You may be way ahead of me here, but I just made a very cool discovery – purely by accident while watching a couple of YouTube videos!
The first one was the livestream event hosted by Analog Planet below, in which Michael Fremer and Mike Esposito duke it out on the subject of vinyl, specifically lacquer longevity. Chad Kassem, founder and owner of Analogue Productions and Acoustic Sounds, is moderating the discussion. At around 47’30 minutes, Mike Esposito says, “If you want to hear the pinnacle, then don’t buy a lacquer that sounds like the master tape, why don’t we just save our money and buy the reel-to-reel.” To which Chad replies, “In about a month, you can do it,” and he’s holding up John Coltrane’s ‘Love Supreme’ in the form of an Analogue Productions Ultra Tape! Oh boy, this is going to be good. He then goes on to talk a bit about the production process and the history of the master tapes made of the original recording – fascinating stuff.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, not long afterwards I was watching the video below, this time it’s Chad talking about The Top-Selling Records of 2021, specifically some of the highest performing records and SACDs to pass through Acoustic Sounds. On the desk beside Chad is the ‘Love Supreme’ tape box and right at the end, in closing, Chad mentions a bunch of great things coming in 2022. “The plans we have, the announcements we’re going to make are going to blow some people’s minds… for those that love reel-to-reel, ‘Love Supreme’ and ‘Ballads’ will be here pretty soon.”
I had a look on the Acoustic Sounds online store and they weren’t available just yet, so I dropped Chad a line to ask about the ETA. Result! Both tapes should be ready to ship within a month, both priced at $500, and both have now gone onto the website and are taking pre-orders.
Here are the links:
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
John Coltrane Quartet – Ballads
By the way, Chad also mentioned that other tapes in their catalogue will soon be going up from $450 to $500, so if there are some albums you’ve had your eye on, now could be a good time to get them in the bag. I’ve got my order in for the two John Coltranes plus a couple more…
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 