One of our good customers has a blog which he calls
A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE
Here is Robert’s review of ERC’s mono release of My Favorite Things. MFT happens to be one of our favorite Coltrane records, but we understandably prefer the stereo pressings, which is almost always the case when an album has been recorded in stereo, as My Favorite Things was in 1960.
We even tell you what to listen for to help you separate the best pressings from the merely good ones: the piano.
A solid, full-bodied, clear and powerful piano. As we focused on the sound of the instrument, we couldn’t help but notice how brilliant McCoy Tyner is. This may be John Coltrane’s album, but Tyner’s contribution is critically important to the success of My Favorite Things.
The engineering duties were handled by Tom Dowd (whose work you surely know well) and Phil Iehle, who happens to be the man who recorded some of Coltrane’s most iconic albums for Atlantic: Giant Steps (1960) and Coltrane Jazz (also in 1961).
Other jazz records with top quality piano sound can be found here.
Electric Recording Company
We’ve played a number of ERC releases.
In the video embedded in the Washington Post article “In Search of the Perfect Sound,” at some point you can hear me exclaim “This guy makes mud pies!” while listening to the ERC pressing of Quiet Kenny. I am happy to stand behind that judgment, and I think Robert Brook would agree with me about that.
Here is our review of ERC’s Forever Changes.
Our commentary making the case that these albums are aimed primarily at collectors and speculators, not audiophiles, can be found here.
We have now played the ERC pressing of My Favorite Things for ourselves and will be reviewing it soon.
Other Opinions
As much as we dislike these records, there are some music lovers who are quite pleased with them. A certain JLysaker wrote the following on discogs in 2021 about the ERC records a friend of his gave him (!) (edited for brevity).
I own 4 lps from this label. All sound amazing… The [Way] Out West pressing, stereo, is probably the best sounding LP I own… I also had an AP edition of one of the albums and the ERC pressing was hands down more natural sounding and imaged with greater clarity, and not just to my ears but to that of another buddy there for a listen.
Was it $500 better? I really doubt sonic differences translate into clear dollar amounts, but I would understand someone saying: ‘I’ll stick with damn good.’ Then again, some albums are dear to people and they want to hear it in the best possible fashion, and that probably won’t be through an original pressing — too rare, condition issues, and so forth as pointed out below. So they pop for one of these, as I did with My Favorite Things, which isn’t even a well recorded album.
And I am glad I did as Coltrane’s soprano never sounded better to me, and I have been listening to that recording for decades. So, from experience, these pressings are special. But acquiring them involves serious opportunity costs for anyone not rolling in the dough. And I doubt I ever would have sprung for one if an evil friend hadn’t given me some.
But here I am, feeling neither scammed nor screwed, and quite certain that those releasing these records are qualified to do so.
Others in the comments section were not so positive. Then again, nobody gave them the records and the price seemed struck them as a bit high (median pricing for the album is currently $723.10).
We get similar complaints about our prices, but then again, we’re in the business of selling the best sounding pressings ever made, which is clearly not the case with ERC. They’re in the business of selling mud pies.