Any other vinyl as quiet as ECM?

02-07-09: Xiekitchen
ECM back into vinyl, wow!
TVAD: if you have not heard Metheny on ECM German Imported pressings... THESE are the one's to get.

I have most of the Metheny ECMs and the sonics are excellent. I discovered Metheny via Gary Burton, as I'd been a Burton fan since 1968 and really took note when Burton moved from Atlantic to ECM, and then when Metheny joined Burton's quartet. Burton's ECM albums also sound great, as do the ones from guitarists John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner.

I recently picked up a used copy of Jack DeJohnette's "Works" on ECM. Just phenomenal!

I have found that almost all of the used ECM vinyl I have purchased has been exceptionally quiet as long as a visual inspection does not show any scratches or scuffs. I cannot say the same for other record companies' releases.

A couple people have mentioned Pablo, so I'll certainly look for that label, as well as the others mentioned here.

Thanks everyone.

Every Pablo I have ever bought, all of them used, has sounded fantastic. Just about every Verve, too. And of course, the Blue Notes, but I almost never get any opportunities to pick one of those up in my area.

I have plenty of used Verve that sound like crap.

02-07-09: Tvad
I have plenty of used Verve that sound like crap.

The problem with Verve is the same as the problem with finding used Ray Charles, James Brown, or Jimi Hendrix albums in great shape. People played them long and hard.

Verve reaches back to the '50s and had so many great artists--Gene Krupa, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, etc.. Pablo is really the same idea by the same guy (Norm Granz), but it was started in the '70s so the legendary artists are older while the recording technology and albums are newer, and more of them are in great shape. Both Verve and Pablo records were well engineered, mastered, and pressed. Verves would have been recorded with tube equipment, so they're warmer and fatter and more are in mono. Some don't have the frequency extension and clarity that the Pablos do.

I lucked into DJ Verve copies of Ella and Louis parts I and II and Buddy Rich, "The Monster." As DJ copies they were in white inner sleeves with no jackets, totally unplayed new old stock. They are definitely gems in my collection, sonically and musically.