What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?

A good question to ask @flash56, as I don’t think @billpete fully absorbed the somewhat complicated and confusing chain of events. Before I answer you, let me correct one mistake I inadvertently made in my long post above: In the next to the last paragraph (the one starting with "Kassem gave Fremer a call"), in the next to the last sentence I wrote ".....and another splitting the difference in about half (between flat and Dolby boosted)." The part in parenthesis should have read "between flat and Dolby engaged." With the Dolby circuitry engaged during playback, the high frequencies would have been reduced, not boosted. In comparison to the tape played back with the Dolby engaged, the tape played without the Dolby engaged sounds brighter. In spite of that, the tape played without Dolby---since it wasn’t recorded with it---is "flat".

I learned all these details in a few videos all the involved parties made and posted on YouTube a few years ago. According to them, ALL LP’s pressed prior to Grundman’s discovery of Dolby A noise reduction being used in the making of the production master tape (from which the lacquers were cut)---including the pink label Island, the sunray Island, in fact all Island pressings, as well as those on A & M---all were incorrectly mastered and lacquers cut with a tape in which the Dolby playback circuitry was engaged, thereby robbing the recordings of a lot of their mid-to high frequencies. That’s why the cymbals and Cat’s guitar don’t sound right, amongst other sonic problems.

The Analogue Productions pressing of Tea For The Tillerman is the first version mastered and produced without the Dolby circuitry engaged, and sounds dramatically better than the sunray label Island I had (it’s long gone). But of course as always everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I can understand not "liking" the true sound of Cat’s Ovation guitar; lots of players of Martin guitars don’t either.

For those who want to know what a tape made without Dolby n/r but played back with the Dolby circuit engaged sounds like, make a cassette tape yourself duplicating that process. I’m pretty sure you will NOT like how it sounds. Unless your loudspeakers themselves are very, very bright. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Tea For The Tillerman was mastered using Yamaha NS10’s. Oy!

The obvious question that follows is: after Grundman’s discovery, did everyone else also make new production master tapes from which to cut their lacquers and then press their LP's, without Dolby used in playback? I don’t know.

One re-master definitely worth listening to is Steve Hoffman’s version of Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Lovely!

@billpete

- The Crosby track is good because it has that great Bill Weir bass to test the bottom, Jerry Garcia’s pedal steel for the high end, Steven Stills and Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash and Paul Kantner in the chorus to test separation, and Crosby out front, with a large acoustical space.

- I personally look for original or second press in NM or SS condition over remasters. With the exception of Rino, I find almost reissues and remasters to be inferior, sometimes decidedly so. I was particularly disappointed with the MoFi 45rpm remasters if Fleeteood Mac and the Airplane’s Volunteers.

@bdp24 

I had to recheck my Island copy of TFTT. I was not aware of a solid pink label but mine is surrounded in pink and thought perhaps that was the reference. I decided I needed to see for myself if I was thinking wrong and I was, not knowing there was a solid pink label out there. I do have the sunray in pink outline but if you read on Steve Hoffman reviews of this, the early ones like I have are supposed to be the same as the solid pink copy. There was reference to the code in the wax, U2, I think which matched what I have. I just can't remember from one minute to the next so I may have that wrong. You can check Hoffman for yourself or maybe you have. I certainly believe you as your description has a rather amazing amount of details that I would think is known by a very small group. Interesting for sure. 

I never had a problem with the A&M's as they were all that I had. If you have no better reference, they become the reference. There are differences even among them as one says dbx and that one got high praise at least from someone. I'll have to check and see what I can hear as differences among my own. I just always found the Island copy to be somewhat better than the A&M'a that I had for so many years before. If I have the wrong one, I can only imagine how good the solid pink one must be and I guess I have to throw my system out the window. :) Thanks for the info and no, I am not following it 100%. It would take me awhile to absorb it all. 

@unreceivedogma 

Funny, that is the same gang that I was just listening to on Joni Mitchell's own recording. Very good stuff and well done.

Remasters have almost always been a disappointment to me, especially for the price. Originals have been better virtually every time. Rino rings a bell, might have something on that label somewhere. I think I remember reading that you have 6k LP's and know them all. I have somewhere between 2 and 3k and keep finding ones that I don't remember. Kind of fun and kind of sobering at the same time.

Someone said that analog remasters are fine and that stands to reason, especially if they go back to the original master tapes. D2D eliminates all of that and it's not hard to understand how it can be so good. Recorded direct to cutting lathe, no tape involved. I've never had the pleasure of hearing a master tape first hand but have spoken to some old internet buddies who had that luxury. I guess nothing quite compares but D2D is probably as close as it would get. Anyway, all good stuff. Thanks.