|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
73.223.168.130
About a month ago I posed a query in the Vinyl Asylum about the ORG reissue of Peter Paul and Mary's "In the Wind", which was trashed by AD in the June 2016 Stereophile yet praised as superb by JV in the Absolute Sound and in fact included in their Super LP List (in fact, Best of the Bunch in Popular) in the July/August 2016 issue. My query was "who's right?"
Not too many responses, as it doesn't seem that many inmates had direct experience with both the original and the reissue.
I received my August 2016 Stereophile yesterday, and the entire letter section (which I always enjoy reading) was take up by a letter from Ying Tan rebutting ADs take on this reissue, at great length. Mr. Atkinson responded to this letter rather dismissively, in my opinion, indicating that "he (Mr. Tan) appears to rake Art Dudley over the coals for points he did not make, and ignores the points he did make". And to that, JA is mostly correct, and it is likely Mr. Tan would have been wise to have his letter proofread by someone familiar with ADs article prior to sending it, so that the points could have been rebutted directly and not in the roundabout way.
At the bottom, I think what we have here is a case of AD opining that the reissue is not a quality product, certainly not worth the premium price, and the manufacturer responding with outrage, making points to demonstrate it is a quality product, but also demeaning ADs experience, which doesn't fly very well. I think if I were JA, I would have someone else listen to this reissue as well.
I still find it odd that ADs experience is so at odds with the appearance of this reissue on TAS's Super LP list. FWIW, I really like ADs columns and in fact bought a product (the Tavish Adagio) based almost entirely on his review. (No way to hear it in advance, so a leap of faith, which unfortunately is too often the case for we consumers-but that's another subject.)
I have neither an original of In the Wind, nor the reissue. Maybe the only way through this is some original research!
Follow Ups:
just because they originate from the same source?I have multiple pressings of various LPS that sound quite different. A different stamper, too short a cooling time, bad fill, eccentric center hole, various things can happen. That's what makes LP collecting so challenging and fun.
Occam's razor is often correct.
Edits: 07/14/16
I find it hard to credit such major differing reactions to this release to be a question of manufacturing variation, especially given that AD and JV, who must know a thing or two about this topic, are involved.
...is to be believed in his letter to the editor published in Stereophile, perhaps Artie doesn't know that much about record production and manufacture. But he seems to know good sound from bad, as does JV, hence I will hew to my theory of sample variation.I also have no idea what you are saying here, "Iand AD have sound similar...."
Edits: 07/16/16 07/16/16 07/16/16
I have a pristine copy of the original and a copy of the ORG.While the records suggest that the original recording of the event was not a stellar example of the best in "perfectionist recording" technique, the ORG has more dynamics, more natural timbre, more detail, and overall sounds better. For anyone into Peter, Paul, and Mary I would think the recording would be well worth the $50 price.
Art sure seemed to single out this recording and use it to blow off steam over the industry and pricing. After listening to the original as well as the ORG I really hear no reason for him to go off like this, which to me read like an attack. I think the aggressive criticism would be better directed toward some manufacturers in the industry who really do deliver mediocre equipment at stratospheric prices. Perhaps a smaller company making $50 records is an easier, safer target to vent those frustrations towards. The guys selling grossly overpriced $100,000+ components that perform barely adequately for a $3,000 product (which does not include all the companies making top dollar equipment, obviously) might fight back a lot harder, and might represent a political problem if criticized like ORG was.
Edits: 08/03/16 08/03/16
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: