audioexchange

A few months ago I succumbed to the charms of Vinyl Me Please and signed up for a subscription. Each month a slab of vinyl arrives – nicely curated, usually AAA by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at RTI or QRP– with nice little add ons such as – a listening guide, stickers, artwork and….um…..a suggested cocktail. Whatever – the records, so far, are marvelous. So when I received an email for the “Bethlehem Records Bundle” for $120 – I jumped at the opportunity. Bethlehem records from the 1950s and 1960s were really well recorded and packaged – grossly under-rated in the history of jazz (Creed Taylor was involved at the inception). Although I already owned an excellent version of “Daddy Plays the Horn” by Dexter Gordon, released by Pure Pleasure in 2013 – I did not have “Motor City Scene” (Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams and a superstar line up) or “The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus” – and, I quite fancied the Booker Ervin album as well. I pre-ordered and waited.

Last week the bundle arrived alongside John Prine’s debut album (beautifully mastered, pressed, presented – just fabulous). There were 4 records – all pressed on different colored vinyl – something that I am ambivalent about. All had black “Bethlehem” labels – again – not consistent with modern reissues practices – ok you paid the license – but the original label was red. The cover art – let’s say it is not Tone Poet quality – mediocre reproductions from lowish resolution digital files. No bother – what do the records sound like?
First up was Booker Ervin: nice thumping bass coming out of the right channel – good early stereo – and then <<<shrink>>>> no soundstage, no atmosphere – I felt like I was listening to an MP3. Maybe, I thought, it was my phono stage (new one still hasn’t arrived from Germany, another victim of COVID). So, on went “Daddy Plays the Horn.”

“Daddy” is a very interesting record from Dexter; he had spent most of the 1950s in jail or strung out on drugs and this is one of his few leader sessions. It is terrific. The VMP record is pressed on bright yellow vinyl – and it is very noticeable that there is a 3cm or so sized run out groove on the album. This is never a good sign: a expert mastering engineer will try and use every bit of the record to fill with music – getting the grooves as wide as possible to ensure maximal loudness and deep bass (hence the 45rpm x 12″ records during the disco era). This album looks like it was mastered by a machine. Onto my turntable – pleasant – level a bit low – reasonable instrument separation – ok – sounds like a 1950s recording – and I would have been reasonably happy except that I already had an audiophile version on the shelf. This was the 2013 Pure Pleasure version mentioned above. First appearance: the PP version’s cover is a far superior reproduction – brighter colors, better quality cardboard, the album – feels heavier -red labels (still not the originals), tiny run out groove. Needle drop. Wham! I had to jump up to turn down the volume as this was mastered much louder. The sound – the pure pleasure version “Blows” the VMP album out of the water. Literally the difference between true audiophile analogue audio – and some strange hybrid between vinyl and digital. Hmm. Huge soundstage – deep bass, clear but not brittle treble – and fully immersive. Really, the PP version is spectacular.

Ok – now I’m struggling with disappointment. On goes Pepper Adams, and then Charles Mingus – and, frankly – I’m struggling. I compared with two records with 24/96 files on Qobuz – and there was no comparison – the digital versions were far far better. If VMP had used these files – the two should have sounded more or less the same (with a bit of coloration – some might prefer the vinyl). High res digital was a big winner here (by the way a later comparison of the Dexter album with the Qobuz version was easily won by the PP release). And, what is the point of buying a Charles Mingus record – if you can’t hear the bass?

SO – VMP – WHF? I went back to the promotional page – and, hang on here – no reference to Ryan Smith or RTI. No information about mastering or pressing whatsoever. Suspicious…..have I been suckered into a bit of bait and switch (although in fairness to VMP – they never made any audiophile claims – I bought this based on reputation and branding). If I saw these records in a record shop – and there are gazillions of color pressings of 1950s jazz in every record shop in Europe – I would assume that these were “pressed from CD-public domain recordings” or bootlegs – from wherever Jazz track or Waxtime (amongst other) press their records. I would not touch them – particularly for $30 a piece. With a bit of gooogling – it wasn’t hard to find out that these albums were cut from (unidentified) digital source files by DMM (direct metal mastering – something I can’t stand) and GZ in the Czech republic. This is not Pallas or Optimal – it is the world’s biggest record pressing plant and it is a non fave for audiophiles.

There is a lot of commercial possibility for DMM in the 2020s – where the Father stamper is cut direct by the lathe – removing a step or two from the process – due to the world shortage of acetates. DMM became popular in the 1980s when CD arrived and folks discovered and liked the crisp high end treble of early players – something that DMM produced also. Sony-Philips developed 1-Bit and SACD specifically to remove such brittleness from digital recordings – but it is a problem with DMM. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the technology – similar to direct-to-disc it has great potential: I just have never heard a particularly audiophile DMM record.

All of these titles, and many more, were remastered from the original tapes in 2013: they were released as 24/96 files and on vinyl (presumably from those files). The cost of the 2013 records – less than $€20. Likely significantly better than these VMP DMM GZ reissues.

I did order myself another “Christmas Present” from VMP – that was the Jazz Dispensary Bundle – which I briefly considered cancelling until I read the credits: Kevin Gray, Cohearant Audio, RTI. All is forgiven!

Finally, note that the forthcoming, and expensive Herbie Hancock anthology from VMP will also be pressed at GZ – so – be careful before you order it: I would wait for a reliable review (I don’t have any great interest in this set – BTW – I love Herbie, but – the late stage stuff is a bit….meh).

~ by Pat Neligan on January 31, 2021.

Posted in High Resolution, Vinyl
Tags: Bethlehem Records, DMM, GZ, Vinyl Me Please, VMP Bethlehem Records Reissue