Features

..but no Bob Dylan? What about all the MFSL issues? And no Bill Evans? What about the Hoffman/Gray remasters of these?

I have many on this list but would recommend many Dylan MFSL and Evans all analog remasters over many of them.

I live in Europe. Can these recordings be bought on ye ol' continent also?
Buying in the States and paying import duties is such a big let down.

Getz/Gilberto reissue from Analogue Productions is stunning and must be on any Top 100 AAA reissues list, I'm sure you agree Michael :)

Glad to see Samantha Crain on the list, great album and great sound.

Great list! No Beatles mono box?

... those all-analog classical music LP reissues that are worth owning?

I'll take advantage of this post for asking for help.

My system is pretty basic: a TubeCube 7 (a 3.5 Watt tube amp) with Klipsch RP160M bookshelf speakers and a Pro-Ject essential III turntable with external phono stage. I don'use a sub. No equaliser either. So it pretty much plays the music as it was recorded.

From time to time I come across recordings with remarkable, pleasant quality in the low frequencies. Probably my best sounding record is Neil Young's This note 's for you, especially the tracks Coupe de ville, Can't believe your lyin' and One thing have formidable bass. (On vinyl it is even better than when streaming.) I'm not saying this record should be in the Top 100. I'm just saying it is the best sounding vinyl record in my (humble) collection.
Why don't all records sound so fine? What makes this vinyl disk so special?

My record is an original pressing dating back to 1988, by Reprise Records. I bought it when it came out, as far as I remember. It was manufactured in Germany. I made the effort to write down the scribblings on the vinyl.
This is what it says:

RC [both letters inside a S lying vertical] R/S Alsdorf 925719-1-A
(I-25719 A-SR3) (SP-W GER 6) TML
What is between () is in handwriting.

Perhaps there is something in the codes above that explains why this record sounds so good? If so, please let me know.

Thank you Micahel. I'm often a bit gun shy on current re-issues after having been burned on a few incredibly aweful pressings from dubious labels. Your list will be most helpful, in fact it will by my "shopping list" of sorts for a while.

Great list Michael. I have found that everything mastered by Kevin Gray at Coherent is exceptional, particularly the Analogue Productions Prestige reissues. I did not realize that the Van reissues were AAA - it would be really nice if someone could come up with a master list as the vast majority of reissues, I presume, are from digital sources.

Great List...but I think a seminal album that wasn't included is Grant Green Idle Moments, and you'd have to have the Audiophile version of it. I bought the regular Blue Note reissue, and I went through 4 copies that were all new...and all garbage. They look like some kid had them since the 60s and took nominal care.

Anyway, I really think that album is amazing, but I'm looking forward to getting a bunch of those. I have the MOFI (MFSL) version of Joe Jackson's Night & Day. I know it isn't in print any longer, but do you feel the Intervention version is as good or better?

When I see some of the Analogue productions stuff is “backordered”, does tha basically mean “out of print forever”? Example- Blue Train

77) The Mothers of Invention: Uncle Meat (Zappa F.)

is not Analog. It was cut from 24/96 because due to original tape damage they hodge-poged a composite digital from multi sources. It does sound wonderful though.

Watch a two hour movie (chick flick) with my wife or a 2 hour you tube video on records? Tommy sounded fantastic! I'd love to have another 2 hour video on random records from your collection and the stories behind them.

PS: wife is pissed.

Duke Ellington Orchestra
Nutcracker Suite on
Pure Pleasure Records
Fantastic Music
Fantastic Sound!!!
Thank you so much

Your comments on video in regards to the microphone drop during the Neil Young song reminded me of your review of the brilliant Vandersteen Sevens:

"When John Atkinson came over to measure the Sevens in situ, I played him Neil Young's "Out on the Weekend," from a new edition of Harvest on 180gm vinyl (LP, Reprise). At one point, in the right channel, someone knocks over a microphone stand. When the song ended, John Atkinson, who'd heard this track many times but had never before heard the noise, asked about it. I'd known about that mistake and had heard it through other speakers, but through the Sevens it was obvious, unmistakable, almost three-dimensional."

Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/vandersteen-model-seven-loudspeaker-...

Unfortunately, that Costello title has been out of print for about 3 years. It is fantastic, however. i'm surprised not to see Diana Krall (Live in Paris) or Melody Gardot (My one and...) on ORG.

Ugh, sorry should have clarified.

Really looking forward to watching this. BUT it would be great to see what your classical choices would be. I know you don't consider yourself to be a "classical expert", but who cares? In fact that is precisely the reason your opinions would be interesting. Obviously there are the usual suspects (Living Stereo, Mercury -- and I happen to prefer the Classic Records reissues to the AP versions) but maybe there are some less obvious ones too. BTW there are some recent Speaker's Corner LPs that are fantastic, like the John Barry selection.

Michael, first thank you for the list and all your other contributions. But I have to disagree on one item.

26) A. Blakey’s Jazz Messeng W. Monk (Analog Spark)

The reason is that the bass is basically inaudible. And it is important to the music. In the cd reissue, the bass sounds great. So unfortunately I traded in my analog spark copy and got a European one which was most likely made from the cd, because again the bass is great. Is it pure analog? no. But being faithful to the original medium and artist intentions should NOT mean being faithful to the mistakes of the past as well.

That list is just worthless.

I Just Tried An Experiment...

After listening to the Overture from Tommy as played through your vinyl reproduction system, I then listened to every digitally mastered version of the original Overture that I own.

The digital versions, including the "high resolution" ones, all sounded very similar to each other. None sounded like the vinyl playback.

Since all these were played back through the same electronics at the same measured level - at least as close as I could make it with the Faber Acoustic SoundMeter app in my iPad - I have to conclude that the mastering is different between the original vinyl and the more recent digital versions.

I can't believe that as good as Mikey's set-up is, it can perform magic and put information, especially the right information, back into playback. It can only color and distort the original or, more likely, minimize any degradation of the sound available on the disc. The same is true for the gear and the process used to add the music to the video. There's obviously more and better musical information on the vinyl. QED, MF! (The MF does not represent Michael's initials, although certain people might argue the point.)

The vinyl plain sounds better. By better, I mean more realistic. At least realistic in the context of a studio recording.

I'm not pointing a finger at any technology here. But, I do think that it shows, again, how really good pieces of musical art got "re-interpreted" when they were digitized for sale on CD and so on. Maybe the reinterpretation wasn't so great.

So we all lost a couple generations of music? What's the big deal? I guess it's important to remember that for most people in the recorded music chain, this is all just a product like shampoo, breakfast cereal, or prescription drugs.

That all tells me that the best source of high quality archived musical art is vinyl. Tape may be better, but it degrades at a faster rate than vinyl and isn't very accessible or available. Digital technology may even be superior to what's possible with vinyl, but garbage in, garbage out as they say.

Haven't watched the video yet. Since Zappa is on the list just wanted to mention that Hot Rats is a Bernie Grundman cut.

Also, Nirvana's Nevermind on the Pallas pressing is also a BG cut. I believe it's still in print, since my local record store just ordered one for me.

HI MICHAEL,
loved the list but price and availablity would be a problem? i know you are a hardcore vinyl man but have you ever come across any cds that you thought were acceptable sound wise? thanks

Having just set up a new stereo, my first in decades, I love lists like these! What I do - here comes the Heresy - is look each one up on Tidal and mark them as Favorites. (This means I can find them again.) The reason I am commenting here is not (just) to pull anyone's chain. So far I have only looked up the first 13 out of 100, and I am impressed by how many Tidal has in the "Master" format. That is their higher-res-than-CD format.

All of which means I will have a lot to listen to. The downside? Since I'm not buying them I don't have the rationing in place that budgeting, finding, buying imposes. I can OD too easily, if that is possible.

Thanks so much!

An old fart who has a stereo again, a better one than days of yore.

Appreciate the list, but let me get this straight, the most contemporary album on this list is friggin' Joe Jackson?

Shane's got some amazing records on Michael's list. and there are bundles and some sales from his website,
so buy them direct from the man himself! The Judee Sill records are a steal at 50% off.

https://www.interventionrecords.com/

Did you check the release date on every album? I should have just said what I meant. The list is helpful, but if we’re trying to keep this industry alive for another generation, could we have a list that doesn’t look like every baby boomer’s record collection?

Thanks for this list, Michael. However, I'm trying to compile a list to purchase, and I notice that you mention some you like 2x45 and some you like the 33-1/3 better. I know it will take a little bit of time to update the list, but can you put 2x45 next to the ones you prefer in that format? For instance, UNITY from Music Matters is offered in both, but you don't mention which one you like better on that album.

From a modest collector with limited funds, it would be appreciated!

To have placed 5 LPs on this list with so many long-established GREAT labels!

I did want to make one comment- the ONLY time IR masters from a digital source is when that is the master format. In the case of Joe Jackson's Summer in the City, it was a 20-bit digital recording, and and our new master was made at 20-bits from the original DATs. The jump in quality over the truncated-to-16-bits CD is mind-blowing!

The 'tweeners in the IR catalog are Everclear's Sparkle and Fade and So Much For the Afterglow. The recordings were to tape, but there was never an edited and assembled analog master made. It wasn't possible to use the tapes, but we were able too compile from flat high-res transfers directly from the tapes. The results are similarly astonishing as even the original LPs were mastered from 16-bit files.

Hope that helps and THANKS!

Very enjoyable thanks Michael!

Like any list it invites comparisons and you have compiled quite a wonderful list.

I would throw the Classic Trinity Sessions on the list as that is the one title that had me personally shut up about digital recording being pressed on vinyl.

Margo casts a spell on me when I spin it and I would have lost money if I bet it was originally recorded digitally.

Trinity Sessions - Cowboy Junkies -ESSENTIAL

Great video!
Mike, at the end of the video you said you were going to make a video of 100 Classical records to own soon. I really hope you do because I would be very interested in seeing that.
Classical is an unpopular genre, but because of this it is possible to find original Columbia six eye records for a decent price used. Maybe around $10.00. You gamble on the condition but sometimes get lucky. I have bought some on ebay. A lot of them are dirty and have surface noise, but some come in good shape. As opposed to Jazz records where the originals are way too expensive to gamble on. Especially on ebay.
Thank you for a very informative video!

I'm a little younger than Michael (I was in High School when he was in College), which might explain why I find his list of 100 too heavy on Jazz for my taste. I did go see Bola Sete live in '67 (the father of the guitarist in my garage band was an amateur Jazz drummer, and took us to that show in Los Gatos, CA as well as to see Cream and Hendrix at The Fillmore and Winterland. Mighty hip dad, but he wouldn't smoke Jazz cigarettes with us ;-). I do love Ellington and Basie, though, and Mose Allison too.

Great work, very comprehensive list and highly entertaining video. Bongos for Mike (since kudos are already taken by another familiar face:)

Can easily subscribe to most of the titles in the first third of the list (Jazz). However I noticed the absence of some heavyweight classics from Trane, Miles, Monk and Mingus. Just no recent reissues or …?

Any recomendations on past reissues of Miles’ Jack Johnson? My absolute favourite, but my copy (Columbia KC 30455) sonicaly muffled and bassless.

Oh, and by the Way; Smokin' At The Half Note should most probably be rightly credited to Wes Montgomery with Wynton Kelly Trio. On my Verve Master edition CD, from 2005, only Montgomery’s name is marked on the side and on the back of the digipack, as well as on the disc itself. Introduction to CD bonus track Willow Weeps For Me goes like: » Wes Montgomery .. .with one of the best rhytm sections of today, Wynton Kelly Trio«.

We all know that in modern vinyl masters, the grooves are not evenly spaced on the record. In order to control the spacing, the cutting machine needs to know the signal before it reaches the cutting head. So, the source signal is splitted with one part routed to the cutting machine and the second part is delayed about 2 seconds before it is routed to the cutting head. Most modern mastering is done with digital delays. In other words - even if the source material is purely analog, the process of delaying the cutting signal requires digitization - unless the master engineer has a specially modified tape that can do the delay. So - here's my question: Is there any information as to what kind of delay was used on those recordings?

Any thoughts on the MoFi 45 rpm of the debut LP? I'm very close to pulling the trigger.

I have a modest system. Project Debut Carbon Espirit using an Ortofon 2M Red, with an NAD C316BEE v2. I read this and decided to hear for myself. I bought the Tony Bennett live record from Analogue Productions.

I listened to it today.

I believe you now. Astounded at the realism and energy.

You were right.

Thank you for this highly informative and enjoyable video. Many of the records were unknown to me and I have now ordered many of them from various sources. Being 58, it seems the focus is primarily on records that are a little before my time (I started getting into music in the early '70s) which is probably why they are new to me. As John Darko's reviewing focuses on music from the 80's and later I could only hope that some reviewer would dig into worthwhile records from the '70s. Also, two records that I myself would have added to the list are "Sgt Pepper's" and "Dark Side of the Moon"

The Turn is not AAA. I think Pro Tools was used. That was the whole point of Jerome releasing his latest album, No Filter, which is truly AAA.

Michael, Not sure where to post this inquiry... Do you have any insight into the Chrysalis issue of the Ten Years After above? It looks like it could be AAA, but the available info is incomplete (about source and recording site).

Mike, I've enjoyed following you on Youtube and just joined your site. I realize this article is a little old but I have a question in reference to Neil Young's Harvest and After The Gold Rush on Warner Brothers. Are these newer reissues and if so where can I find them? Or are you talking about the reissues from the 80's? I bought Tea For The Tillerman from Analog Productions and must say it was Amazing. Also bought Muddy Waters Folk Singer and Beach Boys Pet Sounds based on your list. Good Stuff and Thanks!

I've ordered 3 of the MOFI Bob Dylans, before they run out and go to crazy prices. JWH on sale at MOFI, $15 OFF !!!

Is this stereo or mono?

Spanky DeBrest's bass solos on my copy are nearly inaudible in the right channel from which I can hear Monk's piano at normal volume.

Why did you skip this one in the video presentation? I noticed you were having trouble holding the stack in your right hand so you reached over and removed the Desmond/Mulligan record and laid it on a table(?). Then you got going on your Forest Flower weed story and went on to the Art Blakey w/Monk album, skipping Two of a Mind. I'm interested to know why you chose the ORG (or is it the Limited Edition ORG _Music_ version which was mastered in Mono by Bernie Grundman and pressed at Pallas in Germany?) rather than the Speakers Corner stereo version. Stereo or Mono, Org or Org Music? Why not the Speakers Corner version? Inquiring minds want to know.

I too compared Mikey’s vinyl video of Tommy with my SACD Geffen/Universal Deluxe B0001386-36. I plugged my iPad into my stereo system, just plug charger inlet into aux inputs on preamp, sounds pretty darn good. I couldn’t match the volume from my iPad, but the SACD had more body, warmer, fuller. The vinyl on Mike’s turntable was more detailed, sounded good. Then I tried my wife’s iPad which is newer and plays louder, still couldn’t match volume. But thru her iPad the vinyl had much more weight, probably better electronics and now sounded tonally similar. So now I could hear the difference, the turntable sounded more dynamic, the instruments sounded more real, cymbals, horns. Everything flowed better from the vinyl, the SACD still sounded good but not as good. But I’m comparing the SACD to a YouTube video, if the record was in my living room they’d be no contest. So I don’t know how people can knock analog unless it’s all about convenience. But we knew that.
Thanks everyone!

Good list. Except for number 17.so I think is to buy it later.
https://broslinko.com

Is it worth buying vinyl records for a budget set up? Looking for honest opinions from you all, as I have just joined this 'group' today. For example I can buy Linda Ronstadt record for aroung £40 (here in the UK) but to purchase would cost an extra £10 (not too bad) compared to some other vinyl priced around £175. So before I go and spend this money...will i actually notice any difference in the sound quality?

This music goes great with reading the best medieval blog. Highly recommend!