poco a poco
I'm Jim
Thanks to all who have replied so far re the ECM's and I'm sorry if this has taken this thread off topic a bit. As Kevin notes above it is all really down to the quality of the mastering and to some extent the pressings. My experience with Blue Notes where I do have quite a few duplicates on both CD and Vinyl is the same as Kevin's. Any Blue Note pressing I have pre about 1980 easily Sounds better than the CD versions, especially the RVG's. The BN80's and Tone Poets of course are a real step up over the previous releases on the CD's and probably also all previous vinyl versions. Where I have things in duplicate on Impulse and Verve things are less clear cut and it really depends on the pressing. The earlier ones, provided not noisy, are usually better than CD, but this could be because that with the later Vinyl and CD a lot of both these labels mastertapes got destroyed in the warehouse fire?
I have done a little more research on the ECM's that agrees closely with what Graham is saying above. From their start in 1969 to 1982 ECM recorded in analogue. Between 1982 to 1985 they were using both digital and analogue. After 1985 they are all digital recordings. This probably means recording date not necessarily release date. I think all my LP versions are from this time period as I think I would have bought them around then. I think on the whole these sound pretty good and the consensus I have found so far is that while both CD and vinyl sound good the vinyl sounds a little better, the main comment being 'warmer'. There is a proviso though in that is with the German pressings, the USA pressings are not highly rated.
With the post 1985 releases the consensus seems to be that CD's do sound very good, my experience as well, and there is hardly any difference between CD and Vinyl.
The situation for me personally is slightly complicated now in that my new speakers that I have had since November, Dutch & Dutch 8c's, carry out a digital conversion process to achieve the DSP settings. So any analogue purists now need,to dismiss any comments I make about analogue in future.
I am convinced though they are transparent or at least I am getting the best sound I have had in my room on both vinyl and CD. I can clearly still hear the 'glare' on some early digital recordings that I have on vinyl. You will have to plow through the D&D thread for more on this.
A possible strategy with the ECM's maybe to buy used vinyl where available as ECM's are still fairly cheap, usually around £7 - £10 at least from Germany. That way you also get the full advantage of their excellent cover art and just buy the CD (usually very slightly cheaper than the vinyl version) or downloads / streaming if you are setup for that for anything else.
I have done a little more research on the ECM's that agrees closely with what Graham is saying above. From their start in 1969 to 1982 ECM recorded in analogue. Between 1982 to 1985 they were using both digital and analogue. After 1985 they are all digital recordings. This probably means recording date not necessarily release date. I think all my LP versions are from this time period as I think I would have bought them around then. I think on the whole these sound pretty good and the consensus I have found so far is that while both CD and vinyl sound good the vinyl sounds a little better, the main comment being 'warmer'. There is a proviso though in that is with the German pressings, the USA pressings are not highly rated.
With the post 1985 releases the consensus seems to be that CD's do sound very good, my experience as well, and there is hardly any difference between CD and Vinyl.
The situation for me personally is slightly complicated now in that my new speakers that I have had since November, Dutch & Dutch 8c's, carry out a digital conversion process to achieve the DSP settings. So any analogue purists now need,to dismiss any comments I make about analogue in future.
I am convinced though they are transparent or at least I am getting the best sound I have had in my room on both vinyl and CD. I can clearly still hear the 'glare' on some early digital recordings that I have on vinyl. You will have to plow through the D&D thread for more on this. A possible strategy with the ECM's maybe to buy used vinyl where available as ECM's are still fairly cheap, usually around £7 - £10 at least from Germany. That way you also get the full advantage of their excellent cover art and just buy the CD (usually very slightly cheaper than the vinyl version) or downloads / streaming if you are setup for that for anything else.
