Pat Metheny – Bright Size Life

I did the A-B comparison of this Luminessence with my original german first pressing. Indeed the original pressing from 1976 is better: Jaco's bass goes deeper and is more present while there is more air in between the three artists, and a bit more colour in all instruments.
Of course, the 2024 vinyl is of excellent physical quality: completely flat and even less noisy than the 1976 original.

I have an original German. I didn't AB test, but this sounds great and will probably be my main player since the German unfortunately has a repetitive skip on the second track. Too beautiful an album to deal with that.

Why isn't this pressing 180 g?

About the sound, as far as I’m concerned don’t bother. Get a clean original press and you will enjoy it more.

The photo of the label shown for this release does not show Polydor in the rim text. It is Warner Brothers, and looks identical to a Wakefield pressing, which is a repress.

Listening to this on it's own merit this album is mastered well. Comparing it to an O.G. German first pressing, on my system, the O.G. is still superior. I find that Pat's guitar & Jaco's bass are more prominent on the original. However if you can't get an original, I still recommend this one. Unless you owned an original, you wont be missing anything.

Flawless. Dead silent and the dynamics are suburb, the best I've ever heard the album. Kops in Toronto had an original for close to twice the price of this reissue and I took a chance on this one and couldn't be happier. Sorry to hear about the issues, but there are good copies out there. Metheny/Jaco/Moses - Magic!

I recently purchased this pressing directly from ECM. And also found side A to be distorted (clearly audible). Side B had no issues.
I contacted ECM and they immediately send me a new copy. They opened it and tested it for the defect to ensure that the new shipped version was not affected. They asked me to send back the faulty pressing.
The new pressing is flawless and sounds wonderful.
So: Some of the pressings are affected and some not. If you got a faulty one, return it and ask for replacement. If you plan to buy it used: check before with the seller to get a confirmation that the specific vinyl is not affected.

Bad luck here.
B side sounds like heaven.
A side sounds like hell.

My copy is pretty nice. Small crackling here and there but no distortions. A keeper!

Fabulous sounding disk but be aware this is a Single Layer SACD, it will it play on a standard CD player. Sonically as good as this will sound even compared to my US and German Lp pressings and the standard CD.