Acoustic Sounds, Analogue Productions, Quality Record Pressings

That's a shame... I have that same edition and it's gorgeous from start to end. Were you not able to exchange it for a replacement copy?

Speaking of Brubeck's "Take Five" on CD, the commonly found $6 Legacy CD sounds amazing, and is secretly encoded with HDCD (if your player can decode it).

This was in the days when I tried to support the local record store who does not exchange new vinyl, so now all my new vinyl (95%) comes from Amazon. I have a UPS store near where I work, so it is not a hassle to send back the bad new vinyl I get from them.

You know I could order the AP Brubeck from them and return the bad one to them, but I have a conscience, and I am a former business owner. Just not that kind of person. I guess I could hope someone from AP would read this and offer to exchange with me, but I don't see that happening. What confounds my thoughts, is that how can one side be perfect and the other side seems like a afterthought on both of the records in that set.
 
QRP stuff is simply the best I have heard. Worth every penny. Let's say you buy an LP for $50 (or less) and play it 200 times over 10 years. Seems like a bargain to me.

I have personally bought into four digits now there and 90% of what I buy from AS is QRP. The Miles stuff ($30) is sublime and by many accounts as good a pressing and mix as exists today. Including OP.
 
This was in the days when I tried to support the local record store who does not exchange new vinyl, so now all my new vinyl (95%) comes from Amazon. I have a UPS store near where I work, so it is not a hassle to send back the bad new vinyl I get from them.

You know I could order the AP Brubeck from them and return the bad one to them, but I have a conscience, and I am a former business owner. Just not that kind of person. I guess I could hope someone from AP would read this and offer to exchange with me, but I don't see that happening. What confounds my thoughts, is that how can one side be perfect and the other side seems like a afterthought on both of the records in that set.

I figured it was something like that.

Keeping your integrity intact and your conscience clear is more important than a $50 loss; you are to be commended.
 
Just got the Analog Productions, QRP pressed Pet Sounds in stereo. It is stunning. All my old Capitol pressings of this are instantly obsolete.
I just got the mono......... You can truly hear (what at the time was) the future of R&R unfold in front of you on that LP.
 
Ok I wasn't really going to do this here and you all might think I'm nuts. My local record store has been selling me a lot from an audiophile collection that he got. Thats why in the OP I said that I needed to do something to expand room and different filing. I got these two about four months ago but until today I have always just grabbed the Classic Record 33 RPM to play. People would come over and I would say you never heard Muddy sound so good and I would put the Classic copy on. Well until minutes ago I was lying The dynamic sound,output volume, larger than life range was F-ing scary with the AP copy. Then I looked on line and reviewers had the same feelings I did.

Praise for our 45 RPM edition of Folk Singer:
"The Quality Record Pressing is drop-dead quiet-as silent as the best Japanese pressings from the late 1970s-and the amount of inner detail released is simply astonishing...the sound is sweet, liquid and free of harshness and edge. The dynamics are mind-boggling. When Muddy takes it up ten notches to emphasize a point it's positively explosive in a way the 33 1/3 version only suggests." Music = 9/10, Sound = 10/10! — Michael Fremer, musicangle.com.

MUDDY WATERS: FOLK SINGER
Album review
byWayne Garcia May 01st, 2012
TAS_223_ROCK-6.jpg

Muddy Waters
Folk Singer
Label: Analogue Productions
Media: SACD
Genre: Rock/pop
Ratings:
Music
Sonics


Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer is no stranger to the reissue circuit. From MoFi in the early 90s to Classic Records’ more recent vinyl release, this is a perennial audiophile favorite. So what could justify another edition? Well, how about a 45rpm set from Analogue Productions’ recently launched Quality Record Pressings Facility, mastered by Bernie Grundman, in a beautiful gatefold jacket with extra sessions shots? It’s been ages since I’ve heard LP surfaces this quiet—as in dead quiet. The expense and effort that Chad Kassem and company put into this venture are immediately obvious. The air, dynamic range, harmonic complexity, instrumental texture, verve in Waters’ voice, and sheer sense of four guys making music together bring this recording to life as never before. It’s by far the best sounding and most engaging version yet. The SACD, while certainly excellent, sounds somewhat glossed over, not as dynamically explosive or rhythmically driving. Compare the brushed snare thwacks during “My Home Is In The Delta.” On SACD they sound pretty much the same; on vinyl each one is clearly hit with a different amount of impact. Digital fans won’t be disappointed, but analog lovers will be in hog heaven.


Muddy Waters - Folk Singer, By
Classic Records and Analogue Productions shootout

Cover is by far better on the AP at the left...

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Edit> I just found out the batteries where getting low in one of my SOTA Head Amps. I'll get fresh batteries for all of them and retest.

Side by side on two identically set up SOTA Star Sapphires, SME Series V and Blackbird cartridges. I'm at the same conclusion as the reviews above. One thing though that they don't say is the volume that's being put out with the AP over the Classic. My volume controller is set in dbs and I have to turn up the Classic copy ten points over the AP. The AP would be set at -18 and the Classic would be at -8 to have about equal output. I do side by side all the time and it's only a matter of cueing one or the other arm up and down in my system, results are instant. I have never heard this much volume difference in same title copies before. I think Bernie Grundman was enjoying himself a bit to much when cutting the lacquer.

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I probably should have waited but when I saw "limited edition" and that it just came out, I had to jump. Now I will just cross my fingers that the review is good!
Also - thank you for starting this. I too have some Blue Note AP albums and they are great. It's going to be nice to have a place to come for this type of information.
Here is what the two Rhinos look like I got yesterday....

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I came racing home the other day after I stopped by the Record Store. They got the AP Nugent S/T Stranglehold album in, and I wanted to get home before my neighbors. This album needs to be cranked and I will not listen to it any other way.....:rockon:

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Now please do tell, who the hell is going to complain about a $21.99 Rush record on 200g performance vinyl pressed at QRP? Speaking of witch I think I get the whole set and get rid of all my old copies.

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I am a huge fan or QRP and AP I own many albums and view them as a superior reproductions! Kuddos to Chad and his crew now if he would just lean on AP to finish more of the CCR boxset I would be a happy camper!
 
I am a huge fan or QRP and AP I own many albums and view them as a superior reproductions! Kuddos to Chad and his crew now if he would just lean on AP to finish more of the CCR boxset I would be a happy camper!
Well that knife cuts two ways, Limited should be limited. I don't like to buy something under the pretence that when sold out, will have a rarity and added value. If he puts more boxes out no one will trust any records that they have will have a limit. It's already bad enough that Classic had limits and now he bought them and is pressing same titles again. It deluts the pool of choices and what people invest in. As such he is reducing the value of Classic records.
 
I am very happy the there is members on this site that do appreciate new records and not just yard sale finds, or nothing is better than pre 80s pressing and mastering. It's not only the system that is the contributing factor to the SQ we hear when playing records. You can't even begin to judge your system till you get a couple top notch records to play on it.

It's the stylus meeting the groove....
 
Well that knife cuts two ways, Limited should be limited. I don't like to buy something under the pretence that when sold out, will have a rarity and added value. If he puts more boxes out no one will trust any records that they have will have a limit. It's already bad enough that Classic had limits and now he bought them and is pressing same titles again. It deluts the pool of choices and what people invest in. As such he is reducing the value of Classic records.


My back order has been for some time not, from my understanding they have not reach the "limited status/number" yet and I just spoke to customer service and they still don't have a date on the next wave to hit the market.

I have the Norah Jones boxset, the SRV set, Folk Singer 45RPM, Ellington and to be honest just to many to list! I have mentioned in previous posting about my record Nazism and lack of trust of the repressing of classics, most mass market sucks. Beatcomber did turn me on to a fantastic pressing of Ray Charles "The Great Ray Charles" pressed by Rhino, I must say this pressing was done right and Acoustic Sounds (if still avail) was selling for 15 bones well worth the money! I tend to stay and spend my $$ with what has proven to give me results in SQ. I place QRP/AP as high on my list as MOFI and Japanese pressings (not to start a debate on this). If you have not heard QRP/AP blue note re-releases and the EMI Japanese pressing all I can say it WOW.
 
My back order has been for some time not, from my understanding they have not reach the "limited status/number" yet and I just spoke to customer service and they still don't have a date on the next wave to hit the market.

I have the Norah Jones boxset, the SRV set, Folk Singer 45RPM, Ellington and to be honest just to many to list! I have mentioned in previous posting about my record Nazism and lack of trust of the repressing of classics, most mass market sucks. Beatcomber did turn me on to a fantastic pressing of Ray Charles "The Great Ray Charles" pressed by Rhino, I must say this pressing was done right and Acoustic Sounds (if still avail) was selling for 15 bones well worth the money! I tend to stay and spend my $$ with what has proven to give me results in SQ. I place QRP/AP as high on my list as MOFI and Japanese pressings (not to start a debate on this). If you have not heard QRP/AP blue note re-releases and the EMI Japanese pressing all I can say it WOW.
I thought all the remastered Blue Notes where being done at United Pressing to keep the cost down for some people. I'm not a big Jazz fan so I don't know if they changed that.
Look at the 11 minute mark.
Bernie Grundman on Transferring Blue Note Tapes
 
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I thought all the remastered Blue Notes where being done at United Pressing to keep the cost down for some people. I'm not a big Jazz fan so I don't know if they changed that.
Look at the 11 minute mark.
Bernie Grundman on Transferring Blue Note Tapes


DOH I stand corrected, but not sure if this is a U.P. pressing doesn't look like it. As for the Japanese pressing they state EMI.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=detail&Title_ID=86942
 
Dan, I've bought APO records for about as long as Chad has been in business - even before he bought the church. I cannot think of a single instance where I haven't been totally floored. From the jacket to the sound, so much care is put into their efforts - it's always a treat to receive a record from them.

I've a story that you'll enjoy. I purchased Janis Ian's Breaking Silence from them immediately upon its release. A while later, we saw Janis in concert. She will stay after a show and meet every single fan that came and autograph anything you bring. I brought that record. When it was my turn to meet her, I handed her my copy to sign. She looked at it, smiled huge, and said, "You must be a huge fan! They did such an outstanding job on this." She was glowing with excitement - if that's not a testament to their efforts, what is?

It's easily one of my favorites in my collection. If you don't have a copy, get it! 5 stars all the way around.
 
This is a good read....

Solving The Vinyl Comeback's Big Problem, One Antique Machine At A Time
Updated May 24, 201511:15 AM ET
Published April 17, 20154:33 PM ET

Saturday is Record Store Day, when independent music retailers around the country host parking-lot concerts and sell limited-edition pressings of vinyl records, which have made a small but forceful comeback in an age dominated by digital listening habits. But if there's one problem with the vinyl resurgence, it might be this: The machines that press vinyl records are decades old, and no one's building new ones, so keeping up with increased demand is hard.

One vinyl pressing plant in Salina, Kan., will soon be able to meet some of that increased demand. Salina is basically at the dead center of the country, and here, alongside the railroad tracks, in the shadow of grain elevators, next to a gravel lot filled with industrial propane tanks, is the headquarters of Acoustic Sounds, run by Chad Kassem.

"Back in the mid-'70s, every teenage boy had a stereo — or most in my neighborhood — [a] stereo and maybe a hundred albums," Kassem says of growing up in Louisiana. "So I wasn't any more of a collector than most of my friends."

By the time he was 21, Kassem was in trouble with the law, and packed up for Kansas at the order of a judge. "I came to Kansas to get sober in 1984," he says. Kansas had alcohol, but in general, there were fewer distractions for a man who needed to dry out. He had his stereo shipped there, and built up his record collection. "Since Kansas was kind of out of the way, most of these records that were very rare and sought-after, they still had plenty of them in Kansas and I found a couple of motherlodes."

Eventually, his collecting hobby turned into an international business. "You sell albums and you sell pre-owned albums and people are looking for particular albums nobody is putting out and they're very valuable. [So] you decide to reissue it," Kassem says. He founded Acoustic Sounds and contacted record labels about reissuing classic albums. He built up a staff to recreate the artwork, negotiate rights and handle sales. At first, he contracted out the vinyl pressing.

"[The] next natural step is to have your own pressing plant," he says. "[It] just took me 20 years and two million dollars to do it."

Kassem bought his first presses in 2010. He found some of them in England; others came from Los Angeles. Most were in pretty bad shape. Kassem hired two experienced technicians to get them up and running, and he lined up an influential customer: the estate of Jimi Hendrix.

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A Hamilton record press.

Courtesy of Acoustic Sounds
"In 2010, we reissued the entire Jimi Hendrix catalog on vinyl," says John McDermott, the producer and catalog director for Experience Hendrix. "At the forefront of that was a new album we produced, Valleys of Neptune, which was an unreleased studio recording that Jimi Hendrix had made in 1969. ... It was a remarkable success."

Now, all of Hendrix's music goes to Kassem's plant, Quality Record Pressings. Each of his presses in his plant is about the size of a Volkswagen Bug. They're intricate systems of steel and hydraulics, and in addition to Hendrix's Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland, they're pressing records by Leonard Cohen, KISS, Pink Floyd and The Doors.

There are about 16 records pressing plants now operating around the country, and Kassem says it's an arms race to find any remaining presses that aren't already being used and get them back into production. He hit his latest motherlode in Chicago, where he discovered thirteen rusting presses owned by a guy named Joell Hays, who runs a rehearsal studio and bought the abandoned presses on eBay a decade ago, thinking he always wanted to make records.

" didn't have any idea how much it was going to cost to get them going at the time," Hays says. "At first I thought a couple hundred thousand to build the factory, which after tons of research turned out to be closer to a million."

Hays tried to line up investors, but he never could. Meanwhile, a lot of people tried to buy them from him. Kassem's approach set him apart.

"I went up there," Kassem says. "I was willing to help him get his pressing plant, give him all the advice and everything I learned. I was willing to share this with him and I would. And the last thing I said was, 'Or, if you want, I'll just buy 'em all.'"

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A technician works on one of Quality Record Pressing's newly acquired presses.

Courtesy of Acoustic Sounds
Eventually, that's exactly what he did. All 13 of Hays' presses are in pieces now, spread out all of the floor of Kassem's warehouse. It looks like a mechanic's garage, and it smells like rust and grease. Three guys are working on the machines.

"[We're] stripping everything down and getting ready for paint. Paint the frames and then go from there. A lot of stuff has to be replaced," says Robert Drenton, from Abilene, Kan. "I actually worked on tractors, did a lot of painting and assembly work, so I've got a lot of mechanical skills when it comes to stuff like this. I was surprised that there was machines like this still."

It could take a year before these presses are up and running. But that's OK with Chad Kassem.

"Basically, the first time you see these old, rusty presses, it looks like scrap metal," he says. "But it's not scrap metal. It looks like gold to you once you've seen what they can do and make."

For Kassem, make that black gold.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thereco...cks-big-problem-one-antique-machine-at-a-time
 
I thought all the remastered Blue Notes where being done at United Pressing to keep the cost down for some people. I'm not a big Jazz fan so I don't know if they changed that.
Look at the 11 minute mark.

I've seen the video a couple of times in recent months and I think I have it figured out. What I took away from it: 1) QRP cut Blue Notes to vinyl from analog with Grundman mastering; 2) digital 24/192 masters produced by Grundman for archival purposes; 3) Don Was then has these digital masters cut to vinyl to target $19.99 list price, and pressed at United to meet the price point.
 
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