HiFi-Do E-mail Newsletter

The summer is over and the season for listening to records has begun. This time I would like to verify various jazz records about which I wonder and on which there are many rumors.

Now let us see these photos of two records. Needless to say, both are "Ray Bryant Trio" records by Ray Bryant, the left of which is by Fantasy and the right of which is by Victor. Fantasy reproduced from late 1980's to 1990's those records of Prestige, Riverside and Contemporary labels by re-cutting them. What is often said about these records is that the Riverside reproduction is good but that esp. the one recorded by Van Gelder among other reproduced records is bad in quality. (The hot sound is not reproduced, the reproduced sound is too shallow and is thin. It has undergone various criticism.) The reason why the Riverside reproduction is good is because the re-cutting team was composed of former Riverside engineers. However, do those reproductions really sound bad as they are said to be bad? In a sense, they may have not "reproduced" the original sound, but the cutting technique has improved drastically compared with that of in those days. So, we cannot just say that the sound has changed. The important thing is to check how the tones are, and how the improved technique is reflected on the reproduction. Now I check the Fantasy's reproduction of the Prestige label record by comparing it with the Victor's reproduction. (It would be better if I had the reproductions that were more similar to the original sound. These two have almost the same price in the market. The Fantasy's is a bit cheaper! It shows how the Fantasy's reproductions are evaluated lower in the market.)

The photos show the two labels. Compared with the elaborated label of the Victor's (right), the Fantasy's label is simple. The Fantasy's gives us an image as if we were looking at an xrcd and it makes us have an unreal expectation.
I tried out the Victor's reproduction at first. Of course, I listened to "Golden Earrings". Starting with the introduction to which I used to listen, they played on rhythmically. Though I have a CD of this album as well, the record is superior. Simply, the record sound is hotter and is realer like the original sound. While listening to the CD, the higher the audio system's quality is, the thinner the sound became. But the record sound never becomes thin. Though I had a preconception that the Japanese reproductions give only thin sound, this Victor's was good on the contrary. Next, I tried out the Fantasy's reproduction.
	I listened to the Fantasy's with much preconception of the sound being too shallow, to the extent that I had thought of my comment even before listening. Well...? The sound is exciting. Differently from what I had expected, the sound was coming out lively to the extent that the sound was about to damage the charming image of "Golden Earrings". It was just funky. The bass sound became more and more lively and the cymbal sound became more and more spread. Ray's piano performance was overwhelmingly deep and powerful. Was this thin? No, never. If it was thin, it might be because of bad speakers. (By the way, I used an Altec speaker.) It was really overwhelming. The improvement of cutting technique did not cause any bad change in the reproduction from the original sound. The sound was reproduced by deepening the center of the sound, not by just expanding the sound. Who said that reproduction of the Prestige label records were not good?
Indeed, you can never rely on the rumors and appraisals that go on in public. Next week, I will verify the OJC though it is a similar plan to this week's. See you again next week.

Used

Used

Consigned

Consigned

Hold

Hold

Reserved

Reserved

Sold Out

Sold Out