Definitive Audiophile pressings

How does this one sound JonnyH?!? Were you blown away with how incredible this pressing sounds!?

I would love to eventually pick this pressing up! Would be a fun and lively listen I’d imagine! 🔥🔥🔥

It sounds SO clean for a live recording. It has an excellent mix where the crowd sounds lively but it never drowns any of the musicians out. Would recommend!
 
It sounds SO clean for a live recording. It has an excellent mix where the crowd sounds lively but it never drowns any of the musicians out. Would recommend!
Oh my! WOW! I must pick this one up! Can’t afford it right now but it will definitely be the next MoFi I pick up if I can get my hands on it! 😇
 
Just for funsies, I pulled out my Waxtime In Color copy of Lush Life to do a relatively fresh ear A/B with the Craft one step. Likely cut from digital, DMM.

Night and day would be an understatement. They are in two different universes. As they should be! FWIW, the Waxtime is a fine listen, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it’s dead quiet, but it feels about as flat as paper in depth comparison, is about the best way I can describe it.
 
Just for funsies, I pulled out my Waxtime In Color copy of Lush Life to do a relatively fresh ear A/B with the Craft one step. Likely cut from digital, DMM.

Night and day would be an understatement. They are in two different universes. As they should be! FWIW, the Waxtime is a fine listen, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it’s dead quiet, but it feels about as flat as paper in depth comparison, is about the best way I can describe it.

Good to know. Finally received my copy a few days ago (#0927). Haven’t had a chance to give it a wash and play yet. Can’t believe the prices on discogs.
 
Just for funsies, I pulled out my Waxtime In Color copy of Lush Life to do a relatively fresh ear A/B with the Craft one step. Likely cut from digital, DMM.

Night and day would be an understatement. They are in two different universes. As they should be! FWIW, the Waxtime is a fine listen, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it’s dead quiet, but it feels about as flat as paper in depth comparison, is about the best way I can describe it.
Waxtime are grey market releases that make use of European legal public domain releases. Essentially they use CD sources and no money goes to the label or artist/artists estate.

Must be a fantastic comparison though, I'm not surprised the Craft blew it away!
 
Nobody bought it at that price though yet. Hopefully nobody will and they will have to decrease their prices.
People have on ebay though. There have been a bunch of copies that have sold between $400-$650 already. And I believe discogs doesn't register sales until the invoices come in so maybe people on discogs have sold some too. I personally think the value will only go up on this one as Craft releases more One Steps. You'll have the people who missed out on the first one and want a complete series. I think it won't be unlike the Abraxas One Step (just won't reach $2,000 a copy).
 
I figure this may be of use to audiophiles trying to figure out where their records are pressed.

Using pressing rings to figure out where a record is pressed:

So I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole a few weeks ago trying to figure out how to distinguish between Bowie "Blackstar" pressings at RTI vs MPO. Turns out MPO pressings have these very distinct triple concentric pressing rings around the spindle hole. Most MPO pressings anyway. Some exceptions exist apparently, but it seems to hold for "Blackstar".

I looked through my collection to corroborate and it seems like the Springsteen reissues have the distinct MPO pressing rings, for example.

This resource is fantastic if ever you want to go down that route:


Enter today...

I want to find out where my Spoon "Gimme Fiction" 10th anniversary reissue is pressed but there is no information anywhere and nothing obvious in the deadwax. So I turned to the pressing rings for clues.

This one:


Turns out it has a single 31.7 mm ring, so it seems to be from RTI. I then compared to other RTI pressings I own and the shape of the pressing ring and label holds. So I'm pretty confident it was pressed at RTI.

What a hobby!
 
Random question that popped into my mind relevant to this thread: is any new music being recorded and pressed AAA? I know that AAA is not the end-all be-all, but looking at all the marketing behind reissues I just wonder if it's something that current artists are doing or if it's just become too costly.
 
Random question that popped into my mind relevant to this thread: is any new music being recorded and pressed AAA? I know that AAA is not the end-all be-all, but looking at all the marketing behind reissues I just wonder if it's something that current artists are doing or if it's just become too costly.
I think Gearbox in London actually does all analog. So yes, some labels are still issuing new AAA material.
 
Random question that popped into my mind relevant to this thread: is any new music being recorded and pressed AAA? I know that AAA is not the end-all be-all, but looking at all the marketing behind reissues I just wonder if it's something that current artists are doing or if it's just become too costly.
Yep. The new Adrianne Lenker is AAA I believe. And Introducing Aaron Frazer is as well. Quite a few people still record on tape.
 
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