I have the Quad lp and I prefer the mix of Keep the Customer Satisfied. On every version of the stereo I've heard, in every format, the horns at the end sound very harsh and overdriven (blaring to my ears). In the Quad, the tonality is smoothed out without losing the dynamics.
I finally picked this up the other day. That night I listened to it, followed by the Columbia half-speed mastered LP and an early-ish pressing with '360 Stereo' labels. The Sundazed pressing unfortunately had some very loud pops on side 1. I looked at it afterwards and can see two small gouges in the vinyl. One is in the middle of the title song and the others are in El Condor Pasa. Other than that the vinyl is nearly noise-free. Both sides are centered well. The shrinkwrap was very tight, which may have contributed (?) to a slight warp. Labels look great, and like the other S&G titles include the word Sundazed and their catalog number. I noticed differences in the sound of three songs. "Keeping the Customer Satisfied" and "Why Don't You Write Me" are smoother sounding than I'm used to. The brass on "Keeping..." sounds natural and not like it's on the verge of distortion. However the very first guitar note on "Why Don't You Write Me" is softened a bit, doesn't have the same bite as on other releases. The other thing I noticed is on "Song For the Asking", Paul Simon's voice sounds more distant to me. I'd rate this a close second to the Columbia Half-Speed mastered LP. On my system in my room...YMMV.
I agree. Nothing can touch this one. Have you heard the Classic 45 set? Smooth as can be on those horns.
I have the half-speed Mastersound lp, as well as a quad lp and the Mastersound Gold CD. And yet, I'd like to have a NEW pressing. I doubt that I can justify (or easily find) the Classic 45 version, which I'm sure is fantastic. Sooo... today I saw the Classic 200 gm (33 1/3 RPM) for $28.00, and the new Sundazed version for $17.00, in the same bin. I didn't buy either, but I wonder which of those 2 would be the better choice?? The extra $11.00 for the Classic isn't a dealbreaker. Opinions??
I've owned the Mastersound long box for many years and really enjoy the sound quality, it's not bright at all on any of my 2-channel systems.
All of this talk has me wanting to hear the Mastersound cd. The current in print cd sounds fine to my ears but I need to investigate this praise for the mastersound cd
I picked up a NM copy of this today (UK pressing - Orange & red CBS), It sounds lovely (very very quiet vinyl too!) & the best part of it is that I paid £1 for it!...Result!
Rare to find a quiet one on the title track. £1 is about the right price though. I've never been that keen on the UK pressings I've heard (there's loads of them though!) And this is one of those albums that I'm quite happy to choose the CD (Anesini master) over the vinyl. If I had a better condition copy of the Quad I might go to that one more often though...
It's definitely the best digital version that I have ever heard, hands down. For vinyl, I feel that Classic really nailed it with the 45RPM version. This is the best sounding BOTW that I have ever heard.
I've posted four samples in a large WAV file here. Quicktime required. Samples are: Mastersound Half-speed LP MFSL Half-speed LP Collected Works CD First US CD
wow, thanks for doing that...i do prefer the first vinyl sample on first listen... have you heard the Classic Vinyl album 45rpm 200 gram version?
No, I don't have that one. If you (or anybody) wants to send me a brief clip (of any issue), I can add that to the page for comparison. What surprised me about the samples was how thin the two CDs sounded. I had never a/b'd them before.
I've added the two samples you sent to the samples page. Based on these clips, I'm going with a tie between the Classic 45 LP and the MFSL. That mono single is a little on the bright side (just a little), but otherwise sounds very, very good to my ears.
thanks for these sample pages you do. they are invaluable and I hope people are checking them out. It's great to hear so many masterings in one place IMHO.
I'm revising my thoughts on this. After listening to the samples page a few more times, I'm choosing the Classic 45 LP version, which I think was basically in a tie to my ears with the MFSL, except for that bass harmonica, which sounds clearer (brighter, in a good way?) on the Classic compared to the MFSL. As a whole (not just this one brief clip), I still like the MFSL a lot. Matt
nothing quite like the Classic 45 LP is there. thanks again for making so many mastering samples handy for people to listen to.
Nice job! For those wanting to hear the same audio only this time from the copy of the 4 Channel Reel, I've posted it HERE It's totally as recorded from the reel, no EQ, NR, etc etc. It's a 24/96 HiRez 4 Channel wav file. You can break it apart in your audio editors and resample if you like.
Based on the opinions here I just bought on ebay the 45rpm 4lp presing simon garfunkel bridge nm for a reasonable price. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will blow me away (should not be hard given the cd version are just meh)
How does the Dutch "Music On Vinyl"-pressing compare to the other vinyl versions? I tried to get info on the source, but I guess it's the digital master of the "Legacy"-version.
