As I continue to dive ever deeper into analog audio, I’m struck by the lengths we audiophiles will go to in this hobby as we try to push the envelope for great sound. I’m writing this in January, and with the short days, even with my washing machine and inkjet printer unplugged and practically no other circuit drawing power from the subpanel my stereo draws from, I still can’t do any serious listening much past 4 or 4:30 pm. That’s when my wife starts prepping dinner, and once those 3-way lights come on in the kitchen upstairs, the stereo just doesn’t sound right any more. Better to just head up and chop some vegetables!

Lately, I’ve been reading about an audiophile who’s gone to much greater lengths for the sound he wants. I’m referring to Pete Hutchinson, founder of The Electric Recording Company in London, England. Hutchinson wasn’t content with collecting records off the used market, so he started his own label to produce high quality reissues of titles he loved.

ERC’s reissues, a variety of classical, jazz and classic rock titles, are all remastered from the original analog tapes on a 60s era, all-tube mastering chain. Hutchinson found, purchased and restored the vintage equipment he needed to make the new records he hoped would be the sonic rivals of the originals. He also went to a considerable trouble to reproduce the jacket and other packaging as faithfully as possible. And despite the £300+ price tag on each of ERC’s releases, Hutchinson’s upfront costs will likely take years to recoup.

Hutchinson’s efforts have netted ERC some rave reviews, particularly on their first few releases, and some of their reissues have become nearly as sought after as the originals. ERC’s reissue of Johanna Martzy’s performance of Bach’s Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas is now practically as rare and expensive as the Decca pressing from 1955.

All of this is to say that Mr. Hutchinson is a great example of an audiophile who has gone to sizable lengths to realize an ambition that I share and that many audiophiles, analog audiophiles in particular, wholeheartedly support. That is, to make it possible for us to hear golden age recordings in all of their achingly natural, startlingly present and gloriously tubey lushness.

Therefore, before I share my impressions of ERC’s reissue of John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, I want to go on record and say that I admire Mr. Hutchinson’s ambition, and I marvel at the lengths to which he has gone in realizing his goals. In much the same way, I admire what Kevin Gray has done with his work at Cohearent Records. Both of these men deserve a ton of credit for their efforts in trying to save a sound that many of us love but see fading into history faster than you can say Greenland’s glaciers.

My Favorite Things (MFT) is not the first ERC release I’ve had the good fortune to hear. The same friend who loaned it also loaned me ERC’s reissue of Chet, Chet Baker’s 1959 release on Riverside Records. And while these 2 records by no means constitute a sample size suitable for generalizing about ERC’s reissues, I did notice some striking similarities in these two records that may very well be pervasive in their product line.

Primarily, they both have the weighty, full bodied sound of a record recorded and mastered solely with tube equipment. Therefore one could argue that, if that was the sound Mr. Hutchinson was going for, he most certainly achieved it. Both ERC’s version of MFT and Chet were positively dripping in tube sound, and I say this as someone without a single tube in his system.

I’ve had the good fortune to hear some wonderful copies of a number of vintage records that have the same all-tube pedigree. The best example might be a record I wrote about here, an early repress of Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, another title that ERC has reissued and one which I’ve not yet had the pleasure of hearing.

So while I can’t comment on ERC’s version of Way Out West, I can say that my copy, as well as many of the other jazz records I own that were recorded around the same time, all have an essential quality that I found woefully lacking in ERC’s reissues – presence. Neither of the ERC’s I’ve heard, MFT in particular, gave me any sense of the artists being present in my listening room.

My notes on ERC’s MFT say things like “murky” and “muddled.” They say it “lacks impact”, has a “flabby bottom end”, “lacks energy” and that the piano sounds “washed out”. But the most important problem I heard listening to ERC’s records was a glaring absence of top end extension. Neither record had what Mr. Hutchinson himself describes as “the texture and open top-end of the valve sound.”

In fact, they both had a sound that might best be described as that of an old record, and I don’t mean that in a good way. They both sounded closed, seriously lacking in transparency and they shared a suffocating lack of air and space.

I was curious to know what other audiophiles thought of ERC’s MFT, so I went online looking for reviews. Most of the reviews out there, all of them extremely positive, were for their early classical reissues, and I had a hard time finding one for this title. The best I could come up with in the time I spent searching was a comment by Michael 45 RPM on his Youtube channel.

Mr. 45 RPM was reviewing Kevin Gray’s recut of MFT, about which he had some very good things to say. At one point, about 2/3 of the way into the 10+ minute video, he mentions ERC’s reissue of MFT and calls it “slightly ahead” of Kevin Gray’s recent remaster from 2022 for its sonics.

If he’s right, and I’m not saying that he is, this is very faint praise for Mr. Gray’s work. ERC’s reissue of MFT is, in short, not a good sounding record. Anyone with the tools and the wherewithal to buy and clean a decent early pressing or two could end up with a much better sounding copy for a lot less money, especially since ERC’s version is sold out and now going for double or more its original price in the aftermarket.

But I seriously doubt Mr. 45 RPM is right that ERC’s version of MFT sounds better than Mr. Gray’s recut (although I haven’t heard this version myself). I’ve heard several of Mr. Gray’s reissues, his recuts of Blue Note titles in particular, and none of them had the extreme lack of top end that the ERCs I’ve heard do.

And without that all important top end, we lack what is, in my view, the most crucial element of any great sounding record, and the very thing that makes analog audio so special – the “you are there” experience. Without that, we cannot see into the recording, and we cannot get close to the artist’s performance in the way we crave.

I hope I can make both these cases here. I admire what Pete Hutchinson’s done and what he’s tried to do, and I also think that, if his reissue of My Favorite Things is any indication, he’s failed to achieve his ambitions. Hopefully the criticism I level here will not simply be dismissed, and instead serve as encouragement for Mr. Hutchinson to press on and build on the work he’s already done.

I also hope he gets there! As I’ve said more than once, I don’t root for anyone to fail in trying to make better sounding records. I’d be thrilled if anyone working in the reissue business today and in the years to come figures out how to bring the sound of golden age recordings into the 21st century.

But that, I’m afraid, has yet to happen. Therefore, I’d say there’s more work to be done. And I sincerely hope those who’ve taken up the task of doing it will stay the course and realize their ambitions. The audiophile world will surely be better for it.