APO Doors Reissues

Maybe something is wrong with your AC3 :-) They sound fine on my Raven One/10.5/XV-1s and yes I have compared them to US 1st pressings.

i do prefer the us 1st pressings over the newer pressings. maybe the tapes have deteriorated over the years making the new releases inferior. not as much information now as there was when the recordings were made 30+ years ago. that's the only explanation i can see.

I don't buy Tom Port's Hot Stamers but I do believe in sound variation between different copies even of the same pressing. As I recall from the video, QRP made five sets of stamper plates for each album. I think it's entirely possible that some copies will sound better than others even in a relatively small run such as this. There's likely nothing wrong with anyone's system (remember Fremer's is probably close to a $300,000 set up, hardly a close and play). Even if we all heard the same copy on the same system there would be differing opinions. I'm just going to try the set. It's still cheaper tham one Hot Stamper. Maybe someday there'll be a Hot Stamper of the whole set for somewhere around $3,000.

Hi Corby, interesting way of looking at it but I suspect your system leans on the bright side. My findings are it varies from title to title but in general what I hear is the new 45rpms have 100% of what is on the original 1st pressing + improved clarity and a tighter more dynamic performance. The originals, especially Strange Days sounds rolled off and soft. Have you compared Strange Days original Mono to the stereo pressing? The Mono pressing sounds much better than the stereo in my system and closer to the sound signature of the new 45rpm. Based on this I would conclude the original stereo pressing probably had mixing or pressing issues. The new 45rpm seems to suggest this when you bring the Mono pressing into the mix.

musichead
thanks for your summary. i have only compared the s/t to it's original us 1st pressing. i bought strange days at the same time but didn't have the 1st pressing to compare it to.
those are the first APO releases that i was disappointed with. i do have many. i won't be buying any more of the doors releases. my front end picks them apart too much. as i mentioned earlier, i played them on my non-reference table, micro seiki 1500 with a morch UP4 and denon DL103 stock, and they sounded better, as this combo did not dig deep into the grooves to extract everything. but i'm not going to spend the money on the lp's to play them on the 103.
i'll pursue more originals and the mono that you mentioned above,