Re-Assessing RVG


Sorry. This is not another Beatles thread.

A while ago I put up two posts about Rudy Van Gelder’s CDs, ‘RVG: Genius or Just Lucky’ and ‘Beating the RVG Horse’, suggesting that his recordings are really over-rated. Listening to the newer CD reissues is frustrating, with such high quality performances and such mediocre engineering. His catalog of music is astounding, including most of the Blue Note, Prestige, and Impulse recordings of the 1950’s and 60’s.

First, let me start out by saying that you can’t turn Van Gelder recordings into miracle CDs. The piano still sounds like an upright recorded on its side in a closet, and the stereo recordings often have a very hard-panned left/right effect with the instruments. They rarely sound particularly natural. They are what they are. There are better jazz recordings from the era, notably IMHO the Contemporary Label.

However, I recently made some changes to my system that had a significant positive impact on the sound of these recording and I thought I’d share the results. First I swapped out my CD player and cables from a Jolida JD100 to a Cambridge 840C, and from Audioquest Copperheads to Nordost Blue Heavens. The clarity of the recordings improved immensely.

The final change though was the most significant. I adjusted my speaker position of my Spendor S8es so that instead of having them toed in directly at my seat, they are now on a crossing axis about four feet IN FRONT of my chair. The effects was not at all subtle. Scale, both width and height actually grew, maybe not in absolute width, but certainly in presenting a more natural soundstage. On recordings with hard-panned stereo imaging the effect was reduced. Stage Depth, not something Rotel components are good at, also improved.

Suddenly recordings like Bobby Hutcherson’s Stick Up, and Wayne Shorter’s Adams Apple sound really good. Not like the best audiophile recordings, but very nice indeed. A few of them still suffer from bad CD glare: The Ultimate Blue Train is really bright (and smoked by the 45RPM vinyl on every level) and A Love Supreme, while presenting a better image is also harsh sounding. Donald Byrd’s Byrd in the Hand is really good. Horns and cymbals sound great. That piano is hopeless on virtually every recording. Can you imagine recording Duke Ellington and NOT making the piano sound great?

I’ve really been enjoying these RVG recordings. There are a few clunkers, but for the most part they’ve become a staple in my listening rotation. Not nearly as bad as I thought they were.
grimace
You can't judge RVG's recordings by CD issues. Furthermore, if you do you must be careful about which ones you use. Have you noticed the differences between the early ca. 1987 Ron McMaster issues, the SBM Connoisseur series of the 90s and 2000s, Mosaic issues, and the current RVG series? Not to mention the current hybrid SACDs from the same series as the 45rpm vinyl. There are vast differences in compression, eq, and stereo spread.

For most audiophiles, RVGs are the worst sounding CD versions (though the 1987 ones suffer from poor converters). The favored issues, up to the Music Matters and Analogue Productions versions, have been the 1990s Japanese 20-bit remasters in the TOCJ series.
Yeah I also have critized these for there lack of quality sonics. As a jazz lover who listens to CD's, I've tried to avoid buying the Blue Note RVG's but always end up buying one more. There are just too many great jazz performances in the RVG series that are "must haves" if you're a jazz lover, bad remasters notwithstanding. Just no getting around it unless you're going to pay for the high dollar import CD's and I refuse (so far). Maybe if I get my system on a higher level of performance I'd be willing to pay more for some of the Japanese re-masters.
The few vinyl reissues that I have are excellent, but $50 a pop is a lot of money for a record. I understand that someone is issuing XRCDs of old Blue Notes shortly. That will be worth checking out.
Grimace The Hoffman 45 RPM re-ish series seems a bargain at $50 a pop.Compared to $30 price of many new LPs which 90% likely have digital somewhere in the chain.So what's the point of buying that on vinyl?The way the Steelers are playing,were I you,I'd be stacking up excellent vinyl to keep my spirits up.Just saying.
Your post raises the interesting question: Is it the CD that's bad, or is it my system?

Most of us with significant investments in equipment would rather blame the CD, and we usually do.

I think the truth is it's almost always the equipment that's the problem.