Can I Have My Money Back?

is a complete and total surprise. What a hoot!

Can you just spill on the upcoming release?

Please?

Begging.

Nicely.

Ms. Martzy was a violinist.

Wow, I responded to someone wondering if ERC was using digital masters around 11AM and there were only 3 comments.

Clearly this response confirms the NY Times belief that its readers would be "uninterested" in the topic of music reproduction and recording quality as it appeals to only a niche audience -- as opposed to Italian supercars or $100K+ watches that are obviously much more mainstream. (FYI - recent review of a $287K Lamborghini garnered only 86 comments and remarkably few were about the cost)

So, if in the (very) unlikely event the NYAS does happen in Sept, my suggestion is that MF hosts a room playing ERC recordings vs. CD's or whatever, and Sisario writes a follow-up to invite others to judge for themselves.

BTW - the upcoming ERC title mentioned was Love's 'Forever Changes' (no mention if stereo or mono).

I bought the Way Out West Mono from ERC. I was disappointed, because it sounds fantastic, but there is a soft crackling listenable all over the two sides. I think, I will not play it again, it is somehow frustrating. I contacted ERC and Phil Vernol was very friendly and offered me to send me a new pressing. You can put the blame on me. I am simply to lazy (or maybe I own to less spare time) to send the record back. I cannot really imagine that with a pressing number of 300 another copy will sound different. I bought many of their reissues. But really satisfying may have been the half of it. But those are epic. I am still thinking about the Mozart Box...

A mono reissue, count me in. I have an original but this I want.

It was a spirited debate indeed! I must say Michael more than held his own. I suspect many of the negative comments had to due with the high prices of the ERC products. $3400 for a boxed set is hard for people to wrap their heads around. There were also many comments by people who are passionate about music and audio. I loved the comment by a fellow who saw Willie Dixon and other Blues players in a club in Chicago. Even though the sound system was poor, he will never forget it. Another fellow will never forget a song he heard on his car's am radio. Whenever I hear "The Weight" by The Band, it stops me in my tracks! That is the power of music.

Shame about the comments! Reading through them I could’t help noticing how often the supposed perishability of vinyl was used as an argument against the LP. I wonder what the reaction of those making this point would be to the suggestion that because you can now download a copy of Great Expectations or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to your smartphone it negates the value and the importance of an American or British first edition of Dickens or Twain. After all paper is much more likely to degrade over time than vinyl. Most likely they’d look at you like you were a fool or a lunatic, yet they just don’t see the parallel between literature and music. Perhaps they see the artistic value of the former and not the latter?

Ultimately in my opinion anyway, any market for an item of substance that has no room for a craftsman is incapable of producing a product of intrinsic value and that’s what the guys at ERC and many others involved in our hobby are, craftsmen who produce a fine product and make no apologies for it. I say long May they prosper. The fact that some people who most likely never have or never will experience these products for themselves nonetheless feel qualified and entitled to pour their uninformed contempt over them, those who make them and those who purchase and enjoy them says a lot about the empty cynicism that has rotted through their thinking processes. To live a life where another person’s joy affects you so must be a hard, hard slog.

I read the article. Well done.

I have to add, though Chad Kassem has good intentions, his reply to the question, "What's the difference between a $500 LP and a $35 one?" His reply? "Thirty-five dollars." That's a bit disingenuous, and perhaps hypocritical given that he produces single LPs that cost $125 and single album reel-to-reel tapes that cost $450.

Anyway, the Steve Hoffman forum is alive and well with people offering up opinions on whether it's worth it or not, in spite of not having heard one.

:-)

They are releasing a stereo pressing of Sonny Rollins' Way Out West.

I have heard the mono pressing and it was superb.

If you happened to be considering investigating their product, this would be a good place to start.