I’ve been wanting to review some of The Lost Recordings releases for a while now. During a party at Ana Mighty Sound, François Saint-Gérand had invited Frédéric d’Oria-Nicolas, the director of The Lost Recordings, to explain how his albums are produced and restored.
It was also an opportunity to listen to a press copy of the Dave Bruquet Quartet’s album Live At Kurhaus 1967, which I invite you to discover in this review.
Frédéric d’Oria-Nicolas explained that the first step in the process is to track down original tapes by searching through various tape storage and archival centers around the world to unearth nearly forgotten recordings. Once the tapes are discovered, an initial sorting process is conducted to ensure that the complete set of tapes from a concert is available and meets a minimum quality standard.
From this point on, the tapes from a recording are digitized, with careful attention paid to optimizing playback to extract as much information as possible from the tape. Based on this digital version, the restoration process begins, this can take varying amounts of time depending on the quality of the tape and the recording itself. In fact, it’s common for these live concert recordings to have the sound level manually adjusted during recording to prevent the tape from clipping. The process involves readjusting the level throughout the entire recording to restore the full original dynamic range.
Once the restoration work is complete, which can take more than three months for some albums, the master is used to cut the vinyl record.

So today I’m going to introduce you to the Sapphire Edition of the album, comparing it to the high-resolution digital version available for download and the CD-quality version available for download, which comes with a coupon included with the vinyl record.

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Stereo Digital – 2026
• Ed 2: Stereo Hi-Res – 2026
• Ed 3: Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The synthesis of the review are available here

The album is composed of 9 tracks:

1. Three to Get Ready
2. La Paloma Azul
3. Cielito Lindo
4. Swanee River
5. Forty Days
6. Blues for Joe
7. Rude Old Man
8. Take Five
9. Someday My Prince Will Come

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Stereo Digital – 2026

Presentation

This is the version available for download using a code included with the vinyl box set.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR15

The waveform of the Stereo Digital – 2026 shows a very high dynamic range confirmed with DR15.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises to 22 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Stereo Digital – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Stereo Hi-Res – 2026 (blue curve).The curves of the two spectra overlap perfectly. With a cutoff at 22 kHz (white arrow), this corresponds to CD quality, which has a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. whereas the Hi-Res version, with a sampling rate of 176.4 kHz, shows that the signal peaks at 48 kHz, indicating that a source with a sampling rate of 96 kHz was used as the result of the restoration.

Synthesis and listening

The sound quality is similar to that of the high-resolution version, with the same dynamic range. The level of detail compared to the high-resolution version may vary depending on the processing applied by the DAC based on how it handles sampling frequencies.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●● (5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Ed 2: Stereo Hi-Res – 2026

Presentation

The high-resolution version is available for purchase as a download in 24-bit, 176.4kHz quality.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR15

The waveform of the Stereo Hi-Res – 2026 shows a very high range confirmed with DR15.

The spectrogram shows that the maximum frequency used is 48 kHz, despite the sampling rate of 176.4 kHz. This means that the final restoration process produced a file with a sampling rate of 96 kHz. The digital version could have been a 96 kHz file, which would have avoided the need for resampling.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Stereo Hi-Res – 2026 (blue curve). The near-perfect alignment of the spectral curves for these two editions demonstrates the skill and quality of Kevin Gray’s lacquer cutting, Kevin Gray is now considered one of the masters of vinyl record cutting. Note that the vinyl edition exhibits a slight attenuation above 10 kHz (yellow zone), approximately 2 dB, compared to the digital version.

Synthesis and listening

This digital version is the closest to the master recording resulting from the restoration of this album. It is the artistic and historical value of the performances that drives Frédéric d’Oria-Nicolas to restore a concert and turn it into an album, as is the case with this release, Live at the Kurhaus 1967, which features a magnificent rendition of Take Five.
This is certainly the most technically faithful listening experience resulting from the restoration of this 1967 recording. However, the transfer to vinyl provides a more enjoyable, more natural listening experience, as detailed in the Sapphire edition.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●● (5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Ed 3: Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026

Presentation

The Sapphire Edition vinyl release is available in a deluxe box set with a high-end finish, it even includes a magnetic closure; nothing has been left to chance. We d love to see this level of high-quality packaging in other competing high-end releases.
The album is pressed on two 200g transparent LPs, using a material that underwent extensive testing by Fr d ric d Oria-Nicolas to select the one that minimizes surface noise as quickly as possible.
For this album, the 33 rpm lacquer cuts were produced by Kevin Gray.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR16

The waveform of the Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026 shows a very high range confirmed with DR16.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz with signal above this frequency containing musical information and distortion due to the vinyl record s operating principle.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Stereo Hi-Res – 2026 (blue curve).The near-perfect alignment of the spectral curves for these two editions demonstrates the skill and quality of Kevin Gray s lacquer cutting, Kevin Gray is now considered one of the masters of vinyl record cutting. Thank you for this beautiful work.

Synthesis and listening

The goal of The Lost Recordings is to introduce us to old recordings under the best possible conditions. It is the artistic and historical value of the performances that leads Frédéric d’Oria-Nicolas to restore a concert and turn it into an album, as is the case with this album, Live at the Kurhaus 1967, which features a beautiful rendition of Take Five.
The technical quality of this Sapphire Edition vinyl record is among the very best available, deserving a 5/5 for its production quality. This allows listeners to fully appreciate the restoration work done on this album. When listening, the vinyl version offers a more natural sound than the digital edition; this is certainly due to the smoother high frequencies (see the spectrum comparison) and also to the vinyl record itself, which, with its unique characteristics in terms of sound reproduction and distortion, creates a listening experience that enhances the restoration of this 1967 live recording, originally recorded in mono.
Above all, these restorations highlight the quality of the performances and the historical significance of these recordings.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●● (5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Frédéric d’Oria-Nicolas of The Lost Recording presents us with beautifully restored recordings that he unearths from all corners of the world, such as this album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet Live At Kurhaus 1967, which he presents after extensive restoration work and exceptional production quality, such as the Sapphire Edition on vinyl, cut from a master by Kevin Gray, which offers the best listening experience for discovering this album. But the album’s true value lies above all in its historical significance and the superb version of Take Five.

Dynamic Range measurements are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 3 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Stereo Digital – 2026	Stereo Hi-Res – 2026	Vinyle Sapphire Edition – 2026
Global	DR15	DR15	DR16
Min	DR14	DR14	DR13
Max	DR17	DR18	DR17
Three to Get Ready	DR15	DR15	DR15
La Paloma Azul	DR14	DR14	DR13
Cielito Lindo	DR15	DR15	DR14
Swanee River	DR16	DR16	DR16
Forty Days	DR15	DR15	DR16
Blues for Joe	DR17	DR18	DR17
Rude Old Man	DR16	DR16	DR17
Take Five	DR14	DR15	DR15
Someday My Prince Will Come	DR16	DR16	DR16

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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