DSOTM - Japanese 80's pressing, and Ticket To Ride ...

Hi Folks,

I've been on a quest to find a Dark Side Of The Moon CD that I'm really happy with. I think I've finally got one - it's the 80's issue black Harvest disc, made in Japan.

I've had a UK Harvest disc for years, but kept hearing snippets of it sounding better elsewhere, as this disc sounded a little compressed and mashed up. I then got the SACD; I only have access to the Red Book layer; it's not quite the improvement I was hoping for. Hearing snippets of the original mix on the "Classic Albums" documentary was the last straw - it sounded great! I read the threads here about the Toshiba/EMI with the cat. number "CP35-3017", and discovered that the Japanese Harvest discs also have this number printed into the inner ring. I thought it had to be a different mastering, so would be worth getting. I found one on Ebay.

It arrived today - at first, I couldn't believe how quiet this disc is. Much quieter than my UK disc. The emphasis indicator also came up on my DAT machine (DA 30 mkII); Whoops ... no quick and easy audio extraction for this disc (at least not without added treble) ...

I soon got into the sound; and I think this is the one, it sounds great. It's much smoother than any version I own. The disc has more of a 3D soundstage; it's particularly noticable with vocals and guitar solos. The layers are more distinct - everything has more of it's own space on this disc, and the gritty guitar solos sound more relaxed. I couldn't fully appreciate why the engineering was considered to be ahead of it's time - now I can.

Can Ticket To Ride be heard on this disc? No. It's not there. At the moment it usually appears, a change in the sound can be heard, and suddenly it's mono. It sounds as though they simply took the left hand channel by itself, and folded it in to get rid of it. The reverb effect on Gerry's voice is stereo on the other two I have - here, it ain't.

 

That's interesting. You can hear some dialogue at the end, but I didn't realize it becomes mono. Do you think this was deliberate, since TTR is dominant in the right channel normally?

 

It's the only reason why anyone would bother, so I'd say it was deliberate.

 

Does the low buzz that kicks in with the voice remain, since it's mainly in the left channel?

 

Yes, it's remains. I can also hear what sounds like a tape splice running past the head, just before it collapses to mono - I can't be certain though; it could just as easily be a switch being pressed on a console.

I've also noticed that the right hand channel seems to be a tiny bit down throughout the disc - no biggy, you have to listen long and hard before you notice it. Curiously enough though, this applies to the "mono" section aswell...