The HR version on Qobuz is superb…it sounds like I hoped the LP would sound!
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I’m not sure you could neccesarily blame the 1/2 speed vinyl mastering if it sounds similar to the CD, that would suggest to me that the source/recording possibly used for both may not have been so good.
Interesting that Qobuz sounds better but often with streaming you cant be sure what source/mastering your listening to.
Hi Dread,
I hear what you are saying, but…I would start by stating that I don’t have any particular issue with the AR half speed mastering process and all the others I have in the series are actually pretty good; which is why I was expecting more of the same from the Tori Amos. The LP actually has a sticker on it saying ‘newly remastered on half speed double vinyl’. This is why I am so disappointed that to all intents and purposes, it sounds pretty much the same as the original (compressed) CD release, despite being a remaster.
As the remastered Hi-Res digital version, released at the same time, sounds superb, it’s difficult to understand how the LP could sound so poor in comparison. I am of course, making an assumption (that may not be correct) that the same remastered master (as it were) has been used to produce both the digital and LP cuts.
Cheers,
Ian
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I have just taken delivery of The Who’s ‘Who’s Next’ in an Abbey Road Half Speed Mastering LP edition. I shall go and have a listen.
(I have nothing to compare it to, as my old LP seems to have disappeared.)
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Hi Ian,
Firstly I’m not trying to be an apologist or champion of the AR 1/2 speed process.
I just think its difficult to pinpoint with any certaintly that its the vinyl mastering per se thats the issue. Obviously the CD isn’t mastered the same way as the vinyl but as you hear similarities in the sound .ie dull & lifeless, this suggests to me that they are both mastered from the same (poor?) source. “Remastered” can mean almost anything or nothing and wouldnt personally give that much credence.
Just because Qobuz sounds better that doesnt translate to the same title sounding as good, better or worse on a different format as its usually difficult to tell what source, mastering etc was used for that stream. In fact you can often find multiple copies on a streaming site of an otherwise same title that sound very different due to them being differently sourced and as I said before theres often little way of identifying which you are actually listening to.
I haven’t heard the title and different versions you refer to, but from what you have said my bet is the CD and AR 1/2 speed quite possibly originate from the same source hence the SQ similarity whereas the Qobuz is a different sourcing & mastering.
The potential issue I muse with AR 1/2 speeds currently, as I mentioned in an earlier post is my understanding that originally Miles Showell would prepare his own files for 1/2 Speed cutting using master tapes, but it now seems to appear that he is now maybe also happy to cut from files/third party masterings which is where the SQ inconsistencies are showing up.
Of course, just to labour an obvious more generalised point. All recordings vary a great deal in SQ so its to be expected imo that AR 1/2 speeds just like any other “normal” records will vary. 1/2 Speed, AAA cuts or what have you still cant make a silk purse from a sows ear as they say. So no particular mastering process in isolation is a guarantee of anything and if someone comes along and says to Miles Showell, here I’ve prepared this file/tape of (insert title of your choice) will you cut it 1/2 speed for me? Well within reason I think Miles would say yes, I guess he still needs to bring home the bacon at the end of the day.
Just my personal thoughts and reasonings of course.
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Incidentally I am as I write playing the AR 1/2 of Tommy.
On its own merit, I dont have other vinyl to compare (only CD or Stream on playback gear thats not in the same league as my TT) I dont really hear anything to grumble about other than very occasionally a (difficult to describe) kind of processed character to the sound.
That said, and not intending to offend anyone, although I own pretty decent gear I dont really listen through an analytical audiophile lense, I just put the record on and play
I find many of the Abbey Road half-speed cut LPs rather difficult to listen to. There’s a weirdness that I can best describe as some sort of phase anomaly that I hear that makes listening to them uncomfortable. Oddly enough this wasn’t always the case. The Genesis LPs are fine, as are many other of the earlier MS just at AR, but at some point something changed. Most peculiar.
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I wonder if that is what I referred to in my comment as a, difficult to describe and I’m trying to think how to, kind of processed character to the sound, I only hear it very occasionally but it doesnt trouble me although I do hear something.
In regard to something changing, I wonder again as I opined in the earlier comment if it has something to do with Miles perhaps working from tapes/files prepared by a third party prior to cutting.
I don’t know what it is, but I find it’s really odd where I know a certain recording has a really well defined central image but with the AR half-speed cut it’s like one channel is out of phase at certain frequencies and the image is really odd. I know I’m very sensitive to phase but I can’t be the only one who hears it, can I?
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I think I get what you mean, I’m hearing it on I’m A Sensation, for a brief moment I thought Lee Scratch Perry had got his hands on the mix, I heard what sounded like the phasing that LSP used on his dub work at the Black Ark. I’m going to see if I hear it on the CD or stream as I’m not sure if its meant to sound that way, it doesnt trouble me and I’m not sure if its intended to give a psychedelic/mystical edge as befits the story.
Ps any particular titles where you hear it?
At work awaiting the smuggling-in-home operation when I leave work - nice and dark then.
All self explanatory - apologies @TheKevster for the outright fib the other night, when you asked me whether I’d bought The Doors on vinyl and CD…Laura isn’t supposed to know about the LP box! 
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply, and I don’t disagree. The whole provenance issue is the reason a good friend of mine doesnt stream; he’s stayed with CD because he can track down the best sounding versions, from the best sources. As you say, knowing the source on any streaming platform, and indeed, many LP pressings, is not straightforward.
It’s just disappointing when a record you have looked forward to is released with such poor fidelity.
A missed opportunity, I guess.
Cheers,
Ian
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Thanks @TheKevster…about the only records I’m OK to bring in the house with her knowledge are Ese’s, lol.
Even then I get “and which LPs are you getting rid of?”
🫨
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Alfa Mist & Yussef Dayes ft Mansour Brown & Rocco Palladino - Love Is The Message Live at Abbey Road, TheVinyl Factory Reissue (2013)
A beautifully presented reissue of this single sided 12” from 2018. Four of the UK’s most talented young musicians brought together back in 2018 and producing an exceptional piece of music.
All four have made names for themselves in the past five years and all for are still making excellent music.
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Funny you should say that as I’m increasingly returning to my CD collection as a secondary source after LP. I do streaming, like many others, as a means of checking out new stuff prior to buying, but also very much to hear the potential for better sound from Hi Res audio which ime to date is very hit and miss, sometimes sounding less good than the standard 16/44 (or less) resolution streams. Another illustration that theres far more to better sound than just the file resolution or mastering/cutting standard in the case of vinyl as we discussed
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Vooduu Party Night!!!
Chet Baker Quintet - Chet Baker Cools Out, Boblicity (1986)
I bought this Test Pressing for £13 as a collectors item and to see what it would sound like I have the excellent Boblicity release and a Pure Pleasure copy of the Chet Baker & Crew release these tracks where originally released on.
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I can just read the German on the label - “not to be sold”!