Aucbarpa.747 net.records utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!ihnss!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:arnold Wed Jan 27 13:05:32 1982 Re: Just what this newsgroup needs! about various audiophile pressings. I present here, for discussion and enlightenment, my views on a few: Mobile Fidelity ($13.00-$18.00 depending on where you buy) Excellent quality. "Dark Side of the Moon" was the first audiophile pressing I heard that was worth the money. Other wonderful ones: "Crime of the Century" (Supertramp), "Trick of the Tail" (Genesis), "American Beauty" (Greatful Dead). They have a wide selection, but seem to concentrate more on albumns/artists which (to me) seem to require no more than a clean pressing, not the extensive processing they do. I wish they'd keep picking up acoustically complex albums instead. CBS Master Sound ($12.00-$14.00) Better than normal, but not THAT much better. The copy of "Wish You Were Here" I picked up sounded very clean, but the response to sound peaks were not much improved over the standard issue. Not worth the exta money Imports (extremely variable) The only ones I've tried so far that were a distinct increase in quality are Japanese, but I have by no means sampled them all Masterphile (?) (normal price plus approx. $1.00) I'm not sure this is what they're really called. They, too, have a copy of several Who albums and others. These seem to be just clean pressings, but are quite worth the extra buck. My one major complaint with both MobFi and CBS Master is that when I shell that much out, I figure I can get the original packaging. For example, there's a nice poster that came with "Dark Side of the Moon", and "Wish You Were Here" had a wonderful innersleeve with some of the best Hipgnosis albumn art I've seen. Although I must confess I really didn't expect CBS to package WYWH in black shrink wrap, I would also have appreciated one of the stickers that came with the original. And I'll bet you three to one that MobFi's edition of the Beatle's White Albumn doesn't have the pictures. This may sound like a minor bitch, but (a) that stuff is nice, and (b) I'm forking over $14.00 a copy (around Berkeley) anyway; I'd be willing to pay $14.25 or $14.50 for the original stuff. This bitch aside, I highly recommend Mobile Fidelity. If they have an albumn you like, and you have (or intend to purchase someday) good stereo equipment, they are well worth it. And if you don't believe me, buy one (if you like Pink Floyd, buy DSotM) and play it once, loud (if you can). I don't think you'll regret it, and you'll probably even give up a few things to buy more. Ken ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.