The difinitive recording of AJA

I have a rainbow yellow ABC, and the Cisco. I need to compare the two directly, as I have yet to do it. IMO, the ABC first press sounds great. It was like $8.00, so you can't go wrong. I would look for a clean used copy, and get more opinions on the Cisco as well as that Japan pressing that Mofimadness refers to.

Dramapsycho, my pleasure. Tom Port, the owner of Better Records, is very knowledgeable and opinionated. He is also controversial. There is a lot to read there. The records can be very expensive, and many here would never spend hundreds of dollars on a record even though tens of thousands often get spent on equipment. I am trying to get to the immediacy of great artists and their masterpieces. A great stereo with mediocre music gets you nowhere. Tom has gotten me there with his amazing pressings. I have never been disappointed.

When Aja came out, it was a popular demo disc in audio shops because the sound on the original vinyl was top notch and the music had wide appeal.

I've heard some decent CD versions that are pretty good over the years, but nothing that betters the original standard issue vinyl that can be foud and had for not much. If you have a phono rig, I would not waste money trying to better this particular recording with more $$$$s.

I have first pressings of bogh and never heard them really topped and certainly not some alleged hot stamper.

I was just reflecting on this very question as I listened to an beat-down LP copy of AJA from 70s or 80s. I need some of the mid-range magic and punch of good vinyl, but where to turn with this oft re-released classic?

I was eyeing the CISCO 180g version and then found the "hot stamper" (sic) link to their "review" of Cisco versus their $800 "hot stampers," the very sound of Shangri-La.

Hot Stampers In Heaven. Now that is one idea --buying perfection at top dollar-- than brothers Fagen and Becker worked hard to disabuse of in songs like "Babylon Sisters" and the sad homecoming of Odysseus in "Home At Last." So the irony is delicious. Similarly dumbfounding is the claim on that website that they listen critically to 100 lps to find the one stand-out of the crowd. And then we learn that they use a $4000 cartridge whose delicate stylus can dig deep, deep into the grooves to find the music that other lps are missing.

Hmm. Are there unbiased blind-tests available anywhere for the claims on the best AJA albums? It seems that Steely Dan tend toward the highly cerebral and ironic and scholarly, so where are the scientific studies on whose groove is deepest, whose vinyl is hottest, whose pressing is finest, when dealing with a mere $5000 set up (all-in) rather than a $100,000 bond trader's showcase?