Post your experience on Reissue Vinyl quality!

matt,

That's great. Report back what you think of it.

And now here are two EMI Testament vinyl I have received last week.

Beethoven Symphony No.7: Guido Cantelli/Philharmonia

Label: EMI Testament
180g Vinyl/ Stereo/ UK/ ASD 254
Re-Mastering by: N/A
Pressed at: N/A
Release date: 1996? Out of Print

Sound Quality:
I have the late 60s Angel Seraphim budget reissue which I thought generally well balanced albeit some spots that are slightly congested. No real low level frequency but no apparent nasties at high frequencies either but very listenable. Whatever it did not have sonically, Cantelli's performance made up its shortcomings.

A huge dynamics with a real midrange presence and low end authority. Instrument colours are back making the Seraphim copy skeletal and threadbare. Tape hiss is present but well done remastering all around preserving a natural balance.

Prodcution value is right on this, too. Pitch is stable and no wobbly strings or winds. Vinyl is flat and free of pops and clicks. This really is how a vinyl should be made.

This is one of the best reissue I have heard for classical mainly because I love the performance as well. I wish EMI Testment reissues more from Cantelli's catalogue.

Packaging Quality:
Medium weight cover stock with a light dull varnish. EMI gold and red sticker.  Plain white inner with a velum liner. The printing is reasonably bright and on register but a few letter missing on the back cover. 4C printing on the Label but slightly out of register ( you can see yellow and magenta hanging ) and they skimped on the gold ink. No extra liner notes for the technical background. I am not sure why they are so secretive of their wonderful work.

Brahms Violin Concerto in D: Leonid Kogan/Kyril Kondrashin/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Label: EMI Testament
180g Vinyl/ Stereo/ UK/ SAX2307
Re-Mastering by: N/A
Pressed at: N/A
Release date: 2013

Sound Quality:

Here's another excellent reissue pressing. I do not have any other copy to compare and this is the first time I got to listen to Kogan.

The Violin is up front and full of texures and colours as if the player is in the room. I guess this is why I love a good analogue source. When it's good, it gives off a real presence of a performer. Orchestra is also closer perspective than the Oistrakh/Klemper set. Excellent frequency extensions top and bottom with low noise and absolutely pitch stable. As the Cantelli reissue above, this is one of the best classical vinyl pressing around.

Packaging Quality:

Unlike Cantelli pressing above, the outer jacket has a heavy gloss laminate and inside label acutally uses the silver ink!

A nice touch. ( just for that this reissue gets an extra record rating ) No technical info for this remaster either. The record is housed in a plain white inner with a velum liner.

Thanks Jay for pointing out to these excellent reissues.

BTW, you mention Heifetz set earlier and performance wise, it slightly edges out over Kogans. I just love Heifetz's muscular tone and bold phrasing. A good shot for trying his original cadenza, too. But Kogan set is expressive and rhythmic. Maybe more romantic than Oistrach or Heifetz but not as weepy as Szyring. Violin singing closely togther with orchestra. Kondrashin's handling is a tad thicker and less detail oriented than Klemperer but give it a really down to earth friendly support to Kogan. The finale has a lot better build and intimate than comparatively stand offish cool Klemperer set. I wish the Testament offers Oistrakh/Klemperer reissue!

Are the  Klempere's Mendelssohn and Bruckner No.4 Testament reissues equally good?

These pressings are way better than Speakers Corners reissues I have.

Kuma:

I'm glad you enjoyed them. I recommend getting all the Testament Kogan reissues.

I will have to check to see if I have the Mendelsohn and the Bruckner and get back to you.

In general, I have found the EMI Testaments to be among the best of the reissues.

Jay 

Jay,

Do you have this Oistrakh/Szell on the Testament, too?

If so, how's the performance compared to Heifetz and Kogan?

I'll def. get Kogan's Beethoven Violin Concerto. I take it it's good as the Brahms.

Thanks for the review Kuma.  Just avoid this one for the Bach, although I guess there's a degree of interest as it's rather, er... different;

Having said that, if I ever found an original going cheap I'd snap it up in a heartbeat - so very rare.

This album has always been cut with low volume and it was never the best sounding lp.

Mine's on it's way, I look forward to hearing it.

Richard,

I will keep my eyes on that Lp. I've read on a some other internet board that some chap was asking the value of his recent find at a resale store and I recognized the beautiful cover art ( NOT ) immediately.

Regarding the Cantelli and Kogan, I am so curious how they are compared to your mint original. Altho, these new Testament reissues sound so wonderful in that I don't salivate over them too much.

15 or so years ago you'd pay about £400 for a nice copy of ASD 429.  These days at least 5 times that, maybe even 10 times that amount for a total minter.

Richard,

Must be for their unique performance.

I will manage to hear it somehow now that you got me curious.

btw, Acoustic Sound is reissuing yet another RCA Living Stereo titles!

I think it's because it was given an absolute drubbing on release and very few were sold before it was withdrawn.

Anyone bought Matador vinyl?  There's a remastered version of this available.  Assume it was always recorded for CD (in 2000) but vinyl is tempting:

Nice to see its out on vinyl again. I see it can be purchased from one of the Amazon dealers for $11.74. I will probably give it a shot.

Mine arrived today. It sounds superb, the best pressing yet of Blood On The Tracks. It's full bodied, great open deep bass lines, very musical and Dylan's voice is sweet.

Well done MFSL, another gem.

Mine arrived today too. I ordered this Dylan Mofi with some fear and trepidation as Mofi titles sometimes disappoint.

Not this one! Its great. Simple as that. If you like this record this version is a must have.

Michael Fremer gives it the thumbs up and the detail in his review,  for those who want to know more.

Cheers

David

David,

As I have several current MOFI records, it seems that the quality varies by the title to title.

I am curious, tho, who was the mastering engineer on all the MOFI Dylan releases?

I assume that the same guy doing it?

I would be curious to see if their new Ricki Lee Jones reissue sounds better than the Acoustech Gray/Hoffman release.

I am betting this one would be *round earthed* just like their Carol King and JT releases but I could be wrong.

I think Kuma has already written up the definitive review of this reissue and I would agree with those thoughts across the board for the most part.  I would just echo that the sound is luscious and the vinyl is superbly quiet. Maybe they could have spent a little more on refining the cover art, but that is quibbling on my part. Nice reissue.

Hey Matt,

What is the Edition number on your copy?

Maybe my ignorance is truly profound, but I can not find a number on my copy. Where is it supposed to be located? There is nothing in the usual locations on the cover.

Matt.

On the back cover above the logo.

My copy is missing the number then.

So much for  a *Limited Edition*, eh?

Exactly. It came sealed with the same plastic sleeve and sticker as in your photo posted a few days ago. Maybe this one slipped through without the sticker? Who knows. It is still a lovely record.

My copy arrived today. I have an original pressing and an import a bought a while back (early 2000s?) The new MoFi version sounds better than those two to my ears. The vocals come across much better and the sound is open.  I agree with the count on this one. A gem. 

I finally got a chance to listen to the recent MOV ( Music On Vinyl Label ) release of Jamiroquai Travelling Without Moving as well as Return of the Space Cowboy. I had a high hope for these because the MOV's Hooverphonic reissue sounds just spectacular.

Jamiroquai: Travelling Without Moving

Label: MOV (Music On Vinyl)
180g Vinyl/ Stereo/ Netherland/ MOVLP731
Re-Mastering by: N/A "We are provided with the best possible (analogue) masters available. On top of that, our sound engineer has over 35 years of experience in cutting and mastering records for (major) labels." ( per Label website )
Pressed at: N/A
Release Year: 2013

Sound Quality:

I do not have the original pressing ( going at silly $$ ) but a well-travelled US copy of CD release to compared. To be honest I never once thought this was a well recorded music and confess that I mostly listened it in a car. It's been a while I listened to the CD in the main rig. I popped in a CD and the of course the intro tune naturally puts me in a happy place. But soundwise the clarity isn't very good and there's a slight excess upper to lower mids bloat. I sure didn't hear this when i listened in a car! :/

So, I put on the reissue. Clarity in the midrange is a definite improvement from the CD. This release is said to be all new remaster. Vinyl itself is quite and flat with black background. In fact if someone didn't tell me I can't tell the difference if this a CD or vinyl. Overall balance on the vinyl is a lot lighter, leaner and perhaps more focused. A certain part of instruments particularly voice or solo instruments come forward giving a sharper image outline. But, there is a slight silvery edges and has a spot light quality which gets tiresome. The bass whilst it is clean, it does not reach out deep as the CD version. I am not asking for a room shaking bass but funky stuff like this should have a funky bass!

Unlike the Hooverphonic's CD/ vinyl comparison, this one isn't a slam dunk. Whilst I appreciate the nice clean up job done by a remastering engineer, funky groove ( altho sounding a tad murky ) is entirely missing from this version.

Neither the CD or vinyl are audiophile grade recordings. But I think it could have been better like the recent Daft Punk's RAM issue shows that electronic music can be done right. ( unless of course that they might have recorded this album in 16/44 only in which case there are very little benefits for going vinyl )

I see that this reissue is already showing up on ebay or Amazon at a premium. ( it was released at 40$ USD ) The production value of the vinyl itself is good but the sound wise It's a bit of a let down.
But then again some might like this lighter brighter reissues but certainly I don't.

Jamiroquai: The Return of the Space Cowboy

Label: MOV (Music On Vinyl )
180g Vinyl/ Stereo/ Netherland/ MOVLP730
Re-Mastering by: N/A "We are provided with the best possible (analogue) masters available. On top of that, our sound engineer has over 35 years of experience in cutting and mastering records for (major) labels." ( per Label website )
Pressed at: N/A
Release Year: 2013

Sound Quality:
Interesting thing is that when I compared the MOV reissue against  the older Simply Vinyl 2002 UK reissue pressing as well as a US CD release, MOV version again sounds lighter and brighter. One of my favourite tune out of this album is Scam. There's a shift in direction that occurs around 5 min. in where it turns from a total funk to a cool acid jazz mode. I can appreciate the clarity and image focus of say, JK's voice or that cool trumpet solo, without that funky bass foundation, the entire tune sounds weak. Literally there's bottom octave is halved. Stuart Zender's funky bass line is sort of not there. This is very odd but clearly a *sound* choice by the new engineer.  Simply Vinyl version gets kicked around but this isn't the worst lot. At least there is a bass line that I can follow. On the new release, it's vague and anemic.

The CD and the Simply Vinyl version's overall balance are the same. Full bodied but the clarity suffers. I was hoping that the MOV reissue would retain everything but clean up the midrange a lttle. They cleaned up more than the midrange. Bummer!

If I did not have the Simply Vinyl version dare I say, I prefer the CD release over this. :/

Needless to say I won't be purchasing the MOV reissue of  The Emergency on Planet Earth.

As The Travelling Wihtout Moving, you might like this brighter cleaner version, but these are not for me.

Packaging Quality ( for both issues ):
Printed on a heavy card stock in a gate fold format. Original cover art are bright printing albeit registration is slightly off and I see some digital artifacts around the edges. ( meaning they did not use a big enough source file ) They preserve the original vinyl's spot clear varnish on both covers.  ( nice touch ) Faithful reproduction of the inner sleeves and label. Both releases come with JK's liner notes specifically for this remaster pressings.

I am certain that the original UK pressing would be the best sounding.

But i you can't have a clean copy, what is the next best reissue on this title?

The (relatively) inexpensive version is supposed to be the original American pressing on Decca with. W1 or W2 stamper although i have not heard it myself (I am looking for one). There is a whole story on the Steve Hoffman forum. 

I am not a huge fan of the Classic Records reissue. My run of the mill 1970s MCA was better in some ways.