New Steely Dan Aja


Hi to Dan fans,

How would people rank the latest vinyl pressing of Aja? I hear it's among the best.

Thoughts?

Happy 4th!

128x128hilde45

I assume you mean the double-45rpm version from Acoustic Sounds? I think it's awesome sounding, and I've got an original 70's promo from the day it was released. That is brilliant sounding, but nothing like the double-45, to me.... 

I just listened to this all the way through this morning. This is probably my fifth time spinning it, and while I always go in with the thought that I will play a couple of tracks and move on to something else, the combination of sound quality (I'm speaking of the AP 45s) and the amazing material makes it impossible and I am still smiling during the closing notes of Josie. I have a nice clean Japanese pressing that I always thought sounded great but it doesn't hold a candle to the new set. Highly recommended.

I will also add just for context that I found their (AP's) Pretzel Logic to sound much better than a lot of reports stated. It's the worst of any of the catalog so far, but still nice quiet vinyl, and if I toe my speakers in a little bit more than usual, I can get a little treble boost, so it ends up still sounding better than my OG.

Maybe not completely relevant, I have the same mastering by Bernie G/ Acoustic Sounds on SACD. This beats my Japan pressing on vinyl, which beats my US pressing and streaming from Qubuz. Worth getting IMO.

The CISCO pressing has been a reference for many folks, so would be interesting to compare this new one to a CISCO.

@jdjohn - I've seen a few YouTube videos that did that, along with some others. CISCO seems to be a very popular one, but I haven't seen a review yet that liked anything else better than the UHQR double-45...