Talking about musicians that have aged well, I have just acquired Dave Mason's latest album A Shade Of Blues. Very interesting the revisiting of Traffic's "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy" featuring Joe Bonamassa.
still dreaming of an SP-10MkII 
Yooz guys are soooooo Canadian using hockey pucks to hold down your vinyl when it gets windy, just like here in the great white north eh?
What the…LOL
Then I realized there’s no “S” on the end.
I’ve been a huge fan of Tsuyoshi Yamamoto for years…since his TBM days.
This newer release showed up today and I took a break from building my Iron Pumpkin to remind myself why I was in the basement building it.
My newer/used VPI rig is pretty blameless. Easy peasy to set up and sounds great through the Millet LR phono.
Stopped putting those on years ago when it was hit and miss whether I fell over or not.
I only have his Speak Low CD. It has limited dynamic range and I never pursued others. I just listened to it again and his trio does have the intimate sound of a jazz club. Maybe I should listen to his other releases.
What is TBM?
Hahh... :😀
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto is one of my favorites, and the TBM recordings are great.
This new one (the SACD version) however... I don't know...
I sort of listened to the first disc…had some other things going on.
I kind of feel like I’m still hearing impaired with the old KEFs. They are definitely long in the tooth and I don’t think they were ever as good as some of my other speakers. Since I still have them, at some point I hope to refresh the crossovers and tweeters. They definitely don’t stage as well as some of my OB or horn speakers. Anyway, It’s what I have to work with at the moment with a turntable.
I thought the first track sounded pretty good…that’s where I was paying the most attention. Not sure it had the same dynamic quality as Midnight Sugar or Misty, but let’s face it…completely different recording situation. It may be one of those Apples and Oranges things.
I normally love recordings done at venues…with and without audiences. I think one of the best quality recordings I probably have is a direct to disc with Eji Kitamura called Swing Sessions that was recorded at an Auditorium in Japan with no audience. I also love his recordings with Teddy Wilson, the audience is fun to hear sometimes.
Is there something you thought was missing technically on the recording?…or was it the material/execution?
I kind of feel like I’m still hearing impaired with the old KEFs. They are definitely long in the tooth and I don’t think they were ever as good as some of my other speakers. Since I still have them, at some point I hope to refresh the crossovers and tweeters. They definitely don’t stage as well as some of my OB or horn speakers. Anyway, It’s what I have to work with at the moment with a turntable.
I thought the first track sounded pretty good…that’s where I was paying the most attention. Not sure it had the same dynamic quality as Midnight Sugar or Misty, but let’s face it…completely different recording situation. It may be one of those Apples and Oranges things.
I normally love recordings done at venues…with and without audiences. I think one of the best quality recordings I probably have is a direct to disc with Eji Kitamura called Swing Sessions that was recorded at an Auditorium in Japan with no audience. I also love his recordings with Teddy Wilson, the audience is fun to hear sometimes.
Is there something you thought was missing technically on the recording?…or was it the material/execution?
I think it's the "space sound" recording technic which tries to create a real music hall atmosphere, but I simply don't like it. Reminds me of Andrea Castelfranato's album "Anxanum," a "natural sound recording." It was meant to create the feeling that you were sitting somewhere in the audience and hearing the music that way — I didn't like that either.
But maybe it's just me.
At one point in time I didn't like it ether. It was like the room reverberations were unwanted noise. However, with a better system I could finally hear what it was supposed to sound like. Very different experience then. The rerverb didn't clutter up the direct sound any more. Rather it created an illusion of space much better than having no room sound.
So, I would suggest to take a look at how well your system and room is able to reproduce the stereo illusion. One may recall that Siegfried Linkwitz lamented the common state of affairs in some of his publications, such as in, "The Magic in 2-Channel Sound Reproduction - Why is it so rarely heard?"
https://www.linkwitzlab.com/publications.htm
In addition to speakers and room treatments, I would add that IME dacs can have a significant effect on stereo imaging reproduction.
Well, normally, my system puts a gorgeous stereo image, with wide(r than the distance of the speakers), deep and high stage (using open baffle), and there is a room treatment too, with diffusers, absorbers, resonators, etc. The SACD-player has a really really good dac (from the Marantz SA-10). So I wouldn't go that far that my system isn't good enough - I think it's just a matter of taste.
I’m a little confused. According to the liner notes this was recorded at the Gotanda Cultural Center Music Hall in Tokyo. Are you referring to the “Immersive 5.1” processing?
0waf posted this on Baby DiyA, I can't resist to repost it here
my kind of production!!
my kind of production!!
Yes. As Hideo Irimajiri (Recording Engineer and Mixing Engineer) explains :
” ‘A Shade Of Blue’ was created as an immersive (3D audio) work. To capture this, we used eight microphones for the piano, three for the bass, twelve for the drums, and 16 for the whole tones.
The stereo and 5.1 channel products were mixed to incorporate the experience of the immersive recordings as much as possible so that when you listen to the album, it feels as realistic as possible – as if the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto trio were performing right in front of you.
If you enjoy this immersive experience, try out the 3D audio on the Blu-ray, and turn your living room into a concert hall.”
This is what doesn't work for me. I think I'm just used to "normal" recordings.