I fall in love with Steely Dan only recently, and amazed by how impeccable their songwriting craft is and how unparallel their jazzy sensibility goes...
The opening "Black Cow" is an instant smash! Well...what I'm saying is, you don't always hear this wonderful jazzy keyboard & fluegelhorn arrangement in a rock-'n'-roll piece...Simply WoW!
Frank , to the point analysis. Yes, these comparisons aren't easy. I found the hi hat lacking compared to my original pressing as i noted in my review. Overall , Too smooth IMHO. Ty and keep rockN
After watching your videos for over a year without subscribing I have remedied that oversight in deference to your efforts. I am a 71 year old white retired Canadian and we share similar opinions. Music can do that. For my 70th birthday I upgraded my Rega P25/ Cadenza Blue to a P8/Cadenza Blue after being talked out of a P10 because of my age. If I can hear the difference that upgraded power supplies can make to the P8 and Lukeschek phono stage then my ears could have appreciated the P10. If it hadn't been for COVID I could have compared the two TTs. You have excellent ears in my opinion and I appreciate your honesty. Am I going to get a P10? No, but I'm going to put the RB3000 arm on the P8. You're doing a great job. All the best from a northern neighbour.
Thank you very much for being a loyal viewer and thank you for subscribing to my channel, I sincerely appreciate it. I wanted to get the P10 at the time I purchased my P8 but the P10 was a bit out of my price range.
Dear Kenny, Thank you for your new video. What I never mentioned before: It's fantastic that there are no cuts in your videos and you record everything completely and speak freely the whole time. This is rare and it makes your videos extra personal in a wonderful way. You also never talk about what's going on in the world, which I particularly like and helps me to switch off and relax with your videos. Keep it up, you enrich my life with your work. I would love to see you as a DJ at the turntables - definitely a treat when it comes to the choice of music. However, there is no such thing as audiophile dj gear and I think would go against the whole audiophile idea (some manufacturers have extremely expensive consoles with tube preamps on the market, but these consoles are not discrete and are miles away from audiophile in my opinion). Almost 20 years ago I played music from the 30s in a suit at an art gallery opening, unfortunately this music was reproduced with a conventional PA and so almost nothing of the unique music came across. A few month later I found out why at an techno open air event. There was an unexpected chillout floor only equipped with three large old horns. They also played music from the 1930s and THAT was an EXPERIENCE!!! The sound reinforcement technology was certainly not from the 30s, but it was much closer to the time the music came from and this fact made a huge difference in the result. It was a moment that opened my eyes, or rather my ears, to the topic of authentic music reproduction. As a result of that moment, I took some sound reinforcement components out of my PA, like two Altec H-811b and two JBL 15" frontloaded horns, bought good crossovers and put them together for my DJ setup at home. Certainly not audiophile, although the Playback is authentic - I mean that the instruments and voices sound excellent, dynamic and make the air vibrate. The system was later supplemented with a double 15" subwoofer and I use it to this day to listen to music for hours without getting tired of. In my opinion a good stereo setup and records belong to the best things in this world. Because your posts always contain at least one of these things I look forward to every new video from you. Thank you very much and best regards from Berlin
Thank you very much for sharing part of your DJ journey and the gear..that's cool, thank you very much. When I decided to try to do youtube videos, one of my goals was to come across as real and natural as I can and my wife made the same suggestion to me. So I decided when I make my videos, there would be no edits or cuts of any type (unless I transitioning or moving to another room to show other gear) and if there were any mistakes in speech, I decided that I would not edit out those mistakes because after all during a life conversation with a person, the mistakes are not edited out and I want to come across as natural as possible. I really appreciate that you noticed that and thank you very much for the compliment ✌️
Thanks Kenny for an interesting review. This is the only copy of this LP that I own, but I was so impressed with the Can't Buy A Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy UHQR's that I went ahead and pre-ordered the UHQR of Pretzel Logic. I figured this was going to be the best sounding copy I could easily get my hands on. I must admit this time Pretzel Logic sounded great but, didn't blow me away like the first two UHQR's did. Then I saw that Michael Fremer had posted a review where he said this UHQR was definitely not the best sounding copy he owned. He got blasted for it and posted a follow up where he tried to justify it. Frankly I believe him, why would he make this up? The easiest thing to do would be to post a positive review and not piss off Chad Kassem, who he counts as a friend. The fact you didn't find a significant difference between the pressing you tested against the UHQR, seems to point to the fact this may not be the ultimate pressing this time around. I think I will now hold off on pre-ordering the Aja UHQR and see what some of the early reviews say. It will not sell out before release and even if it does, this is not an essential title for me. Thank you for your review, I know the difficulties you faced. I too have only one turntable that I can use to compare LPs on. Any time I post my opinions about two pressings of the same LP it will have to be a clearly noticeable difference for me to have a valid opinion. You did a good job explaining what you heard and didn't hear. Jim
I absolutely agree and maybe hold to the side of caution with Aja. With that said I’m told it was specifically mastered to sound like this not a hot cut? Any thoughts on that? Thank You
@@brianmedeiros6845 I can't address that because I don't have a pressing of this LP. The release of the UHQR series of Steely Dan has been my excuse to fill in holes in my own collection. Until the Pretzel Logic UHQR I had ASSumed the UHQR's would be the best pressing. I had no problem shelling out $150.00 for UHQR because I wanted the best pressing. Moving forward I am going to hold off pre-ordering the UHQR until I hear some reviews of it. If it gets good reviews I am sure there will be plenty still available.
Pressings and then the different masters at various points in time are interesting. The remastered Bitches Brew cd from 15 years ago was horrible it just brought out the hiss on the tape . I loved the muddy early lp mix which I did have on another cd , it had a mysterious quality
The Analogue Productions UHQR will be..below is a excerpt from the Acoustic Sounds website : Mastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non EQ'd tape copy
nice review. I went ahead and bought a copy of the UHQR and concur with your thoughts. The copy to beat is the Japan pressing by Nippon Phonogram. It has a freshness to it none of the others have. And is dynamic to boot.
I’m nervous Kenny. I was about to buy the PL UHQR and now I’m nervous. Somehow, the drama of last summer with the PL UHQR is something I missed. I’m just hearing about it.
A lot of people do not like the Pretzel Logic UHQR so I would ne very cautious about buying it. I'm in the minority as I think it's better than my earlier copy but not by much. To most the difference may not justify the cost.
Thanks Kenny, really like your reviews. I have a sunburst label Canadian copy ABCD-808 and I find it to be dull and compressed. I’d be perturbed if I spent $150 for a copy that didn’t sound too much better than my $14 used copy. Think I’ll pass this one up - can’t be spending $170 after all’s said and done for every record and fancy box I see.
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews Just listened to the low-res copy on Qobuz and the difference between my copy and Qobuz is night and day. Ok, I’m done rambling and I will go take my medicine now from the nice lady…😳
Glad to answer your question. This is my personal way of evaluating music that I review and listen to on my system..its my fun way of looking at things musically 😊 Depth: How deep the sound stage is (front to back) from its most forward point (front) to its most deepest point (back). On some recordings, I can hear sounds that extend to the wall in back of my speakers (the most deepest point in the soundstage) and at times I can hear sounds as if they are almost right in front of me (the most forward point in the soundstage). Dimension : How wide the soundstage is from side to side. A excellent sounding sound stage in terms of dimension can reach beyond the left of the left speaker and beyond the right of the right speaker. Detail - Simply how clear is the music. Some music is very fine and crystal clear and extremely realistic in terms of detail and other sources are dull and muddy in detail as if its muffled. Soundstage - How well does the depth deminsion and detail work together OVERALL as a trio to create a three dimensional and holographic sphere, to create an illusion as if the performers are actually in the room. Multi-variable calculus does not create a great soundstage 😊😁...great mastering engineers like Kevin Gray, Ryan K. Smith or Bernie Grundman are masters at that. Thank you very much for the questions and may God bless you ✌️
Maybe your DDDS should be DDDNS , the N standing for Noise, because the Main difference in any of these " High Dollar " Albums is IMO What you don't hear, and I don't have a problem with that , but Usually there are many other differences throughout the Album in Soundstage and clean more CD type sound. I don't mind paying for the quality but a lot of others will not think the difference is worth the money, also most of these New Tech Albums have some other items included about the history etc.
Kenny, thanks the video. Nicely done. I don't agree with your comparison though. As a preliminary matter, I'm not sure which original version you have. Comparing an original 1974 ABC of Pretzel Logic, which I have, to my UHQR, the comparison isn't close in my opinion. The mastering on the UHQR is underwhelming. The transient highs and top end of the UHQR are lacking compared to the original. On my original, Rikki and Night by Night jump off the vinyl. With the UHQR, I kept turning up the volume, but the highs just aren't there. This UHQR was mastered differently than the prior two UHQR releases of the Steely Dan series. Maybe the 1974 original was mastered hot because that's what Becker and Fagen wanted. However, the Steely Dan that I knew in the 70s and 80s sounded like this. ruclips.net/video/E2JWtuBLelw/видео.html And not like the subdued sound on this UHQR.
I sincerely appreciate your comments and opinion...all I can do is to the best of my ability is to report what the albums actually sounded like on my system in my music room. I know that a lot of listeners agree with your opinion but I felt that reporting what I actually heard was the honest thing to do instead of following the crowd..that being said I appreciate your opinion and thank you very much for viewing my video 😊
Thanks for a great review Kenny. At least in regard to Pretzel Logic. I will stick with my original sunburst ABC label original and save the money for something else.
I would advise everyone to hold off buying any more of these. After taxes and shipping these are about 170 bucks a pop. If you buy all 7 that’s about $1200. I get why people go overboard on the Stones, Beatles, Zeppelin stuff but Steely Dan? Really?
Steely Dan is better than all of them, and the recording quality of their albums are light years ahead of the others which is why they benefit the most from the audiophile treatment.
![Gucci Mane & Sexyy Red - You Don't Love Me [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j7IBqyFKT4c/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi, i am from Brasil, my name is Zenon I'm 72 years old and I didn't know this group. I really liked.
I am glad that you like the group 😊
the unfortunate law of diminished returns. Thanks for sharing
Thank you 😊 ✌️
I fall in love with Steely Dan only recently, and amazed by how impeccable their songwriting craft is and how unparallel their jazzy sensibility goes...
They are fabulous for sure with the "Aja" album being my favorite 😊
The opening "Black Cow" is an instant smash! Well...what I'm saying is, you don't always hear this wonderful jazzy keyboard & fluegelhorn arrangement in a rock-'n'-roll piece...Simply WoW!
Frank , to the point analysis. Yes, these comparisons aren't easy. I found the hi hat lacking compared to my original pressing as i noted in my review. Overall , Too smooth IMHO. Ty and keep rockN
Thank you very much as always for your comments 😊 ✌️
After watching your videos for over a year without subscribing I have remedied that oversight in deference to your efforts. I am a 71 year old white retired Canadian and we share similar opinions. Music can do that. For my 70th birthday I upgraded my Rega P25/ Cadenza Blue to a P8/Cadenza Blue after being talked out of a P10 because of my age. If I can hear the difference that upgraded power supplies can make to the P8 and Lukeschek phono stage then my ears could have appreciated the P10. If it hadn't been for COVID I could have compared the two TTs. You have excellent ears in my opinion and I appreciate your honesty. Am I going to get a P10? No, but I'm going to put the RB3000 arm on the P8. You're doing a great job. All the best from a northern neighbour.
Thank you very much for being a loyal viewer and thank you for subscribing to my channel, I sincerely appreciate it. I wanted to get the P10 at the time I purchased my P8 but the P10 was a bit out of my price range.
Great to get your take on these vinyls love your honesty when comparing it's really helpful when buying vinyl.
Thank you very much ✌️ 😊
Dear Kenny,
Thank you for your new video. What I never mentioned before: It's fantastic that there are no cuts in your videos and you record everything completely and speak freely the whole time.
This is rare and it makes your videos extra personal in a wonderful way. You also never talk about what's going on in the world, which I particularly like and helps me to switch off and relax with your videos. Keep it up, you enrich my life with your work.
I would love to see you as a DJ at the turntables - definitely a treat when it comes to the choice of music. However, there is no such thing as audiophile dj gear and I think would go against the whole audiophile idea (some manufacturers have extremely expensive consoles with tube preamps on the market, but these consoles are not discrete and are miles away from audiophile in my opinion).
Almost 20 years ago I played music from the 30s in a suit at an art gallery opening, unfortunately this music was reproduced with a conventional PA and so almost nothing of the unique music came across.
A few month later I found out why at an techno open air event. There was an unexpected chillout floor only equipped with three large old horns. They also played music from the 1930s and THAT was an EXPERIENCE!!! The sound reinforcement technology was certainly not from the 30s, but it was much closer to the time the music came from and this fact made a huge difference in the result.
It was a moment that opened my eyes, or rather my ears, to the topic of authentic music reproduction.
As a result of that moment, I took some sound reinforcement components out of my PA, like two Altec H-811b and two JBL 15" frontloaded horns, bought good crossovers and put them together for my DJ setup at home. Certainly not audiophile, although the Playback is authentic - I mean that the instruments and voices sound excellent, dynamic and make the air vibrate. The system was later supplemented with a double 15" subwoofer and I use it to this day to listen to music for hours without getting tired of.
In my opinion a good stereo setup and records belong to the best things in this world. Because your posts always contain at least one of these things I look forward to every new video from you.
Thank you very much and best regards from Berlin
Thank you very much for sharing part of your DJ journey and the gear..that's cool, thank you very much.
When I decided to try to do youtube videos, one of my goals was to come across as real and natural as I can and my wife made the same suggestion to me. So I decided when I make my videos, there would be no edits or cuts of any type (unless I transitioning or moving to another room to show other gear) and if there were any mistakes in speech, I decided that I would not edit out those mistakes because after all during a life conversation with a person, the mistakes are not edited out and I want to come across as natural as possible. I really appreciate that you noticed that and thank you very much for the compliment ✌️
Love the channel, long time viewer here that never comments. Just wanted to show my appreciation for the channel. Keep it up man love the content!
Thank you very much for viewing my videos and taking the time to mention that, I sincerely appreciate it 😊 ✌️
Very sincere review like giving a suggestion to a good friend. Thank You
Thanks Kenny for an interesting review. This is the only copy of this LP that I own, but I was so impressed with the Can't Buy A Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy UHQR's that I went ahead and pre-ordered the UHQR of Pretzel Logic. I figured this was going to be the best sounding copy I could easily get my hands on. I must admit this time Pretzel Logic sounded great but, didn't blow me away like the first two UHQR's did. Then I saw that Michael Fremer had posted a review where he said this UHQR was definitely not the best sounding copy he owned. He got blasted for it and posted a follow up where he tried to justify it. Frankly I believe him, why would he make this up? The easiest thing to do would be to post a positive review and not piss off Chad Kassem, who he counts as a friend.
The fact you didn't find a significant difference between the pressing you tested against the UHQR, seems to point to the fact this may not be the ultimate pressing this time around. I think I will now hold off on pre-ordering the Aja UHQR and see what some of the early reviews say. It will not sell out before release and even if it does, this is not an essential title for me.
Thank you for your review, I know the difficulties you faced. I too have only one turntable that I can use to compare LPs on. Any time I post my opinions about two pressings of the same LP it will have to be a clearly noticeable difference for me to have a valid opinion. You did a good job explaining what you heard and didn't hear.
Jim
Thank you Jim, I really appreciate that ✌️
I absolutely agree and maybe hold to the side of caution with Aja. With that said I’m told it was specifically mastered to sound like this not a hot cut? Any thoughts on that? Thank You
@@brianmedeiros6845 I can't address that because I don't have a pressing of this LP. The release of the UHQR series of Steely Dan has been my excuse to fill in holes in my own collection. Until the Pretzel Logic UHQR I had ASSumed the UHQR's would be the best pressing. I had no problem shelling out $150.00 for UHQR because I wanted the best pressing. Moving forward I am going to hold off pre-ordering the UHQR until I hear some reviews of it. If it gets good reviews I am sure there will be plenty still available.
Pressings and then the different masters at various points in time are interesting. The remastered Bitches Brew cd from 15 years ago was horrible it just brought out the hiss on the tape . I loved the muddy early lp mix which I did have on another cd , it had a mysterious quality
Good to know. I did a pass on this UHQR. Actually I’ve passed on quite a bit of them lately. There are two I’ll be getting tho.
Some of them are great...I'm looking forward to the Steely Dan Aja issue
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews I’ll be getting that one. Even tho I already own few copies, I’m wondering how much farther they can take it with Aja…
@@nikl2nite Is Aja really from safety analog tapes?
The Analogue Productions UHQR will be..below is a excerpt from the Acoustic Sounds website :
Mastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non EQ'd tape copy
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews So it should be almost perfect then. Fingers crossed.
nice review. I went ahead and bought a copy of the UHQR and concur with your thoughts. The copy to beat is the Japan pressing by Nippon Phonogram. It has a freshness to it none of the others have. And is dynamic to boot.
I hope that you like your UHQR....Thank you very much for your comments ✌️
So many people emotionally wounded by this mastering. Might need to start a support group.
honest review! great video
Thank you very much ✌️
Great comparison 😊
Thank you very much 😁, I sincerely appreciate that ✌️
I’m nervous Kenny. I was about to buy the PL UHQR and now I’m nervous. Somehow, the drama of last summer with the PL UHQR is something I missed. I’m just hearing about it.
A lot of people do not like the Pretzel Logic UHQR so I would ne very cautious about buying it. I'm in the minority as I think it's better than my earlier copy but not by much. To most the difference may not justify the cost.
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews how much is a legit OG or even a promo?
Great point. I'm not sure, you may have to check Discogs or ebay...most likely it would be cheaper than the UHQR.
Thanks Kenny, really like your reviews. I have a sunburst label Canadian copy ABCD-808 and I find it to be dull and compressed. I’d be perturbed if I spent $150 for a copy that didn’t sound too much better than my $14 used copy. Think I’ll pass this one up - can’t be spending $170 after all’s said and done for every record and fancy box I see.
Thank you very much for watching my video and I respect your opinion and thoughts on this deluxe album....thank you very much 😊
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews Just listened to the low-res copy on Qobuz and the difference between my copy and Qobuz is night and day. Ok, I’m done rambling and I will go take my medicine now from the nice lady…😳
Can you explain DDDS further and the difference between each? To me, dimensionality and soundstage are somewhat interchangeable. Thanks.
Glad to answer your question. This is my personal way of evaluating music that I review and listen to on my system..its my fun way of looking at things musically 😊
Depth: How deep the sound stage is (front to back) from its most forward point (front) to its most deepest point (back). On some recordings, I can hear sounds that extend to the wall in back of my speakers (the most deepest point in the soundstage) and at times I can hear sounds as if they are almost right in front of me (the most forward point in the soundstage).
Dimension : How wide the soundstage is from side to side. A excellent sounding sound stage in terms of dimension can reach beyond the left of the left speaker and beyond the right of the right speaker.
Detail - Simply how clear is the music. Some music is very fine and crystal clear and extremely realistic in terms of detail and other sources are dull and muddy in detail as if its muffled.
Soundstage - How well does the depth deminsion and detail work together OVERALL as a trio to create a three dimensional and holographic sphere, to create an illusion as if the performers are actually in the room. Multi-variable calculus does not create a great soundstage 😊😁...great mastering engineers like Kevin Gray, Ryan K. Smith or Bernie Grundman are masters at that.
Thank you very much for the questions and may God bless you ✌️
@@kennysaudiophilerecordreviews That's an outstanding method! I'm going to start using it! Thanks for taking the time. Keep doing what you're doing.
Think I have a 1988 pressing version of Pretzel
Maybe your DDDS should be DDDNS , the N standing for Noise, because the Main difference in any of these " High Dollar " Albums is IMO What you don't hear, and I don't have a problem with that , but Usually there are many other differences throughout the Album in Soundstage and clean more CD type sound. I don't mind paying for the quality but a lot of others will not think the difference is worth the money, also most of these New Tech Albums have some other items included about the history etc.
Kenny, thanks the video. Nicely done. I don't agree with your comparison though. As a preliminary matter, I'm not sure which original version you have. Comparing an original 1974 ABC of Pretzel Logic, which I have, to my UHQR, the comparison isn't close in my opinion. The mastering on the UHQR is underwhelming. The transient highs and top end of the UHQR are lacking compared to the original. On my original, Rikki and Night by Night jump off the vinyl. With the UHQR, I kept turning up the volume, but the highs just aren't there. This UHQR was mastered differently than the prior two UHQR releases of the Steely Dan series. Maybe the 1974 original was mastered hot because that's what Becker and Fagen wanted. However, the Steely Dan that I knew in the 70s and 80s sounded like this. ruclips.net/video/E2JWtuBLelw/видео.html And not like the subdued sound on this UHQR.
I sincerely appreciate your comments and opinion...all I can do is to the best of my ability is to report what the albums actually sounded like on my system in my music room. I know that a lot of listeners agree with your opinion but I felt that reporting what I actually heard was the honest thing to do instead of following the crowd..that being said I appreciate your opinion and thank you very much for viewing my video 😊
Thanks for a great review Kenny. At least in regard to Pretzel Logic. I will stick with my original sunburst ABC label original and save the money for something else.
Thank you very much for your comments ✌️
I would advise everyone to hold off buying any more of these. After taxes and shipping these are about 170 bucks a pop. If you buy all 7 that’s about $1200. I get why people go overboard on the Stones, Beatles, Zeppelin stuff but Steely Dan? Really?
Steely Dan is better than all of them, and the recording quality of their albums are light years ahead of the others which is why they benefit the most from the audiophile treatment.
Agree 💯 🎶