More of the Music of Chet Atkins
More Vinyl Arcana You May Find of Interest
In 2006 we wrote the review you see below for an orange label RCA reissue of the album.
Recently we did a shootout for the album and only one side of one of the later orange label pressings earned a Super Hot grade.
Our system was noticeably darker and clearly far less revealing than the one we have now, and those two qualities did most of the heavy lifting needed to compensate for the shortcomings of the reissue reviewed below.
What I couldn’t hear on my system back in those days (and even as late as 2006) no doubt explains most of these kinds of errors. That’s why we are constantly harping on the idea that audiophiles would do well to get good sound before they spend a fortune on vinyl.
Higher quality playback is what makes it possible to recognize and acquire better sounding records.
Live and learn is our motto, and changing one’s opinion after having made some audio progress is a feature, not a bug, of record collecting at the most advanced levels. (“Advanced” is a code word for having little to no interest in any remastered pressing marketed to the audiophile community. If you want to avoid the worst of them, we are happy to help you do that.)
And please don’t get us wrong — there are currently 171 reissues that you can find right here on the blog that have the potential to sound better than the best originals we’ve played to date (keeping in mind that we could be wrong about any of them!).
Our Review from 2006
This is an RCA reissue LP with DEMONSTRATION QUALITY SOUND! I can’t believe how good this late reissue sounds! It may not have all the Tubey Magic of the best originals, but it does have the Tubey Magic that Bill Porter recorded and that the RCA engineers managed to transfer accurately to this LP. I can tell you I’ll never pass up another one of these. Without a doubt this has to be the best sounding Christmas record we have for sale.
Sleigh Ride sounds amazing, but, as you can see in the reviews for his other classic recordings, most everything sounds amazing on these Chet Atkins records engineered by Bill Porter.
Further Reading
Robert Brook has encountered his own share of problems in audio and record collecting. To get to the next level, he approached the problems he ran into scientifically, methodically and carefully, along these three fronts:
- Improving his equipment,
- Teaching himself how to do a better job of dialing in his turntable setup, and
- Learning how to do controlled shootouts for his favorite albums.
We also have plenty of advice to share along the same lines: