Reissue Review: Fan Claims New 45RPM Remaster is 'Vastly More Expansive' Despite Using Identical Source Tape.

The note taped to the receipt at the Wax Table trade-in counter read: 'Bought the 45RPM remaster of Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow for $58. Same tape as the 1975 press but the soundstage now occupies my living room.'

I recorded the invoice before I accepted the purchase story. The invoice listed catalog AS-45-002, pressed at Cincinnatus Recordings. The runout matrix AS-45-002-A1 matched the 1975 AS-33-002-A1 except for the speed notation. Mastering credit went to the same engineer, L. Hovnanian, who cut the original lacquer. The label's insert claimed 'vastly more expansive presentation' without naming a source beyond the tape.

The clerk at Wax Table counted three returned 33⅓ originals this week. 'They each heard a bigger room on the 45,' he said, sliding a sleeve across the counter. 'None could show me the room on the tape. The tape stays in the vault.' He accepted the returns under the store's 30-day listening satisfaction policy.

Rhea Marrow, who predicted exactly how reissues would go wrong, stood by the classical bin. 'A new invoice does not retune the tape, only the buyer,' she said. 'The runout groove knows what the ear forgets.' Marrow has reminded the store of this since the first 180-gram press landed in 2014.

Dorian Loomis was asked to mediate between the reissue skeptic who trusted the matrix and the commuter streaming the album on earbuds during the bus ride. Loomis suggested they both play the 45 at home. The skeptic called the test rigged; the commuter called the skeptic rigid. Both blamed Loomis for the outcome.

Silas Vale's monthly vinyl records update now lists the 45 as 'definitive for those who own the 33.' Vale's ledger quietly became the group's memory of the event. The update did not mention the tape.

The customer's playback setup listed a NAD C 3030 and a Rega Planar 3 on the invoice footnote. The records lean in a half-filled Kallax cube, which the customer fears causes ring wear but accepts for the view. He reported the lean added 'character to the low mids.'

Hugo's Purchase Order logs the $58 and the later $61 as separate line items under 'imagined breadth.' The customer returned two weeks later to buy a second 45, explaining that the first copy must stay sealed to preserve its expansiveness. The sealed copy, unplayed, now renders the widest room in the apartment. The played copy sounds like the 1975 press, which is to say, correct.