Harry James, The King James Version


Due to someone who recently mentioned this LP, and what a great recording it is, I decided it was time to give it a listen. I hooked up my SET 300B, tube preamp and phono stage, Garrard 401, Dynavector arm, and Zu Denon 103R, and was just floored at what I heard. Since I've been terribly lazy lately, I haven't listened to vinyl much at all recently, so it came as a shock to hear again how good a great slab of vinyl can sound.

I don't recall my digital front end ever getting my attention like this did. Shame on me for being so lazy. I've learned my lesson, and I will treat myself to much more analog in the future.

Regards,
Dan
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@mr_m - ".... I found the Treasury Lp’s somewhat lacking. Especially, in dynamics." YEP, not quite as good as their D2Ds, but- still had much of the Sax/Sheffield touch intact. I have couple of their demo CDs, but- prefer the Treasury presentations. No comparison(CDs), to the D2Ds(alas). I certainly do miss that excellent team and their vinyls!
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As the OP, I have to tell "The Rest Of The Story". Back in 1970, I had friends that had an R'nR band (who didn't back then), and also a remote recording studio.
 They were recording a junior college jazz band concert. Instead of using headphones, they had a pair of custom built Tannoy 12" MG's, with a modified Crown amp, along with their mixing gear and tape recorder, in an adjacent bare-walled classroom. This was my introduction to Tannoys.

Much to my amazement, when I walked from the auditorium to where the monitoring was being done, I could swear the sound was the same from live to the monitoring station. That was when I was first convinced that Tannoys were for me.

You may ask,what does this post have to do with this thread? When I played the King James Version the other night, it reminded me of that night so long ago in Santa Barbara, it was so close to what  you would hear at a live jazz concert.

I'm not saying it was a perfect reproduction of a live band, but it was close enough to remind me of that event in Santa Barbara ca 1970.

Before I heard the playback of the Harry James LP again the other night, I was seriously considering venturing into acquiring a single ended 845 amp for a bit more power. Then, I asked myself, if this amp can perform this well, in this large room, with these speakers, do I really need to replace it? Is there something else in the listening chain that needs upgrading, perhaps in my digital front end?

I don't know. I do wish all my LPs would sound this good, but that's not in the offing. Maybe a new DAC?

Regards,
Dan 
 

Just an observation here, but- I’ve always found this an interesting phenomena: https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2015/05/is-it-live-or-is-it-edison/ (Then again, those WERE Direct to Disc recordings!)
Those Edison discs sound remarkably good, considering what they had to work with. What I heard back in '70 was a far cry from what Edison had to offer (consider how many great recordings Rudy Van Gelder made in the 50's and 60's).

Those listeners back in the early 1900's were not at all sophisticated, so I can well imagine they were mightily impressed with Edison's discs. As we all know, recordings using quality tape machines, along with great mics, mixer, etcetera, can sound spectacularly live (as can great D2D LP's).

Regards,
Dan