Beautiful recording, noisy pressing

4 Stars
Posted
Thursday, March 27, 2025
by
RC
The record was beautifully recorded and mastered. Nice soundstage, good instrument separation for an 33 1/3 LP. The vocals are beautiful as are the piano and strings.
Unfortunately, my copy has too much surface noise for a record advertised as “audiophile.” Way too much. (I did a thorough cleaning before listening.) On another site, I read that the 2x45 pressing by QRP was also disappointingly noisy. That’s shocking to me, because I have over 100 LPs pressed by QRP and every one of them is pristine, dead quiet.
As for this Chesky pressing, despite the noise, I have no regrets about the purchase. It cost me $36, not $60 like the 2x45. And, for me, the positives outweigh the one negative.
What about the music? It’s lovely and her vocals are lovely. But taste is subjective. It’s always a good idea to stream a record before you buy it.