MoFi v/s UHQR

@cleeds: It wouldn’t surprise me if Fremer also covered the Tea For The Tillerman subject in his Stereophile column. This would have been quite a few years back now, but may be available in the mag’s archives.

I have a lot of Harmonia Mundi LP’s (my favorite Classical label), and just about all the original Sheffield’s (I’m a big fan of direct-2-disk LP’s). Only a few Windham Hill’s (I don’t care for Stan Rickter’s mastering. He applied the "smile" equalization to his MoFi records), a lot of RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence LP’s, but no ERC’s (silly pricing, variable quality). Another great label is Bear Family Records, a German company.

When I speak of the quality of an LP pressing, that is not the same as the sound quality of any given title.

Did anyone order these two gems yet? 
https://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&artistid=3146&LabelID=507

@bdp24 I’m definitely enjoying the Tillerman discussion, especially your interesting anecdotes.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated far too many LP versions of this album -- including the pink label Island and the 45RPM AP (the two best-sounding IMHO, despite being very different-sounding), but I’ve found the source material itself to be problematic. I’ve never been a fan of plastic guitars, and this album is the best example of why: the Ovation just *sounds* plastic-y (or at least strummed too close to the bridge) and the better the SQ, the more that’s true. (And, yes, Ornette fans, I do understand that "plastic" doesn’t always mean "inferior.")

But even worse, the exaggerated phase-shifty vocal sibilance on tunes like "I Might Die Tonight" also drives me nuts -- to the point that I rarely play my vinyl copies of this album any more -- I prefer Tidal FLAC, and those who know how strongly I prefer vinyl understand why that’s such a strong statement. Jeez, I never could convince a cartridge to could even track those transients cleanly until I bought into WAM Engineering’s WallyTools alignment procedures.

But I digress. I agree with those here who believe that you can’t generalize about the sound quality of a label’s reissues. MoFi’s 1-Step digitization "scandal" simply doesn’t seem to be as big an issue as some make it out to be. Analog is not only about signal-processing -- playback mechanisms are, IMO, at least as important. As is, obviously, the quality of an analog source -- I hear greater differences between MoFi 1-Step releases than I do, in aggregate, between MoFi’s 1-Steps and those released by other labels.

Anyway, to reply to the OP’s original question, the best, absoutely most realistic remastering I’ve ever heard was the UHQR box of "Kind of Blue." Incredible 3-dimensional soundstage, profound physical presence of each player. No other AP or MoFi release -- not even any other UHQR or vintage London, Mercury, etc. recordings -- can match its "you are there"-ness, at least on my system in my room. Every time I play it, I’m knocked out.

@cundare2: I have another "problem" with Tea For The Tillerman: I just don't like Cat Stevens that much .

Do you have the 2-LP/45RPM version of the Analogue Productions UHQR Kind Of Blue, or the single LP/33-1/3 version? I went with the single disc version; while the 45RPM version reportedly sounds better, I'm willing to forfeit that difference to get the original musical format and flow.

I had both Mobile Fidelity versions of Carole King's Tapestry album, and kept the 1-Step version, returning the other for a refund. Though both were made using the same digital file as source material, the 1-Step is considerably better sounding than the standard MoFi. While the sq isn't great, the original on Ode is really, really bad. While Lou Adler may have been a good producer in musical terms, in terms of sq he was not so hot.