Thank you, that was good to watch. Glad to see Chad getting some recognition for his hard work
The single most important figure (imo) in the vinyl LP reissue business.
That figure is Chad Kassem, owner of Analogue Productions, Acoustic Sounds, and Quality Record Pressing (QRP). The video below was posted on YouTube earlier today, the story originally airing on the CBS show Mornings. I consider a viewing of the video to be worthy of your time.
https://youtu.be/OodR2znS46Q?si=QsKUvq8MmAw4KWvC
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My vote would go to the folks who pioneered Record Store Day. Record Store Day was pioneered by a group of independent record store owners. Courtesy of AI, this included: Michael Kurtz, Eric Levin, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Brian Poehner, and Don Van Cleave. I knew of Chad Kassem and ordered SACDs from AP. I read Fremer monthly in Stereophile. But that was not what reignited my collecting vinyl. It was the growth of RSD and being able to recreate the record buying experience a few times each year. Go back ten years or so, the major music stores in NYC like Virgin, Tower, and J&R had all closed up. It was RSD, along with Rough Trade Records (then in Brooklyn), that recreated that record buying magic. Rich
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I was made aware of this video, by my girlfriend. I realized it was some who I had purchased albums from before.I learned that he was a troubled boy from Louisiana. and was impressed that he turned his life around and became so successful at his business. Which he has a great passion for Chad has,become the real American Success Story.... |
What a great and uplifting story. I am lucky enough to own several AP 15ips R2R tapes, sound quality is beyond reproach. I also own several AP vinyl pressings, my favorite is the UHQR version of the Doors LA Women (initial 5,000 pressings now sold out), on first hearing, I honestly thought I was listening to a master tape, that good! |
“The single most important figure (imo) in the vinyl LP reissue business” 1000% ~ I have long admired his dedication, passion and commitment. His production house was one of the main reason why I went back to Vinyl. 70% of my collection comprises AP records and they are worth the money if you value high quality playback. As @mgattmch pointed out, UHQR versions are outstanding. |
The problem with naming who I consider the "single" most important figure in the vinyl reissue business is that there is room for only one name. I couldn’t very well name both Kassem AND Fremer, now could I? I used that statement as a headline for the video. Sheesh, I am once again reminded that you can hardly make any statement without someone taking issue with it. Kassem and Fremer (and Michael Gray) are both major players in the enduring viability of the vinyl LP business and their availability, as are---as @slaw pointed out---all of us who kept buying albums on vinyl into the 1990’s. I didn’t get a CD player until the music I wanted in my collection was not being made available on LP. There was a lot of great music being made in 1990-2015 (a quarter century!), much of it not being available on LP’s. Thanks to the resurgence of vinyl, new releases are being offered in both LP and CD formats, while reissues of older albums are being made in LP pressings FAR superior to originals. One such example are the two albums hitting the store shelves just this past Friday: Muddy Waters The Best Of, and Moanin’ In The Moonlight by Howlin’ Wolf, both released by Chess Records in association with Acoustic Sounds. Reissue supervised by Chad Kassem, mastered at the Mastering Lab, pressed at QRP. I have Chess Records originals, and these reissues put them to shame. Retail priced at $38.99. While the quality of LP reissue pressings has improved, the pressings of new releases varies far more than we would like. Luckily a lot of the music I favour is being made by companies who make some of today's better pressings.
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When The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell was released by Sugar Hill Records in 2001, it immediately became my favorite album in many, many years (and remains my favorite of this century. I love saying that I can now listen to The Houston Kid on either CD or LP. Most of Crowell’s albums following The Houston Kid were offered in both CD and LP formats, for which we owe all involved in bringing the LP format back to life a debt of gratitude.
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Now here’s a fantastic idea for a series of videos, posted today by Dylan of Noble Records, a dealer in rare and out-of-print LP's.
https://youtu.be/fp29xjmcMso?si=0Fd0hvpCpuof03q2
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Another very important figure who must be included in this discussion is Michael Hobson, who along with partner Ying Tan started the LP reissue label Classic Records in 1994. Ying Tan was a dealer of out-of-print records in Los Angeles, whose apartment near the Capitol Records building I had already visited. The place was stuffed-to-the-gills with LP’s, with narrow isles between stacks to walk through. At some point Hobson bought out Ying, owning and carrying on the company alone. Classic---along with Chesky Records in New York (another very important player in the vinyl reissue scene)---began by putting out mostly Classical titles, in particular the legendary RCA Victor and Mercury LP’s from the 1950’s and ’60’s, many of them very hard to find, and relatively expensive. Classic eventually started issuing Rock and Pop titles, which now themselves fetch high prices on the collector’s market.
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Regarding the above link to the YouTube video of Dylan from Noble Records: Well, although the idea of visiting the owners of large record collections sounded like a great one, in practice it turns out to be a matter of one's musical tastes and interests. All of the guys Dylan visited---as well as Dylan himself---are fans of musical genres very different from mine. I have zero interest in Psych, Hard Rock, and Metal music, the preferred music of them all. Oh well, others here may like that music too, so enjoy!
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No disrespect to the OP or Chad, I saw the CBS piece too, thought it was a great story about him and his building an impressive life and business. But I’ll happily stand aside as the stampede for reissued vinyl continues leading well intentioned audiophile off the cliff, as that will mean more good vintage vinyl to be had for the taking. I have begun revamping my system (I recently purchased a set of Legacy Focus speakers, here on Audiogon, like Tom’s, to replace my modified 1.7i Maggie’s), and started vetting vintage vinyl and using Tom’s suggested system to clean them. The results have been quite literally astounding. And I’ve only scratched the surface. I haven’t been at this as long as many of you here, and know some of you are may scoff that I’m just another Tom Post fan-boy, acolyte, “true believer “. But let me end by saying, like many of you, I just want the best music I can get. I’ve been convinced it’s rarely, if ever, in reissues. Just my two cents. No harm intended.
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@audiodidact do you mean Tom Port? |
You can pay Tom Port (and his team) his absurd prices, but you can also do what he does: buy multiple copies of a title and compare them all for yourself. I’ve done that with numerous titles, Near Mint condition copies of 1970’s albums on Asylum and Warner Brothers/Reprise Records. I find them regularly in local used record shops for five bucks. I visited Tom’s apartment in Sherman Oaks in the 1990’s (I lived three blocks away), to buy a German pressing of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (THE version of the album to own). I have to assume he has upgraded his hi-fi since then, because the one he had at the time was garden variety mid-fi. Mine was a pair of QUAD ESL’s with transmissionline-loaded KEF B139 woofers, a VPI HW-19 with a Well Tempered arm and Grado cartridge, an ARC SP-6b pre-amp and pair of Atma-Sphere M60 power amps, a far more transparent system than his.
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I suggest you try to catch up on what Tom Port has been doing lately. Read his blog, I'm sure you'll see his system would have little trouble representing itself against so-called hi-end systems. But, the point of my post wasn't Tom Port, or his system, it was about reissued vinyl, like the kind that Chad and others are producing, vs. good original vinyl, the kind that people, yes, like Tom Port, believe are far superior to almost everything that is manufactured today. Yes, the rig, the room, etc, etc, make a huge difference. But that shouldn't stop most of the people here, who will spend serious money on setups and equipment when the need or the want arises. Speaking only for myself, I have found that, getting very good sound from vinyl is a lot harder work than I thought it would be when I first got into this. People like Tom, who is one of those rare examples of someone whose gotten beyond expecting his music to sound good just because he bought this or that brand of equipment, are audiophiles we should try to learn from as much as we can. When it comes to reissues, many of us may already have a decent copy stuck on the shelf, just a good cleaning away from blowing our minds, if we are willing to spend the time to set things up right. The final point I'll reiterate: we've all chased the dragon, coughed-up big dough for the most touted new reissued classic: expecting bingo! Great sound, Right? Only to find we're not playing that record as often as we thought we would. And just a tiny note more on equipment, I just bought a pair of 29 year old speakers to replace a fairly new set of very good speakers. Why would I do that? Certainly not because they're the most expensive, or most talked about speaker. No, it's because they're the right speaker for that room . The sound from them is the best I've heard, in my room. That may prove nothing to others, but it's shows I've not been disappointed while heading in the direction few have traveled, thanks to audiophiles like Tom Port and Robert Brook. |
@bdp24 I agree on the bias for what type of music is released as "audiophile" is very much subjective taste, which I don't share either. I don't think I own any record that is even put out on AP or similar. THE most important people in the vinyl arena are the currently active musicians. Some of the music I like is by self-released artists (e.g. tAngerinecAt: odd neofolk with hurdy-gurdy and synths). So no producer, no label, just the musicians. I also much prefer a poorly recorded record that engages me over a bored-out-of-my-mind "audiophile" "master piece". It all boils down to: it's the music, stupid! |
I was an early customer of Tom Port. Bought a EAR 834 P thru him. Use to buy some lps as well. Never went (full Monty) but did buy a pressing of CSN "4 Way Street" Look forward to a revisit |
Great video. Thanks for posting. I have been purchasing LPs from Chad for a LONG time - early 90's? And he even called me personally after I purchased my VPI TT from him. Analogue Productions IMHO, are the premier vinyl mastering and pressing operation in the world. Albums are flat, noise-free and the sound is excellent, Chad spares no expense at getting it right. RTI is one of the best pressing plants anywhere - I have a bunch of them, and have sent back only one. Much, Much, Much better than Optimal and the terrible job they are doing for OSS. Hopefully Optimal is getting their act together. In any case, Chad has done an incredible job and between Chad and Mikey, we have our bases covered. |
My own experience is that the carefully selected reissues I’ve been buying generally sound superb, and that’s in comparison with the few duplicates in my preexisting collection and the used records I’ve bought. I won’t buy any reissues that aren’t represented as all analogue, and I’m generally buying trusted sources like Analogue Productions, Blue Note and then occasional Rounder. Regarding Chad, he used to answer the phone back in the pre-Internet days. The last time I spoke with him was after I’d bought the AP Miles Davis Sketches of Spain. I’d returned two copies because of spindle holes that were too small to go over my spindle, and called to return the third. Chad picked up, we talked about it and he told me to take a round file and enlarge the hole little by little, and said if that didn’t work out to return that one and he’d find one with a usable hole. Great guy. And a great sounding record that I play often. |
). It was released on CD only, but got an LP release in 2024 by Vinyl Me Please (VMP), a subscription LP company (now out-of-business). The owner of VMP consulted with Chad Kassem throughout the life of the company, and would surely not have started VMP had Kassem not proven the financial viability of such a business (though Acoustic Sounds is not a subscription-based company). QRP did a lot of the LP pressings of VMP titles, which were generally excellent.