Note have seen some change getting to know Blue Note vinyl more, slowly, the last few years. Wish I could afford the original pressings of Blue Note releases, but I'm not even going there.

I differ in that I don't think that the SHM-CD Monks "obliterate" the RVGs. I like them both for their different presentations. The RVGs "boogie" in a way the SHM-CDs don't to my ears, and I like that. EQ and compression boosts are not always a bad thing. Anyone who has taken a raw tape and tried to make a master can realize this. I used to master tapes of bands I was in in the 'eighties and can well attest to that myself. Also I'm not a headphone user, a very unnatural sound to me in all instances, and all my judgments are speakers in a room. I like both series for what they are. Personal preferences in sound overall and system differences play in this I'm sure.

I'm a fan of the RVG series, one of the few it seems at times. These are quite different in sonic nature. My system accomodates either mastering style and allows them to shine. In general the RVGs seem more like live music to ME (others think differently, I know). And these SHM-CDs seem more like incredible transparent representations of the session tape. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's the essential difference in character to me. The best RVGs seem more "alive" and I'm able to deal with the frequency balance in my system through "riding the gain"(differing the gain on DAC/preamp, tube preamp, and amp gain stages), tube bias changes and using the excellent treble cut circuit in my amp. Tiny adjustments make significant differences. You've heard my system so you may have an idea of what I mean. I like most examples of both series I've owned. I prefer them to the McMasters and "Blue Note Works" series releases, but my devotion to these Blue Note sessions isn't as absolute as it once was; I'm not going to replace every single one.

I had Moto Grossa Feio I only had on the US One Way cd which imo sounds awful. I prefer that session to Odyssey of Iska to be honest, and it sounds really good on the recent Japanese cd. Grass Hill has grown on me over time and I really like the bonus session even more. Jimmy Ponder is always worth listening to imo. I'll probably get Lift Every Voice as I enjoy this session a lot, and Connoisseurs can almost always be bettered these days.

Got in a batch and listened to Odyssey of Iska and Grass Roots. So glad the latter has both sessions that appeared on the US cd. Both sound very good, with specail notice to the Shorter as it is so much improved from the original US cd to my ears.

Wild idea! Best of luck to all involved.

What, is he going to share a rant with Eastwood?

Thanks! I am enjoying it, the sound is better than I expected and it's still making me smile realizing I have it after so many years.

Aftab, good to see you. No answer to your query as I'm not sure where my Conn is or my Mosaic set at the moment, and I'm not home to look for htem, but nice to see a post.

I wasn't pointing any fingers other than to an ongoing discussion. Although in a way this IS a reissue as the four Fillmore East nights were officially released in highly-edited form by Columbia. Is it release day yet?

Challengers is totally ridiculous, but that is it's charm. After a full day with my Mom's dementia even supervillains are fun and strangely rational.

Yes indeed Doug, we've been talking about it here: I'm really looking forward to this!

Not necessarily true. When I am by myself and listening to what I want, there are periods of time when I listen to music for days on end that are not available in stereo. Mono can be fantastic, better than stereo in some instances. And sometimes the mono mix is significantly different enough that I'll prefer it to mono and not reach for the stereo. So I know you love to be right, but for me this statement often really isn't: "But, at the end of the day, the majority of music any of us listens to is in stereo. And it's not because recording in mono was cost prohibitive. ;)"

Sometimes the mixes are better though. I really love the way Bill Evans souns in the mono Jazz Track, the piano sounds more resonant and full. In each of these I find a reason in the mix to really enjoy. . . it's not just that it's 'mono.' But maybe because you love stereo the placebo effect is keeping you from hearing the benefit of the mono.