Collecting Blue Note Jazz

Hot stampers is noting more than P.T Barnum at best. People spending upwards of $500.00 for a $1.00 Lp that can be found and bought at most thrifts or Salvation Army. How anyone can be hood winked into believing, that out of the five Lps there is one that's worth a kings ransom. Please use common sense when buying. Try to haunt your local thrifts and even try craigs many people are selling Lps and you might get very lucky. So in the mean time, buy Sacds and reissued Lps on quality labels and check the forums here and Arthur Salvatore on "Audio Critic". But please don't give your money away to any of the record hucksters out there.Their are some here that will disagree with me and spend hundreds on an Lp with the thought they are getting a deal in best sound!well not me.

I'd have to disagree with your opinion that the LPs don't sound that good. I've been enjoying the Music Matters and Acoustic Sounds 45rpm Blue Note re-issues very much. The biggest reason for is they sound great to me. I can't believe this stuff was recorded in the late fifties and early sixties!

While I don't think $50.00 is cheap I do think they will be worth at least that if I ever sell them or when they are passed on to my Family.

For me sound quality is the most important criteria. Is it possible that the original pressings at 33rpm sound better than the 45rpm? I'll let everyone else chime in because I don't have any of the originals. At least I know that these are new. One of the drawbacks I've found is that you never know what a used record will sound like, you don't know how it's been handled for 48 years. I haven't been disappointed with any of the re-issues yet and I've got around 23 so far.

I have a few original Blue Note LPs that sound very good. In fact, once the TT/cart was dialed in, LPs cleaned with Disc Doctor and steamed (that's a whole other thread) ... I was surprised at the high production quality. These were albums that hadn't been played in years - giving way to CDs and then SACDs. My opinion of Rudy Van Gelder's work had been tainted by what I was hearing on CD. I thought maybe my recollection may have been a little "cloudy" from the old days of Blue Note on vinyl. But when I put on Horace Silver's "Song For My Father" and Lee Morgan's "Rumproller" I was fairly blown away.

In comparison, the 45 RPM MM reissues - while an improvement over some of the brand new stuff - there wasn't IMHO enough of an improvement to justify the $50 price tag. Picked some up just to see what all the buzz was about. I concluded that perhaps my TT system wasn't resolving to the point of extracting that last bit of improvement.

BTW, the remastered RVG CD collection - is an improvement over his earlier CD engineering. I could hear a positive difference in the RVG version of Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil" compared to a CD I picked up about 15 years ago. Perhaps a more technical person can chime in here, but I think it has something to do with a much higher sampling rate. Having said all that, still if you can find some of the original LPs in good shape ... pick 'em up.

Finally, based on my personal experience, the folks that put out the 'hot stampers' aren't all bad. I picked up a nearly mint 'promotional' pressing of Miles' "Some Day My Prince Will Come" from that outfit (Columbia not Blue Note OK). It sounds fantastic, and I never get tired of it no matter how many times it's been played.

I am familiar with Arthur Salvatore's site, a great suggestion for LPs with top notch sound quality, and equipment recommendations as well. He has a ton of recommendations, but leans heavily towards classical, with just a handful of mostly offbeat Jazz titles, and no Blue Notes.