The Search

[DaveyF]

I've been having a bad run of luck on Ebay . But as the thread title implies, 'the search' is part of the joy and pain of collecting.

Ebay can be a difficult place to source Mint jazz pressings. I know from experience that some of the jazz seller's think that a VG or VG-/G pressing is a Mint or Mint - copy. Interesting thing is, that they do tend to get away with that more than the classical or rock LP seller.
At the show I attended on Saturday, most of the jazz LP's ( and there were at least 10,000 LP's of jazz present) were G or G- at best. Nice thing about buying at a show, is that you can see for yourself the true condition. One of the reasons that I did NOT buy too much there.

 

[puroagave]

Couple of reasons.... 1) it's rare and 2) supposedly has great sonics, although I have not heard it. Anyone here have an original copy? Thoughts?

if you trip over an orginal copy for a buck at the thrift store nothing i say will change your mind - heck id buy it at that price that said, imo its the most overrated audiophile LP extant, and i've listened to 99% of the records on HPs list. Ive owned two original copies in the past and when i first heard it my reaction was "did i miss the joke or how did i not get the memo" my next thought was "i hope i can get my money out of this!"

it has all the living presence hallmarks including overripe distorted bass and the front hall/in your face sort of perspective. the highs are whitish and overbearing, but not bright in the usual sense because the extreme highs are missing. At the time, i thought my lowly versa dynamics 1.o/benz cart was to blame and incapable of handling the dynamics. it wasnt untill the cd's came out that my suspicions were correct and I felt vindicated...and did i mentioned music is of the 'light' variety.

heres a sample, and yes that distortion is there and not just youtubes crappy audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjPn8syttoQ

 

[DaveyF]

if you trip over an orginal copy for a buck at the thrift store nothing i say will change your mind - heck id buy it at that price that said, imo its the most overrated audiophile LP extant, and i've listened to 99% of the records on HPs list. Ive owned two original copies in the past and when i first heard it my reaction was "did i miss the joke or how did i not get the memo" my next thought was "i hope i can get my money out of this!"

it has all the living presence hallmarks including overripe distorted bass and the front hall/in your face sort of perspective. the highs are whitish and overbearing, but not bright in the usual sense because the extreme highs are missing. At the time, i thought my lowly versa dynamics 1.o/benz cart was to blame and incapable of handling the dynamics. it wasnt untill the cd's came out that my suspicions were correct and I felt vindicated...and did i mentioned music is of the 'light' variety.

heres a sample, and yes that distortion is there and not just youtubes crappy audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjPn8syttoQ

Rob, Thanks for the heads-up. I did look at the video, The Clearaudio Master reference is one nice TT. I did notice that the pressing that was being played looked like a much newer pressing and not one of the original deep plum labels. I do think that the great Merc's are to be found on the original label with an early pressing like an FR1, etc. The later reissue Merc's almost always sounded like you describe, however, i have not had that experience with most of my early original's. OTOH, I also have never heard the original Hi Fi A La Espanola either....as to the music, very little to discuss there

 

[mep]

On my crappy computer speakers, I thought the video sounded good. One thing I noticed was the bubble level on the arm was not completely on level.