In my last post I offered my views on the Blue Note Tone Poet Series reissues and why I feel they represent the wrong direction for the discerning analogue audiophile. To be honest, I was a little nervous putting the article out there and I braced for significant backlash from fans of the series and of other “audiophile” jazz reissues.

Still, I felt I had to do it. My goal with this site is and always has been a sincere effort to help analogue audiophiles at different stages of the hobby find their way forward without making a lot of the mistakes I’ve made, mistakes that include buying modern reissues that SEEMED to sound good at first until I tuned into their many flaws and had to stop listening to them.

Maybe this goal is misguided? After all, it’s often the mistakes I’ve made that have led directly to progress. But given the high costs involved in this pursuit, I can’t help but offer my advice and try to save YOU, my valued readers, some money and some time on your way to building a KICK ASS analogue system and a record collection worthy of it.

So despite my hesitation, I clicked the “PUBLISH” button convinced that, while the BNTPS article would no doubt irritate a lot of readers, it might find a few who would be receptive to its message. After about a week, I received the comment I was expecting. Initially nervous about reading it, I soon realized that the contributor, Jeff is his name, had some interesting points to make and was willing to make them without giving me the third degree I was dreading.

Jeff’s comments got me thinking even more deeply about the subject of jazz reissues and modern reissues in general, and these comments have inspired me to offer some further thoughts on the subject while providing a road map to addressing some of the questions that I think all of us who are drawn to this subject have and continue to seek answers to. I only hope I can do justice to Jeff’s comments and offer some more insights on how we can better understand what makes a record sound good and what doesn’t.

Jeff writes:

“Just for context: I’m running a Technics SL 1200 MK2 through an Adcom GFP 565 (preamp) to a Parasound HCA 1500A (amp) with Thiel CS 3.5 speakers. First of all, the argument isn’t about whether a “new” pressing sounds better/worse than a “vintage” pressing. The argument is about whether you prefer a recent to an older mastering. The Tone Poet series, like many other legit reissue series (Music Matters, MoFi, etc), uses the OG analog tapes … just like Rudy Van Gelder did when he did his mastering. In other words, RVG and Kevin Gray (Tone Poet engineer) worked with the exact same tape to master the transfer. What appears *objectively* better or worse to you may have more to do with the habits you’ve developed (based on your current collection) than with the actual records themselves. I know this was the case for me.”

One thing you’ll find conspicuously absent from this site, for the most part, is the obligatory list of my gear. I understand why audiophiles do this of course. As Jeff says, it’s for context. If I know what gear a person has I will have some idea of the relative strengths and likely limitations of their system, and can therefore take this into consideration when assessing the accuracy of their assertions.

In Jeff’s case, I’m not sure if he’s using a step up transformer with his Adcom GFP 565 preamplifier, but if he is not then he would either need to be running a moving magnet cartridge or a high output moving coil. If he’s running a MM on his Technics SL 1200 MK2, then I would be inclined to request he wait on a final evaluation of ANY record before he’s running a MC. Moving coil cartridges are just more revealing than MM’s, and you need a very revealing cartridge, as well as a lot of other very revealing equipment in your system, to really appreciate the differences between different vinyl pressings.

When I first started this site I was running a Clearaudio MM cartridge (can’t remember which one, but not one of their more expensive ones) on my VPI HW19 TT with the original Audioquest tonearm. My preamplifier was a Conrad Johnson PV11 and my amp was a CJ MV52. I had just upgraded my speakers at the time to a pair of Paradigm Prestige Series 75f’s. My cabling varied but was mostly entry level.

That was when I did my first big shootout with Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. You can read that post here. I need to go back and read it again myself actually as it’s been a while, but as I recall, of the different pressings I compared I ended up recommending the 2016 Parlaphone reissue. I would never recommend that version now, but at the time, that was the one that sounded the best to me on what was a good but much more modest system than I have now.

The point being, records that sound good to you on your system right now may not and likely will not be the records that sound good to you on your system a few years or a decade from now. Does that mean you should just buy the records that sound good with your system the way it is now and not worry about down the road? Certainly that’s what you should do if you don’t plan on making any significant upgrades.

But if you DO plan on making upgrades then I would encourage you to listen to different versions of the records you like and seek clarity about what’s good and what’s not so good about the different versions you hear. Then if you can manage it, hold on to the copies you’re not certain about, keep the ones you are and just get rid of the ones that CLEARLY are not up to snuff. If you’ve done your homework and in the end, one of those keepers turns out to be a BNTPS reissue, then so be it.

Perhaps this is what Jeff means when he refers to the “habits” I’ve “developed.” I have a habit of buying multiple copies of many records and shooting them out against one another to see which copy(ies) sound the best to me and why. I also have a habit of noticing every last thing about my system that I find problematic and working to correct it when time and money permit. I also have a habit of buying and playing records that people even more committed than I am have taken the time to track down, clean stupendously, do shootouts with and ultimately sell to people like me who appreciate the ridiculous amount of time and energy that they’ve put into delivering one terrific sounding record after another to anyone willing to pony up the appropriate compensation for their hard work.

Yes, these are my habits. I’ll readily admit that. And I’ll take these habits any day over the habit of believing the hype about modern reissues and buying them and playing them and being drawn in by their modest virtues, only to realize weeks, months or even years later that they just don’t sound the way a record CAN SOUND!

Now, let me lower the temperature just a bit here and say, I would be THRILLED if the BNTPS reissues were great sounding. I HONESTLY would! I don’t have it in for the folks that put these records out, and I appreciate that they’re doing their darndest to deliver some great sounding records to a public of hungry audiophile collectors. After all, what do I get out of criticizing these records? Not a thing I assure you, and that includes taking any pleasure in it.

What I do take pleasure in is a genuinely great sounding jazz record. I hope that fact is apparent. I also take pleasure in helping other audiophiles find and play their own great sounding records, jazz or otherwise, and I think the choice of records is VERY important for making good choices on equipment and vice versa.

Every upgrade I’ve made to my system has shown me new things about the records I play. Some of those things are good things and some not so good, but the invariable is that my records always sound different to me after I’ve made a change. I guarantee that if this has not yet happened to you, it will, and that sooner or later you will discover records that you used to think were THE BOMB are not sounding as good you you remember.

The good news is that you will also find records in your collection you were once less than enamored with that are actually great sounding gems that you didn’t even realize you had. I don’t know about you but I find this to be one of the MOST FUN things about audiophile record collecting. It’s a blast to discover a record that you’d written off is ACTUALLY a stone cold KILLER!

The next part of Jeff’s comment is VERY interesting. He says:

“…the argument isn’t about whether a “new” pressing sounds better/worse than a “vintage” pressing. The argument is about whether you prefer a recent to an older mastering.”

This comment raises two separate questions. First, the issue of the differences in the mastering between a vintage record and a modern reissue of the same record. Second is the question of whether, in the end, it’s all up to personal preference as to which records sound good to us and which don’t.

The first issue is a fairly easy one to resolve for two reasons. One, even if the master tape that Rudy Van Gelder used DECADES ago to master Lee Morgan’s Cornbread was the VERY SAME ONE Kevin Gray used to remaster it just a couple of years ago, the affects of age mean it is by no means the same tape. Two, the equipment Mr. Van Gelder used to do the original mastering was not the same equipment that Mr. Gray used at Cohearent.

Now if right after Rudy had had his go on the cutting lathe back in 1967, Kevin had had his chance to cut a completely different lacquer, then I think the argument Jeff is making here would hold water. But with the likelihood of tape degradation SO very high and the differences in mastering equipment all but certain I don’t think it’s just the mastering approach these two gentleman took to Morgan’s material and how Jeff or I happen to feel about it that’s at issue here.

“I own about 10 Blue Note Plastylite releases (all RVG), dozens of RVG Blue Note, Impulse, and Prestige releases. And, around 150 recent (1990s-present) reissues from the original Analog sources. These include Analog Production, MoFi, Music Matters, Blue Note Connoisseur, Blue Note 80/Classic, and Blue Note Tone Poet reissues. I have 21 Tone Poets. I was just texting with another jazz collector friend yesterday about how the Kevin Gray work on the recent Blue Notes (BN 80/Classic and Tone Poet) yields superior sound and listening experience to RVG.”

In fairness, I’m sure there are plenty of early jazz releases and early reissues, many of them cut by Mr. Van Gelder, that don’t sound all that good. MOST records from any era, for that matter, don’t sound all that good. But when a good copy of an early jazz pressing is put it up against a BNTPS reissue in a shootout ON THE RIGHT SYSTEM I think Jeff and his friend might backtrack on this view. I’ve certainly seen this happen myself with friends that swore up and down that their Analogue Productions or MoFi reissue was unbeatable until they ACTUALLY played them head to head against a good vintage pressing and quickly saw the error of their ways.

I think you should reconsider your (hyperbolic?) claim that these reissues “are invariably a waste of time.” Invariably? For one thing, compare an OG copy of Money Jungle to the Tone Poet reissue, and you’ll have an immediate and automatic refutation of that “invariably.” Kevin Gray saves that record from a bad recording that is just the reality of the original source tape and that the original mastering job didn’t take the time to correct.”

If an original recording wasn’t good to begin with, regardless of the title, then any version of that record, vintage or otherwise, has no chance of being worthy of audiophile listening. I have quite a few records in my collection that I really like for their music but won’t bother with if I want to play a record that really delivers sonically.

And you may be right Jeff. Perhaps I have not heard enough of the BNTPS reissues to make a blanket statement about them as being “invariably a waste of time,” but I’ve been disappointed SO MANY times by modern reissues I’m just not willing to pony up for more of these to find out. Sorry if this sounds lazy and irresponsible but with the two I bought having the same boring sound I felt I’d heard enough. If you or anyone else wants to loan me their copies of other BNTPS reissues or any reissues they feel deserve consideration, as one of my readers did recently, that might lead to a “refutation” of “invariably,” send them my way. I’ll even pay the postage to send them back when I’m done.

“I don’t have an OG Cornbread to compare the TP version to, but, to my ears and through my system it sounds amazing.”

Glad to hear that! Enjoy it for now but keep an open mind for later.

“I still love the hard punch of a Van Gelder, especially on those Plastylite pressings, and one could argue (as I’m sure some people do) that a Van Gelder master is more like listening to a group in a club (hence, that ALIVE feeling you point to). But, when people argue this, I think what they’re referring to is a certain kind of rawness and dynamic energy … a punch (which has a lot to do with just being a “loud” pressing). And, I’ve learned since collecting recent (trustworthy) audiophile reissues that achieving this punchiness sometimes means losing richness, depth, nuance.”

That “ALIVE feeling” as you put it, along with the “rawness and dynamic energy” you describe is in my view, what a great sounding record is all about. This has nothing to do with being a “loud” pressing. In fact, it’s only when the mastering engineer gets leveling spot on that you get that sound. Furthermore, I would argue that it’s the records that have that “ALIVE feeling” that have the “richness, depth and nuance” that, frankly “audiophile reissues” are lacking in spades.

“So, while I’m not going to get into the argument about which of these will sound better to YOU and I’m not going to say that recent reissues are OBJECTIVELY better, I will say that you’re giving bad advice to people. My advice would be to compare some records. Not one single 70s or 80s era American pressing of a Blue Note that I’ve heard sounds as good as any of the Tone Poets that I’ve heard.”

I’m very comfortable with the advice I’m giving on the BNTPS reissues and I don’t give it lightly, which I hope I’ve made crystal clear. Meanwhile what Jeff’s made clear it that either he’s never heard a great sounding vintage jazz record OR his system isn’t capable of playing one back the way it was meant to be played.

But, people should compare Liberty and U/A RVGs to these new reissues and see what they think. Some will prefer the “vintage,” others will prefer the new ones. (Btw, I just sold my 68 repress (Van Gelder) of A Love Supreme because the new Verve release is so superior to my ears. And, before it sold out anyway, you could get it for under $30 compared to anywhere from $50 (for a somewhat crackly record) to $175 (for a Minty record) for that 68 reissue.”

I agree. Don’t take my word for it if you’re serious about his hobby. Pick up a BNTPS reissue yourself and put it up against a vintage copy you have that you like and see which one you like best. By all means!

Thanks again Jeff! I do appreciate your views on this subject and am grateful you took the time to weigh in. I hope you’ll appreciate I offer my counter-arguments here in the spirit of healthy debate.