The Ahmad Jamal Trio* – The Awakening

I got a really clean original of this and compared it with the VBR pressing. This is the only time that common comment of "veil lifted from the speakers" really applies. The VBR is fine, but it sounds like there's a blanket in front of the speakers compared to the original.

Great pressing. Sounds fine. Mine came just a tiny bit warped. No pops no crackles. Pretty good overall

Like all VBR series, this is a placeholder copy until a decent remaster/repress will come up. Not bad but too far from amazing, as this masterpiece should sound.

180 gram vinyl arrived in a paper inner sleeve and was flat. I Pre cleaned before playing and still heard a lot of pops & snaps. Hopefully this will improve over time and I switched to a MoFi style inner sleeve. In addition to the surface noise, the audio quality is meh. Too much bass and Ahmad’s piano is buried in the mix.

It sounds superb, I'm very happy with the presence of piano in my room, not easy to find like that one. Disappointed for the cheap internal paper sleeve. This record is easily recommended.

Perfectly fine pressing. The sound scape is vary centred but over all I like it.

Something odd going on in the low frequencies. Yes the upright bass is a very prominent presence, but at times there is something going on that just doesn’t agree with me down low. Packaging is adequate at best. Music is very solid though. At time there are also some standout moments of spaciousness between the instruments, and some good textures. Overall, the strength of the songs makes up for the shortcomings.

My copy sounds fine without any clicks or pops, but unfortunately, the vinyl is warped. Third Man Records is notorious for poor pressings, and I'm frustrated with the quality. I'm considering returning it.

One of my favorite Jamal albums, but this Third Man pressing has a bunch of issues: clicks and popping after a good cleaning, slight edge warp and a cheap paper inner sleeve. The QC and pressing sounds like the crappy Verve “Vital Vinyl” records that were atrocious.

I thought my TT had some speed issues when I played my copy, but like others stated on this forum, there’s some pitch fluctuation or tape issues because the entire album is way out of tune. I’ve don’t have any time Goldilocks-ing my way through until I find a better copy, just going to live with this one until something better finds me.

Also not too happy with the pressing, to be frank.