What is your opinion of JRVGs?

[Jim Alfredson]

Junior ain't as good as his dad.

[wolff]

Thanks for your posts.Come on go for it ,what are the ones you don't like so that I don't waste my money.

I have about 20-25 domestic RVG's.

I would avoid Charlie Rouse: Bossa Nova Bachanal.

[Jazzmoose]

I have none. And can't stand LP style CD jackets. But then, there's one in every crowd...

[Bluerein]

Jazzmoose: if your posting is refering to the one by Wolff above yours it makes no sense......

The domestic RvG's aren't in the carton sleeve format you hate!

I have almost all JRvG's and like most but certainly not all of them (soundwise). I keep those for the mini LP cover (which I love as all of you know by now). I'm in the luxury position to have all of the regular TOCJ's as well so if the sound of the JRvG isn't mine I play the regular TOCJ which is always good to say the least.

[Claude]

My *very* limited experience with JRVGs is that they are a hit and miss. Unlike the US/Euro RVGs which are very consistent in quality (far from perfect, but you generally know what you will get).

I bought 3 of them:

- Pete LaRoca "Basra" has great sound. Highly recommended, but you may wait for the cheaper US RVG that is scheduled for early next year.

- Jackie McLean "A fickle sonance" sounds as crappy as the US RVG ("AM radio" sound). The TOCJ is very good.

- Freddie Redd "The Connection": same issue. Seems that the japanese Rudy doesn't like Jackie McLean. Here again, the older TOCJ and Connoisseur CD versions are much better.

I have also briefly listened to some other JRVGs (Horace Silver, Grant Green, I don't remember the titles) at a CD store in Munich, with low end headphones. But the equipment was good enough for me to notice that some of those CDs had very strange remastering too. This led me to stay away from buying more JRVGs.

Changing absolute polarity cannot make a crappy CD sound good. The difference is very subtle at best.

Edited November 10, 2004 by Claude

[wolff]

hijack on.....

I must mention the best sounding digital issues of BN's I've heard to date.

I have had the opportunity, and good fortune, to listen to these on my home stereo quite regularly, recently. Everything missing(and, as the case may be, present) musically and sonically in RVG's is present or absent on these wonderful re-issues of classic BN titles.

The other nice thing is you too can have them. All you need is an RVG mastered LP from the 50's/60's, a good turntable/arm/cartridge, a good phono stage/pre-amp, some IC's, a good quality CDR and some blank CD's.

I'm absolutely overjoyed at the pleasure these deliver compared to the RVG's and Conn's I have.

If the public domain labels wise up to this everyone will be able to have these.

jack-off

[jazzbo]

I agree that the lps can sound very different from the cds!

I don't know Claude, I certainly, on my system, wouldn't call the difference in polarity positions "subtle." As I understand it, one way the speaker is moving in one direction, the other way the other direction, and this does not make a subtle difference to me. I agree that it doesn't make a "bad" recording "good"---but it does make a more than subtle difference in overall tonal balance, center fill, and soundstaging, to me, in my main system.

Maybe it's because my amplifier has so few parts within? I almost always notice clear differences between brands and types of tubes, interconnects, wire, footers, AC conditioning, etc.

The difference is less apparent on my other system (B&O receiver based) but after a lot of listening to my main system a lot in both polarity signatures I've learned to tell the difference better in that system as well.

It's not a big deal perhaps, but when the correct polarity (in my estimation for most JRVGs it is inverted) is applied the recordings sounds more "natural". . . whatever that means. Stereo impressions are so subjective it's hardly worth talking about them . . . .

[Dan Gould]

All you need is an RVG mastered LP from the 50's/60's,

Yeah, those are oh so easy to come by.

[DrJ]

1. Some JRVGs sound great when played with "normal" polarity - LEAPIN' AND LOPIN', NIGHT DREAMER, HERE 'TIS, the SONNY CLARK TRIO 2-fer (this one is quite spectacular), and some others

2. I have more than a few that don't sound great unless the polarity is reversed (and I agree with Lon that it's not subtle - in fact, sometimes it brings out such a huge increase in the depth of the soundstage it's almost holographic) - CLIFF JORDAN is a good example. I hardly ever do this because it's a pain - so I've basically stopped buying JRVGs because I think it's silly that you have to do this in the first place, they sould "get it right."

3. Finally there are some that sound lousy no matter what I do - examples include STAR BRITE, FICKLE SONANCE (I actually traded this in for the U.S. version which I think sounds better), HAPPENINGS, OFF TO THE RACES (traded that one in when I bought the Byrd/Adams Mosaic box)

4. Overall I agree with Chuck - the U.S. RVG series sounds superior and for those of us living here it's way cheaper. I also hate mini-LP sleeves as a rule, so have no problem with the jewel boxes. I am gradually replacing all my JRVGs with US RVGs (although there will probably be some I'll keep as I'm sure not all of the Japanese series will be duplicated here - stuff like LOU MECCA)

5. The more I listen with a good tube system, the more I feel that Japanese CD reissues are in general way over-hyped - and that includes both TOCJ and JRVGs. The U.S. versions are generally more dynamic, sonically detailed, and sound "truer" (e.g. not like the high end has been rolled off as is the case for so many of the TOCJs, which gives them a smoothness but also a dullness).

Edited November 10, 2004 by DrJ

[Claude]

FICKLE SONANCE (I actually traded this in for the U.S. version which I think sounds better)

In my view both are similarly unlistenable. You have to get the earlier TOCJ release to be able to enjoy this recording on CD.