Bill Evans – At The Montreux Jazz Festival

I've always loved this album. Was lucky, and got this great version on Discogs in Mint, still sealed. After a round on the washing machine, the disc just sounds great. Everything done right, back then. Mastering, pressing, mixing. Perfect. The cover is as ugly as ever.

Not a jazz guy, don’t have another pressing to compare, but this sounds excellent. Silent, nice jacket.

This is a rare case where the LP sound quality is worse than CD. We did a comparison with Verse CD (827 844-2), and strangely enough the length of each number on the CD is longer than this LP, eg One for Helen, LP is 4:01 vs CD is 5:22. I could only suspect this Japaness copy is a tier 3 or even tier 4 duplicate from the master tape.

This one sounds absolutely amazing for a live recording. Very detailed and dynamic. Unfortunately this is the only copy I own so I cannot make any comparisons but I can't believe that there is a pressing that sounds any better than this.

Stunning presentation and soundstage. Bass with jump into your lap at certain spots.

First copy was waaay off center; so much so that the ES-001 couldn’t even measure it.
Second copy fairly well centered, but has considerable noise, distortion, and even the tape machine is audible at times! Have never heard this before.
I should probably give it fewer stars; but the instruments sound good.
Using a very high end all Nagra system that was setup by the factory.

All the incarnations of this superlative concert I listened to suffer from the same problem: they are cut at a too low level. And this is no exception. This pressing sucks in some ways. The sound is very present and palpable but the Eddie Gomez bass is rolled off at about 80 Hz or even worst, the Bill Evans piano is somewhat constricted and mono dimensional. I don't know how and why this edition is so hyped. A real state of the art of Bill Evans magic will be found e.g. on 'Behind the Dikes' but not on this one. Far from this. The definitive version of this concert is still waiting in the dark

Just picked up a used copy and it's spinning now. Figured it was returned due to the QC issues mentioned below, but I took a chance at half price. I'm 3/4 thru and it's fine. A few ticks in Track 1 Side 1 that might be in the pressing, but maybe another wet cleaning will fix it. Perfect on the last track of Side 1, when many were having issues.

I'm no audiophile. Probably there's folks out there that spend more on a stylus than my whole set up. The vinyl medium was never perfect, and certainly isn't now. Maybe the high end systems highlight the imperfections too? Listening now, the dead wax is absolutely silent, and the lightest tap on a bass string or high hat cymbal sounds like it's right here in the room with me. I'm digging this, and glad I gambled with the $15.

Oh, and Bill Evans is incredible!

Side A sounds great, side B has a background hiss and some non-fill :(

I only own Japanese pressings from most of Bill Evans records. Very happy with the quality and how silent they are.