In Germany it is easy to find at the official Universal Store, Bravado. Maybe there is something similar in GB?
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I don’t know, I never had problems. But they have a money back guarantee.
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Huch! 60,49,- EUR from Amazon. This better will be sounding perfect…
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I bought several of Tone Poets especially last year, then I got the craze of collecting the Classic Series, I have them all from this series and they also sound pretty good, almost like TP…
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The Classic Series Blue Notes are all mastered by Kevin Gray, just as the Tone Poets are, although Joe Harley supervises the Tone Poets so he has input on the mastering with Kevin Gray. I don’t know how much Cem Kurosman gets involved in the mastering process for BN Classics (he supervises/curates the series…i.e. Joe’s counterpart). I do know that Joe is one of the people who listens to test pressings for it.
The BN Classic series is great. Unfortunately, they are pressed at Optimal in Germany, who have recurring issues with non-fill. They don’t have the high pressure presses that RTI and QRP have and need longer press times to avoid non-fill. Sometimes they are in too much of a hurry and that results in non-fill. It’s not just the Blue Notes either. Everything that comes from Optimal is at risk for non-fill (DG Classics are another example). Lately Pallas has gotten bad about it too. Same reasons. Now I only buy records pressed at Optimal that I really, really want and am willing to deal with returns hoping I will get a disc without non-fill distortion. Ugh!
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You are absolutely right, it is an Optimal lottery 
at least 50% of all Optimal pressings are rubbish.
Lately I bought 3 records that were pressed at Pallas, 2 were good, one (Ry Cooder, Speakers Corner) was horrible.
Order from somewhere else? Bandcamp maybe and support the artist more directly 
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So dissapointing to hear that Pallas are going the way of Optimal.
The last Pallas pressing I bought was New Land’s resissue of A Modern Jazz Symposium Of Music And Poetry, mine was OK but I’ve read of some complaining of non fill.
I’m now streaming far more and trying to be even more discerning and cherry picking which ones to buy on vinyl due to the curent pressing lottery. But when another fine pressing plant like Pallas goes bad it all starts getting a bit depressing with thoughts of packing it in and going all out digital/streaming.
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I think a big problem is the quality control. Since 2020 worldwide vinyl production has exploded and most buyers do not care of the record quality. This business is THE money making machine of the Record Industry. Maybe only a little percentage of real vinyl lovers like us care about it
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I agree. As I see it since the big labels jumped on the “vinyl revival” bandwagon its all about gimmicky marketing with all these coloured, splattered, “Limited edition” and RSD specials etc that the pressing plants are being deluged with and cutting corners to meet demand. The smaller independent specialist are getting pushed to the back of the pressing plant queue by the dominant major players pushing crap.
At least we have Tone Poet, Acoustic Sounds Series etc but if I want to buy quality records I’m finding my choices severely narrowed to mostly Blue Note and Chad Kaseem’s taste in Jazz, If I want more diverse listening I have to stream or buy CD.
At the risk of sounding snobbish and elitist, in my opinion it will be better when the big corporate labels bugger off from the bandwagon and leave the decent specialists to get on with producing quality records.
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You are absolutely right, @Dreadatthecontrols, ordering from mainstream labels is a lottery. I do it the similar way, Tone Poet and Acoustic Sounds. Plus some affordable records from Analogue Productions, mostly ordered in Portugal or USA. Less records but the real good ones to enjoy
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If you’re referring to vinyl, it’s not. The major labels make most of their money from streaming these days - vinyl and CDs are just icing on the cake. And of course, for big artists, live music and touring’s really where the money is.
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I went to Bandcamp first, but shipping was more money than the actual LP cost and was pretty extortionate to come from the US to Canada.
I’ll keep my Amazon pre-order in place while I look around elsewhere. Of course I could just buy the FLAC version instead which would save a bunch of $$
Kev, please consider this my pre-order for
2x vinyl
2x CD
for Ese and The Vooduu People’s next album.
Payment ready to go, at your command…
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WaJazz: Japanese Jazz Spectacle Vol.II - Deep, Heavy and Beautiful Jazz from Japan 1962-1985 - The King Records Masters - Selected by Yusuke Ogawa (Universounds) (2023)
Looks very interesting not looked into if the King masters have been remastered or who is cutting the lacquers etc and it is pricey at £40+
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Paco de Lucia: The Montreux Years, BMG (2023)
I’ve not listened to any of the previous records from this series so cannot comment on the quality but just as a title this one has piqued my interest a bit.
And it’s mastered in Superlative Audio no less!
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What is “Superlative Audio” ?