John Coltrane – A Love Supreme

Right now this is $22.38 plus shipping on the Verve website. I was going to get one but my 70s Japanese pressing sounds better than the Acoustic Sounds Series release from a couple of years ago, so I figured this is probably about the same in as that one in sound quality.

Reddit comment; "KG 2021 Sterling cut, pressed at Precision (words from customer service)"

Bravado de. states: "The highly regarded remaster by Ryan K. Smith (Sterling Sound) was used as the master.'

Haven't heard this pressing, but it's most likely from the same source and same metalworks as the 2021 Accoustic Sound Series John Coltrane - A Love Supreme. That was a stunnig press that i rank next to my german original press and not far from US stereo 1st press.
As other ASS platters it was pressed by Quality Record Pressings, known to be very high quality products. So i don't see any real sonic reason to purchase this one - for extraordinary prices right now - as the GZ pressings are too often hit & miss, no matter if pressed in CZ, Poland or Canada.

Alright, I have done a quick crash program on the various rumors regarding the status of this record's master tapes and what kind of sourcing this reissue could come from. For those unaware, most of the ABC Impulse Coltrane master tapes were destroyed in the 2008 Universal warehouse fire. The A Love Supreme masters appear to have been an exception. I was initially annoyed at the Discogs puff piece ment for this reissue for omitting mentioning the fire and the status of this record's master tapes, but after digging further I can understand not mentioning it.

First stop on the rabbit hole is a wikipedia statement from Jody Rosen claiming that "sources told them" there was a "chance" that the Love Supreme masters had been checked out and were not in the warehouse at the time of the fire because of how frequently they were pulled. This does not ring true to me as any of these reissues would surely trumpet the miraculous preservation of the original masters as marketing selling point. "We've got the masters!!! Remastered from the original Masters!1!1" The absence of such ment seems pretty damning to me. I would LOVE to be wrong, though.

Second stop on the Rabbit Hole is a conversation that jbutlerjbutler also points out a rumor that the originals were lost in the 70s.

This leads me to the third stop of the rabbit hole on this one. After digging into this rumor, I have found Ashley Khan's 2003 book "A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album". I have not read the book, but Google says 'Kahn explains that ABC-Paramount executives made the decision to discard many master tapes in the 1970s to save on storage costs. This meant that only one copy of the album remained in the vaults, which often had sonic details and depth lost from the original master.'

It also claims 'Kahn's book also includes annotations that provide information about the decision to throw away the master tapes.'

Steve Hoffman has repeatedly also stated an explanation on his audiophile forum. He claims that a poorly managed labeling system for what tapes were called when they were true masters or coming in to get remixed from other studios and locations resulted in a number of canisters having the term 'Master' on them, and during the 70s push to clear storage space, the wrong version labeled 'Master' was retained and the true masters were discarded.

I will hang up my hat with this explanation. While not the master tapes, The sources for this are likely just as good as anything used from the 1980s onward.

Ordered from US, arrived OK- made in Canada on shrink wrapping.

Nice clean copy. The shrink wrap stated, Made in Canada, bought it at Universal Music in Holland.

Pressing was fine, other than the clear vinyl, and silver embossed sleeve, there’s nothing special here.