Speakers Corner reissues

[Claude]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience with LP reissues by the german label Speakers Corner?

http://www.speakerscornerrecords.com

They have plenty of Verve, Impulse! and Mercury stuff, and the jazz LPs have been mastered from the original tapes by Kevin Gray. There are even some titles which are not available on domestic CD, such as Chico Hamilton's "El chico" or Gerry Mulligan's “The Concert Jazz Band” (only avaialble in the Mosaic box).

Q: Are your records cut from the original masters?

A: In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limtations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original; and there is certainly no such thing as a "Speakers Corner Sound". Naturally, the best results occur when one uses the original master. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, because the original tape is defective or has disappeared for example, we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains for us an absolute exception.

Q: Who cuts the records?

A: In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years; some are even cut by the same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. The present engineers are: Willem Makkee in Hanover (DGG, MPS, SABA, among others); Tony Hawkins in London (DECCA, DERAM, among others); and Kevin Gray in Los Angeles (Verve, Mercury, among others).

So far, I only bought Paul Desmond's "Take Ten", and it sounds great compared to my crappy Collectables CD reissue (too trebly). Surface noise is a bit higher than on other recent reissues I have though. I've now ordered Jimmy Giuffre "The Easy Way", which is OOP and hard to find in most stores, as well as Bill Evans "Empathy".

As usual for such audiophile reissues, the price is quite high: $30 in the US, around 25€ in Europe. Here's my source in Germany (prices were 2€ lower until yesterday ), they have a dedicated Speakers Corner section:

http://www.buch.de/shop/bde_mu_ug_speakers_corner/show/

[porcy62]

Far better then Classic reissues. Reccomended.

[sidewinder]

Far better then Classic reissues. Reccomended.

Really?

I've got my eye on a couple of them so will pick them up based on your discriminating comment.

[porcy62]

Far better then Classic reissues. Reccomended.

Really?

I've got my eye on a couple of them so will pick them up based on your discriminating comment.

Definitely, quiter vinyl and great quality control. They are germans, arent they?

And they sound good too! Probably the best sounding reissues out there. A pity that they can't have access to the BN masters.

[sidewinder]

They are germans, arent they?

'Nuff said. If their vinyl is as good as their cars (which I swear by) then I'm there !

Their Blue Notes can be very good too - based on the German Liberty pressings I have from the late 1960s.

Edited July 2, 2007 by sidewinder

[porcy62]

They are germans, arent they?

'Nuff said. If their vinyl is as good as their cars (which I swear by) then I'm there !

Their Blue Notes can be very good too - based on the German Liberty pressings I have from the late 1960s.

In general german pressings, even later reissues, are my fave when I can't find original first pressing of rock records at decent price, and often they sounds even better then originals.

And, a part any personal opinions about the "sound", ECM pressings are usually stunning in term of vinyl quality.

[porcy62]

Surface noise is a bit higher than on other recent reissues I have though.

In the records I have it's more a tape noise then a vinyl noise. A proof that they don't cut any frequencies in order to lower the tape hiss.

[jbs-tom]

got yesterday my copy of oscar peterson we get request - superb sound quality, a real pleasure to listen to ...

over here in germany more an more smaller record stores are selling these audiophile pressings and doing pretty good with them.

just heard again from 2 people who switched from cd to these vinyl re-issues.

Edited July 8, 2007 by jbs-tom

[ASNL77]

They are germans, arent they?

'Nuff said. If their vinyl is as good as their cars (which I swear by) then I'm there !

Their Blue Notes can be very good too - based on the German Liberty pressings I have from the late 1960s.

Well, I hope people around here don't use DMM as a criteria before buying their car! The future of French car industry would be very bleak!

[Claude]

I hope people don't think the DMM process is the reason why those Blue Note reissues sound poor. All the DMM pressings I have (jazz and classical) sound great. The sound problems of the french Blue Note DMM pressings must be due to inferior mastering.

[ASNL77]

I hope people don't think the DMM process is the reason why those Blue Note reissues sound poor. All the DMM pressings I have (jazz and classical) sound great. The sound problems of the french Blue Note DMM pressings must be due to inferior mastering.

Glad to heart this, Claude. I must admit that the only BN DMM I bought has completely put me off this label. I will give it another shot then!

[Claude]

I've heard only negative things about the Blue Note DMM pressings as well.

But it has nothing to do with the DMM (direct metal mastering) process itself, as there are many great sound (non-Blue Note) DMM pressings around . I've been buying a few Enja LPs lately, released in the mid 1980's and made of analog material. They sound warm, dynamic and detailed.

[sidewinder]

They are germans, arent they?

'Nuff said. If their vinyl is as good as their cars (which I swear by) then I'm there !

Their Blue Notes can be very good too - based on the German Liberty pressings I have from the late 1960s.

Well, I hope people around here don't use DMM as a criteria before buying their car! The future of French car industry would be very bleak!

I would agree, concerning those French DMMs. I bought tons of them back in the day, when they were like a 'Mana from Heaven' for poor UK Blue Note buyers who had never even seen these albums before. The first batch of them I saw in the foyer of the Festival Hall back around 1984 and seeing the likes of 'Inner Urge', 'Whistle Stop' and 'Unity' with original sleeve art almost had me rendered speechless. Not a patch on the originals though.

Having said that, they did result in the music becoming at least available to a wider public.

Edited July 8, 2007 by sidewinder

[mikeweil]

Here's a link to their English site:

http://www.speakerscorner.de/Speakerscorne...te/E/index1.htm

Acoustic Sounds distribute them in the US - they have links on their site to distributors in other countries.

I tried to get the Velebny Saba LP reissue some time ago, but was too late .....

Edited July 8, 2007 by mikeweil

[sidewinder]

I've just ordered the Speakers Corner pressing of 'El Chico'. Will post thoughts once I receive it.

[wolff]

Hey Claude,

I have the following, maybe a few more. As you can see, some of the tapes are 50 years old, but SC gets the most out of them. They all get played a ton. I've practically worn out the Peer Gynt and Petrushka and I've only had them for 8-10 years.

The Presley was done by Gray/Hoffman and is a stunner. I sold my DCC of the title when I heard they were doing it again.

Fremer/Musicangle.com has done a few reviiews of SC releases. You may need to do some searching for 'best sounding' SC re-issues. Never a QC problem.

Side note: Classic Records reissues of the Everest(35mm tape) catalogue are getting rave reviews..something to check out.

Sonny Boy Williamson: The Real Folk Blues

Roy Eldridge: Rockin' Chair

Grieg: “Peer Gynt”

Stravinsky: “Petrushka”

Schubert: “Trout” Quintet

Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster

Ben Webster: “Soulville“

Elvis Presley: Elvis Is Back

Lester Young: The President Plays With The Oscar Peterson Trio

[Claude]

Thanks wolff,

As far as classical goes, I'm a bit reluctant to buy LPs and I prefer SACD or other hi-rez digital formats, such as DAD (24/96 DVD). Classic Records is also releasing the Everest stuff on HDAD (a hybrid disc with a DVD-A and a hi-rez DVD-V side). I love audiophile vinyl reissues for jazz, but for classical I don't like the surface noise on the much more frequent quiet passages.

[porcy62]

Thanks wolff,

As far as classical goes, I'm a bit reluctant to buy LPs and I prefer SACD or other hi-rez digital formats, such as DAD (24/96 DVD). Classic Records is also releasing the Everest stuff on HDAD (a hybrid disc with a DVD-A and a hi-rez DVD-V side). I love audiophile vinyl reissues for jazz, but for classical I don't like the surface noise on the much more frequent quiet passages.

I have to agree, though I don't have any hi-rez player. And on classical music you have more new realeses on new formats. Usually even normal cds sound good on classical new recordings.

On the other hand you can buy NM used classical vinyl for ridicolous prices, a part few rare "Wide Band" Deccas. I bought some big box sets for less then 1 euro per record. Not bad.

Edited July 9, 2007 by porcy62

[Claude]

A couple of new Mercury and Impulse! titles will be released this year, as indicated on the preorder page of Acoustic Sounds

http://store.acousticsounds.com/preorder.cfm?Field_cat=5

- Clifford Brown & Max Roach - A Study In Brown

- Sonny Rollins - East Broadway Rundown

- Duke Ellington & Coleman Hawkins

- Roy Haynes - Out of the Afternoon

And on the Pure Pleasure label:

- Gil Evans - New Bottle Old Wine

- Ben Webster - Atmosphere for Lovers and Thieves (Black Lion)

- Charles Mingus - Mingus Dynasty

[captainwrong]

Can someone help me identify one of these things? A shop around here has A Love Supreme for a good price. It doesn't seem like a Scorpio issue, but there's no information on it about where it's from. Just an orange oval sticker on the front with information about "from the original master tapes" and (I think) 180g vinyl, etc. Is this the critter I'm looking for?

[sidewinder]

That sounds like one of the GRP reissues from around 10 years back.

Just checked my Speakers Corner reissue of 'El Chico'. It's a good facsimile of the foldout cover with glossy finish. The LP has orange/black impulse labels, no mention of 'Speakers Corner' on labels or sleeve nor is there any mention of '180g' anywhere. Hope that helps !

Edited February 19, 2008 by sidewinder

[paul secor]

That sounds like one of the GRP reissues from around 10 years back.

Just checked my Speakers Corner reissue of 'El Chico'. It's a good facsimile of the foldout cover with glossy finish. The LP has orange/black impulse labels, no mention of 'Speakers Corner' on labels or sleeve nor is there any mention of '180g' anywhere. Hope that helps !

Just checked the few Speakers Corners in my collection and got the same results. What the Captain found is probably not a Speakers Corner issue. Doesn't mean that's a bad thing.

[clifford_thornton]

I had a couple of GRP reissues back when they came out - they were clicky (repeating tics) and generally crappy pressings compared to what I "upgraded" to, which were used earlier Impulse vinyl.

[street singer]

Just a heads up to those who don't know... The price on the Speakers Corner and Pure Pleasure reissues have recently gone up by $5 ($10 for double LPs) here in the States. Several of these can still be found for the old price ($30) at True Blue -- while all the other retailers that I know of (Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, et al) have increased their prices.

Speaking of True Blue - I placed an order for a few of these today and noticed that two of them (Booker Ervin - 'That's It!' and Steve Lacy's 'The Straight Horn of...') are on sale for $25.98. That's $10 cheaper than anywhere else...

[porcy62]

Can someone help me identify one of these things? A shop around here has A Love Supreme for a good price. It doesn't seem like a Scorpio issue, but there's no information on it about where it's from. Just an orange oval sticker on the front with information about "from the original master tapes" and (I think) 180g vinyl, etc. Is this the critter I'm looking for?

Look at the dead wax: my Speakers Corner's copy of Love Supreme has all hand made written, As-77-A/ As-77-B) and someting like KALCAT 1? Assuming that is a Speakers Corner, at least I payed it as SC years ago