The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced

It took me some back and forthing and abit of soul searching about how much is too much to spend on a vinyl long player but ive concluded this is the best reissue of Jimi's classic debut, with some caveats.

The back and forthing came from an evening of using my two identical decks/carts into my twin input Opera all tube phono stage to settle on whether the Bernie UHQR or the Marino Legacy is my favourite recent years US mix pressing. The 2010 Marino is my most familiar pressing and benchmark. Its very open and lively and bright but JUST stops short of being too much that way. The bass goes low but the kick drums are muted and the mids abit sucked out. However ive always liked it and its my benchmark. Putting the UHQR on side by side reveals a VERY different presentation. At first i wasnt keen.... we associate high end hi-fidelity with clarity and detail but here was a sound thats alot more mid range focused, relatively very rolled off on top and maybe lacking a little air and maybe not quite as deep of bass either. Its taken me a half dozen playthroughs (which was fun!) to slowly realise its the Bernie UHQR thats more correct. Sure the cymbals dont have the brightness and "detail" of the Legacy but the bass and midrange are tonally more correct. The UHQR has balance across the spectrum. Another reason it was abit tricky is the two inputs in the Opera are fixed at 40db gain for MM and the Marino is cut louder. This also had me often leaning back to the Marino cut due to the brains loudness perception thing. But there was no doubt when the UHQR was at the same level i knew i preferred its mastering for being better balanced and not as brash.

The elephant in the room is the cost. The value for money of the Marino Legacy cut is excellent.... the thick card gatefold with booklet (there is a 2014 repress with a more humble thin card single sleeve with no booklet too) is all i need. The quality of the package is very satisfying alround and the QRP pressing is very quiet. And all this for about £25 which is as much as a too notch LP should ever cost. The UHQR was over 5x the price. The packaging of these UHQR's is bonker excessive. The box is massive, ugly and unnecessary (ala Mofi One Steps/Craft One Steps/Impex One Steps/Music Matters one steps). I only want the original gatefold jacket done well with some brief notes/booklet like the stock 2010 Legacy. Ok, so the jacket is glossy and i can store the main box and gubbins away but what a waste of materials and money. The pressing is spectacularly quiet of compound but its not 5x better than the standard Legacy QRP which is way more than acceptable as is.

The quandary is not being able to make a definitive singular recommendation. Ive basically spoiled myself buying the UHQR. Id have been happy with the Legacy if id not bought the UHQR but Bernie Grundman is my fave engineer and i had to try it. Now ive got a record that sounds abit better overall but offers me no other real advantages and that it cost me 5x what i previously paid to achieve such lowly improvement. Yet i cant go back to the brashness, Bernie's work is more satisfying. In this case im keeping the UHQR for now and selling my Legacy but its not without a bit of a sour grape feeling.

Thats first world problems for ya i guess!

Incredible sounding.. Hoping they release a UHQR of Electric Ladyland and a repress of Axis: Bold as Love would be awesome, though I don't see that happening.

Very satisfied. Dead quiet with tons of new (to me) detail.

Found this pressing to be more engaging vs. (my Dad's) og. There are few a tracks in particular that presented w/ more detail (esp higher freq.'s) than others on my stack, but the real standout is the low noise floor and holographic soundstage. Every spin there has been some new detail to glean.

Pro-Ject X1B + Sumiko Wellfleet / Musical Fidelity M5si / Schiit Mani 2 / Dali Oberon 7s

Fhe least detailed hendrix album in my opinion, but this version sounds really really good. I have an earlier EH version but this one sounds a bit better to me.

QRP does it right. They have not disappointed me yet.

I don’t own this, but I would still advise people to not get this. I would rather lure people into buying an AAA Sterling pressing, pressed at QRP from the last few years. There’s also a grundman pressing IIRC. Those sound incredible and are literally sold at Walmarts.

Came across a 1968 repress of this album, and if I'm being totally honest, that '68 pressing is at least 90% of the sound of this pressing. This is a pretty damn good pressing (and will certainly be cleaner than many of the original pressings), but the difference doesn't justify the retail price for this. $100 I think is more than worth it for this pressing. The AAA Marino cut also ain't no slouch, that one sounds really good for cheap as well.

Horrible sound call me crazy but this is one of the worst sounding albums in my collection. #6784/20,000 when the numbers get this high why bother LOL

Amazing as it should be. Very well done and lively!

11/10. It defies belief and we'll leave it at that.