Miles Davis – Agharta = アガルタの凱歌

This is being added to multiple releases so hopefully more people can see it. I’ve been on here for 5 ½ years but not until now have I felt the need to post. About a month ago I purchased an Agharta reissue [MOVLP134]. Let me first say I have been a fan of Music On Vinyl for quite some time. I own +10 of their releases but for the sake of this post I’ll limit it to just my Miles Davis copies; Get Up With It [MOVLP1513] and Black Beauty [MOVLP1427]. All three of the MOV releases I own sound great on my system. The music is well balanced and there is hardly any surface noise during the quieter sections. While the artwork is limited to just a gatefold and even though they don’t come with any inserts it is still a very worthwhile and affordable purchase of ~$25 per 2 LP set. (Collector’s Choice will still have them if you’re lucky)

I was able to purchase a local copy of the Pangaea reissue [4M810DLP]. I was not impressed by the 4 Men With Beards release. The sound was somewhat flat compared to the MOV releases. In the end, that’s what it’s all about, so if you’re in the market for a cheaper reissue I would suggest you seek out MOV instead of 4MWB.

After reading multiple posts by anothermansvinyl I decided I would put his comments to the test so I purchased original copies from Japan of Agharta [SOPJ 92~93] and Pangaea [SOPZ 96~97]. These arrived quickly and in nearly flawless condition. I then took them to my parents who have a PX-950 receiver and Klipsch speakers. I don’t recall their turntable model but it’s at the same level as their receiver and speakers. We compared sections of Agharta and Pangaea between the OP and reissues in a ‘blind listen test’. As anothermansvinyl pointed out, the OP are top notch. The sound is so rich and deep and you can definitely pick up on the subtle background music during the busy parts. These are easily in my top 5 for all around quality of all albums I own (~160). However, the MOV sounded great on their system it was just a little quieter overall. While it wasn’t as impressive as the OP, unless you have a keen ear and/or an advanced receiver/speakers/turntable system then you may not really care about these differences. My system isn’t as nice as theirs so the differences weren’t as pronounced but again, I was able to pick out the OP every time.

In the end I’d agree with anothermansvinyl. If you truly want to appreciate the music for what it is and invest in albums that will only go up in value, you should really splurge and get the OP for Agharta, Pangaea and even Dark Magus (I’m working on that right now). At the same time, I would also highly recommend Music On Vinyl releases for those who don't consider the packaging and/or subtleties some of the OP contain to be worth twice the price.