[Brad]

Nice issue.
Enjoyed the music and concert reviews too.

Must be rough having to drive the fancy cars with the nice stereos 

[vinyl anachronist]

I cringed when I was reading Marc's Technics 1200 and saw he tested out the M97xE on it. I've been reading his columns for a long time and that cart is just not his thing. He should get a heavy 18g Audio Technica headshell, a great big couterweight and mount a Shure SC35C. It's a very musical cart and is a descendant of the Shure M3D and M7D carts which are like the Denon 103 and Ortofon SPU of the MM world.

--Dave

The only reason why I tried the M97 was that some of the people who have criticized me for disliking the 1200 have mentioned that as a great budget cart.  I'm really supporting my original point, made many years ago, that a large chunk of 1200 fans really need to compare it side by side with better 'tables before getting all grumpy with me.  In other words, if you think that an M97/1200 combination is good for $500, you're really going to be knocked on your ass when you hear something like a Rega P2 with a Bias.

That combination was dreadful.  You had a right to cringe.  I cringed, too, and couldn't believe that some people think that's acceptable analog sound.

[dmckean]

Something has got to be wrong.

I upgraded from a Planar 2 that I owned 9 years with many different carts to a Technics M5GSE with all the KAB mods + plus a heaveir headshell and couterweight and the difference wasn't subtle. There's guys here at Audio Circle that have dumped their Linn setups for the Technics. Maybe the stock table doesn't sound as good but I wouldn't have thought a bunch of little tweaks could make that much difference. I would have thought all the fundementals would still be there. hmmmm...

[TONEPUB]

Well, if we can ever get the KAB accessories, we'll revisit it.

[kenreau]

Jeff, I look forward to each issue more than the one before.  Great work.

X2 here. 

Fantastic work Jeff and gang!  Amazing amount of relevant content and super high quality artwork/photos/publication

I am stoked to see Acoustic Sounds AP reissuing those great titles on the silver discs.  I read your SACD comments and wanted to inquire if these are hybrid discs? Did you happen to give the redbook layer a spin for comparison? 

Now that I made the jump to primarily a HD based system (MWI TP) I no longer have a SACD player.  I do use a Sony PS3 for spinning any (non-SACD) silver discs needed, but even Sony abandoned equipping those with SACD reading abilities which tells me the formats demise is imminent.

This brings me back around to looking for hi-res digital downloads of great classic titles such as these Blue Notes.  I know you are a proponent of the hi-rez downloads as am I.  Do you know if Acoustic Sounds is (or would) reconsidering offering their great catalog as hi-rez downloads?  I recall we quizzed your guest, the AS tech guy (his name escapes me) that attended the VSAC digital forum you hosted this summer and his reply was no, no plans. 

I would love to see them reconsider that service, or maybe offer their catalog through Music Giants, Chesky, HD Tracks, or other established audiophile sites.  Maybe we could get a poll - vote for support counter going to convince them?

Please keep up the great work, it is appreciated.

Kenreau

[quartet]

I am stoked to see Acoustic Sounds AP reissuing those great titles on the silver discs.  I read your SACD comments and wanted to inquire if these are hybrid discs? Did you happen to give the redbook layer a spin for comparison? 

Clicking on the images takes you to the Acoustic Sounds product pages, which list them as "Hybrid Mono SACD". There seem to be 12 items with these "CAPJ" product numbers, all listed as hybrid, and several more of them look interesting. ( If you search for "CAPJ" you get three "spurious" hits -- searching like this is my favorite way of making sense of all the various reissue series at Acoustic Sounds. )

I too would be very interested in Jeff's impressions of the redbook layer. Actually, my reading of the article gave me the impression that Jeff thought these were pure SACDs.   

BTW, does anybody know who did the remastering on the rest of these? One of the descriptions (Saxophone Colossus) names Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, but many of them don't say anything.

[TONEPUB]

I guess it was selfish of me to not listen to the Redbook layers...
I'll give em a listen and let you know.  I pretty much just play SACD's
on my SACD player and that's it!

As for that stuff being available for digital download, I'd be surprised.
Chad Kassem is an analog guy through and through.  I'm amazed he
even released these on SACD!

However, if you all ask for it, who knows?

I know part of it all requires different licensing, and they may not
have wanted to grant it..

If you want it, email Acoustic Sounds!

[griller]

Absolutely beautiful mag Jeff! I hadn't read TONE lately. Just not much time. I'm going to go back and download them all.

[TONEPUB]

Thanks!