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An 80s Japanese Kind Of Blue or Blue Train is probably still the best way to go on a budget.
I picked this up recently and it sounds fantastic, my only Acoustic sounds series. I would be tempted to pick up their pressing of love supreme as I think it will be better than my 70's repress.
https://www.discogs.com/release/19292413-Oliver-Nelson-The-Blues-And-The-Abstract-Truth I'm still hopeful of picking up a HMV one.
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I have 2 of the acoustic sounds abstract truth, one very slightly better than the other!
Love Supreme from that series is very good, I had been waiting for a few years to get a version like it. If they sell out it will be hard to find an alternative. I got lucky and got a good pressing too. Really good version of that album although personally I prefer Giant Steps and Rhino did a mono version that's still in circulation :-
https://www.discogs.com/release/10456756-John-Coltrane-Giant-Steps
Your experience concurs with mine almost entirely except I've had one or 2 duds from Analog Productions and only 1 disk from speakers corner with even the smallest fault.
Analog Productions have stood by the product and sent replacements though.
I think this type of pressing is worth it to some people most of the time. Considering how unlikely it is to find mint original of most of these reissues. Even VG+ is a stretch and potentially thousands for some of the first US pressings.
If you're buying in Europe and don't want to mess with the second hand market Speakers Corner is a brilliant label. You're not going to get Kind Of Blue or Blue Train on that label though.