Jump to content

Claude

Members
  • Posts

    3,779
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

Posts posted by Claude

  1. The current NEW quality budget turntable is the Pro-ject Debut ($180 including cartridge)

    But below $200 you get most for your money by finding a used Thorens TD160/165/166 or TD145/146/147 ($100) and add a new cartridge ($100). Those 20-25 year old but very competitive turntables are a delight to watch and to work with. They are at least in the same league as a new Pro-ject 1.2 or the cheapest Rega ($400).

    In the US they may be a little harder to find, but in Europe there are a few every day on Ebay.de.

    With other vintage turntables finding replacement parts is often diffcult, not with a Thorens

    http://www.theanalogdept.com/

  2. Star People is one of my favourite Miles Davis post-comeback albums.

    The CD I have (late 80's, made in Holland) sounds horrible. I've seen a japanese mini-LP reissue from 1998 (Sony SRCS-9135, apparently the latest reissue, no DSD remaster available) for a reasonable price, but I don't have the possibility to listen to it.

    Does anyone have this reissue and can comment on the sound? Is it worth upgrading, or is the recording really that bad?

  3. However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window.

    This is the weak point.

    If Disney want to use this technology to sell cheap "one view" DVDs (they will have to be a lot cheaper than regular DVDs, in the pay-per-view range, maybe $5-8), these discs will probably attract more people attempting to circumvent the limitation by copying the DVDs before they selfdestruct (although DVD-copying is not yet as easy and cheap as CD-copying) than people really using it for it's meant purpose.

    I can imagine that Disney will try to make the price even higher than that (half the price if a regular DVD, i.e. $8-10). Like the record industry which thinks it can sell downloadable albums for more than half the price of a CD.

    They will inevitably fail. I wonder what goes on in the brains of those marketing guys, especially after the DivX experience.

  4. I like what Charles Lloyd made after his return in the late 80's, but I prefer his 60's recordings

    My favourite is an album he made in Chico Hamilton's group: Drumfusion

    Lloyd gets a lot of solo space (could almost be his session) and plays in a wilder, more Coltrane-influenced style than later.

    Apparently this album never made it to CD. I found an LP (looks like a reissue from the 80's or 90's) recently.

  5. Yes, I also think Planet Music was just an online store should not be on this list.

    But there seems to be a relationship between Disconforme from Andorra (Definitive, Jazz Factory) and Blue Moon from Barcelona (Fresh Sound, Blue Moon, RCA, ...), and this goes further than just distribution. The "Jimmy Giuffre Complete 1947-1952 Master Takes" was available on Blue Moon in the mid 90's, and is now on the Definitive label. The concepts of both labels look very similar.

  6. Poll question: Did you buy the Miles Davis - Complete Montreux 20CD set?

    (Sorry, the question disappeared from the poll when I posted the message)

    The 20CD box The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux came out during fall of last year and the overwelming reaction at the BNBB was that it contained too much music, to many versions of the same compositions and simply was too expensive. Starting at $250, it is now sometimes discounted at $150.

    I know many Miles fans, but noone of them has actually bought this box. I would have been interested in some of the concerts included if they were available seperately (only the 1991 concert with Quincy Jones has been officially available before). There are also some more interesting box sets in sight (Blackhawk, Jack Johnson), so there is currently no shortage of Miles reissues which could have motivated me to get this box.

    So, six months after the release, how many of you bought this set, and how do you evaluate it? You can also post if you haven't listened to it :)

    460349.jpg

    Some reviews:

    http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=Avzn20roai48z

    http://home.att.net/~lankina/jazz/Reviews/R0211g.html

    http://www.culturekiosque.com/jazz/best/rhecd9.html

    http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/...emontreux.shtml

    http://www.jazzitude.com/milesdavis_complete1.htm

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4478023,00.html

  7. The tapes are not in a good shape, even the MFSL Ultradisc of "Giant Steps" sounds hissy and dull.

    About tape hiss and remastering in general: With the newest remasterings you will problable have more tape hiss than with the first CD reissues. At the beginning of the CD era the engineers tried to eliminate tape hiss by all means, cutting off treble with an equalizer or using Nonoise processes that render the music lifeless. The later remasterings had to objective of transferring the tape "as is", including the hiss that also contains musical information (overtones): Most people prefer to have the unmanipulated sound, as one can get accustomed to constant tape hiss very well and not notice it anymore.

  8. If DVD-A support is not needed (titles are much more scarce than SACDs), a good universal player would be the new Philips DVD 963 SA, which plays DVD, CD, SACD and MP3-CDs.

    Dutch digital delight

    Reviews say that the sound is outstanding for the price ($400-500). That's especially true for CD playback (upsampling option). Picture quality is excellent too. The machine is very well built, but only available in silver.

    I will get one soon to replace my recently bought Sony DVD/MP3 and CD/SACD players ($250 and $400), which are both inferior in their domain. A few months ago there was no player on the market under $1000 that would offer DVD playback plus high quality CD sound. Apparently the demand for the Philips is so high that it is difficult to get immediately.

  9. These titles seem to be the same as those released on 1201 in 1999, which are also 24 bit remastered, though I don't know if the mastering is the same . Black Lion/DA Music state they are remastered by their extra special German engineers (hopefully not the same ones who handled the OJC20 fiasco ;))

    The website says:

    "All releases are carefully re-mastered by one of Germany's leading studio engineers (F.Thein) using all his knowledge about the music using today's state of the art technical equipment for the benefit of a new fresh listening experience"

    It doesn't however say which tapes they used for this new reissue.

    Here is the engineer's website: www.thein.de . This company looks more serious than ZYX, which is mainly releasing pop records.

    Mr Thein at work:

    tonschnitt.jpg

  10. There is an US K2 remastered version (20Bit), that is said to sound much better than the original OJC release.

    http://www.fantasyjazz.com/catalog/parker_c_cat.html

    There is a german remastered CD (20 or 24Bit, who cares what ZYX uses? :wacko:) which is said to sound awful. But I suppose you already know to avoid those releases.

    As the music is 50 years old, we are also likely to see a Definitive CD very soon ;)

  11. Here is my current wish list of OOP or hard to find (or maybe not) CDs:

    - Wayne Horvitz - Nine below zero (Sound aspects, 1986)

    - London Jazz Composers Orchestra - Double trouble (Intakt, 1989)

    - Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker - At Carnegie Hall (the Sony Mastersound release)

    - Joe Harriott - Free Form (Jazzland, 1960)

    - Miles Davis - No blues (Antwerpen 1967 bootleg)

    - Khan Jamal - Balafon Dance (CIMP, 2002 but hard to find)

    - Dave Liebman - Trio+1 (Owl, 1988)

    Any help appreciated :) Many of them are listed on GEMM.com , but I still try to find them for reasonable (<25$) prices.

    And hey, searching for rare CDs is even more fun than having them :)

×
×
  • Create New...