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Tone Poet Blue Notes

To my mind, and bare in mind I’d take an RVG stamp in the run-off to any of them, is that the Japanese pressings tend to be very dynamic. They can be a little bright on occasion, but they are very ‘alive’ and present in the way RVG’s stuff. I find the TPs very good, but again too bright and with a bit of a bass lift that I’m not convinced by. The result here is they just don’t have the same presence and attack to the brass of an RVG or good Japanese cut. Still very good, in fact all are so good I’d not get hung up swapping one for another really.
 
Completely the opposite of my experience. As a generalisation, without directly comparing specific examples, I don’t hear the dynamic range on Toshiba/EMI BN pressings that I do on TP and MM, especially with drums. In fact the most recent Toshiba I acquired, Blue John Patton, is particularly lacklustre. Not what I was expecting at all.
How strange. I played Dizzy Reece/Blues In Trinity on Toshiba-EMI yesterday and the dynamics fair “knocked my socks off”. Art Taylor throughout side 2 particularly!
 
How strange. I played Dizzy Reece/Blues In Trinity on Toshiba-EMI yesterday and the dynamics fair “knocked my socks off”. Art Taylor throughout side 2 particularly!

If it sounds good it is good ;) Sounds like you have a great collection.
 
The result here is they just don’t have the same presence and attack to the brass of an RVG or good Japanese cut. Still very good, in fact all are so good I’d not get hung up swapping one for another really.
I would be surprised with anyone wanted more presence on The TP of Donald Byrds trumpet on My Conception. He is so far forward in my room that he is almost in my lap - and I'm sitting 9 foot from my speakers. :D
 
That’s one of the best sounding TPs I have. I still hear it as having a bit of a brightness rather than Rudy’s visceral mid-punch, but it is very good.

PS One thing that needs to be factored is I’m listening via the medium of gigantic Tannoys, which arguably have a bit of a mid scoop, as I suspect did Rudy’s Altec 604s. I’d maybe have a different opinion upstairs on the JR149s or whatever.
 
That’s one of the best sounding TPs I have. I still hear it as having a bit of a brightness rather than Rudy’s visceral mid-punch, but it is very good.
I did note in an earlier post that it is a bit bright and that seems to be true of many, but not all Kevin Gray cuts for both TP's and BN80's / Classics. I note it and that it is not really too excessive. Overall I think it is a reasonable trade off for the extra 'air' it brings to the cymbals etc.
 
I did note in an earlier post that it is a bit bright and that seems to be true of many, but not all Kevin Gray cuts for both TP's and BN80's / Classics. I note it and that it is not really too excessive. Overall I think it is a reasonable trade off for the extra 'air' it brings to the cymbals etc.

No tone controls? ;)
 
I don't Tone controls in my preamp, but I have those and much more sophisticated eq in my Dutch & Dutch 8c's that are correcting for my room. I suppose I could set up an additional special curve just for Kevin Gray cuts. :p

No I don't either and it is annoying sometimes. I often thought that it'd be cool to have a studio rack with all analogue compressor and eq :) I have an ADI ADC and can listen to the LP 'digitally' with eq but in practice I just don't...
 
My Quad 34 was handy for this sort of thing…

Interesting what Tony and poco said there, via my Leak and LS3/5a the Kevin Gray TPs and BNs certainly are on the brighter side but I’d maybe prefer the term ‘lively’, as bright can often be a pejorative in hi-fi which is not something I’d like to attach to KG’s great work.
 
My Quad 34 was handy for this sort of thing…

Interesting what Tony and poco said there, via my Leak and LS3/5a the Kevin Gray TPs and BNs certainly are on the brighter side but I’d maybe prefer the term ‘lively’, as bright can often be a pejorative in hi-fi which is not something I’d like to attach to KG’s great work.
I certainly wouldn't want my use of 'bright' here to be seen as having negative connotations, but it is easy to let it be seen as that and we had a brief discussion on this back in this thread. I should really have said a very little on the 'bright' side (in my system) and of course its apparentness may be system dependant. I still think the Tone Poets are probably the best pressings of Blue Notes available for those of us (most) who can't afford a Van Gelder Stamped original. I know some Liberty's have been pressed from the same metal work and can be found cheaper, but not 'cheap' now.
 
@poco poco

Yes, it’s great that these are being released especially for people who’ve not managed to get hold of originals, or the earlier Blue Note MM and AP pressings from some years back. The same for the AS ones too.
 
It is a shame that ‘white on blue’ ‘70s cut hasn’t got the RVG stamp, without it all bets are off really.

PS I’ve got a very nice RVG-stamped Liberty and a Tosh-EMI of Adderley’s Something else and I’ve owned them both for many years (the Liberty was one of the first jazz records I bought in the ‘80s). I’ve found myself preferring one over the other over the years on different systems. Right here right now the Liberty wins, but the Tosh is bloody good. I’ve also got the Japanese DAM audiophile club 12” 45 of Autumn Leaves/Maiden Voyage, and that thing is amazing, but sounds more like a TP (i.e. quite bright). Very different to the Liberty which is all about the horns.
 
Well on balance it seems I did well to go for the CD box in the end. Perhaps they should have held onto those over runs to meet all the replacements they might need. :rolleyes:

Indeed. Mine was in just about good enough shape that I decided to keep it, but others have been much worse.

I wanted to have the set, and I never find that Amazon are very good with replacements on the same order. If they send me something that's damaged or faulty, I'll normally just return it for a refund and buy another copy on a completely new order. That's not possible this time as they've completely run out of stock.
 
Indeed. Mine was in just about good enough shape that I decided to keep it, but others have been much worse.

I wanted to have the set, and I never find that Amazon are very good with replacements on the same order. If they send me something that's damaged or faulty, I'll normally just return it for a refund and buy another copy on a completely new order. That's not possible this time as they've completely run out of stock.
It was Amazon where I nearly bought the vinyl box from. I had been waiting for it and I saw it late one night at a bit less than the BN store price. I waited till the next morning and they were 'Out of Stock' there and everywhere else. In this case I think it will mean Out of Print as well as I doubt they will press more. Glad yours was good enough to keep and if you wanted to move it on later I don't thing you would lose as they are already going from £350 - £650. :eek:
 
It was Amazon where I nearly bought the vinyl box from. I had been waiting for it and I saw it late one night at a bit less than the BN store price. I waited till the next morning and they were 'Out of Stock' there and everywhere else. In this case I think it will mean Out of Print as well as I doubt they will press more. Glad yours was good enough to keep and if you wanted to move it on later I don't thing you would lose as they are already going from £350 - £650. :eek:

Yep, I think I was quite lucky to get one. I left it a bit late as it was one I wasn't 100% sure if I could justify it. I eventually ordered it, and it went out of stock straight afterwards and then shortly to 'Currently unavailable' and couldn't be reordered.

Ii looked like me order wouldn't be fulfilled and at that point (of course!) I decided that I really did want it! I actually considered ordering one of the overrun copies from the US BN store. That worked out so expensive that I decided to sleep on it and then the Amazon order dispatched.

As you say, I'd get my money back (or more) even given the slight damage.

Values of recent releases seem to be going mad at the moment, especially on boxsets. If I were that way inclined, it seems like it would always be worth ordering two copies of each boxset and selling one to pay for the other!
 
I suspect it will be quite rare and collectable as it was quite a small edition and I bet they got a lot back damaged as the packing and shipping was so bad.
 
Yep, I think I was quite lucky to get one. I left it a bit late as it was one I wasn't 100% sure if I could justify it. I eventually ordered it, and it went out of stock straight afterwards and then shortly to 'Currently unavailable' and couldn't be reordered.
As you got yours from Amazon and then they disappeared you were probably the person that saved me from buying it! :);)
 


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