[gmku]

I'm sorry, this gets a bit dweeby audiophile-ish, but I have to share. I bought an original pressing of Horses by Patti Smith the other day. I was excited enough to find a clean copy with a hardly-worn cover showing the original white type for Horses and all that. Then I get home and play it, and I was floored. It's a VG-plus copy, meaning that once in a while you hear a click or two, 2-3 per side, and there's just a bit of surface sound between tracks. Generally very, very clean, and hardly looks played.

But it's not just the clean vinyl. That's common enough. The real treat is the sound of the pressing itself.

I have several copies of Horses, including another original that I bought in 1975, a CD I picked up in 1989, an early 80s reissue (the reissues have Horses in black type), and I've never before heard all the music have such presence. In a number of tracks, I can hear the room ambience, not just sort of the echo in the studio but the "impression" of the space around Smith and the band. Almost like you can hear the air around the drum sticks flying. It's hard to explain. I've heard of "hot stamper" pressings before, and I'm not sure I own a lot more, maybe a white album copy. It's when for whatever reason the stamping of the vinyl is so clean and exact that the resuliting pressing bears an almost master tape quality, like one generation from being in the room with the band.

For another comparison, if you've ever had swimmer's ear and had a doctor irrigate your ears and notice how bright and resonant sounds are afterwards, it's a little like that--the difference between a run-of-the-mill pressing and a "hot stamper." Like a layer has been removed.

I know it sounds crazy. I've been a fan of this album for years and I've never heard it sound like this before. And this isn't even 180 gram vinyl or anything, just a regular first pressing from 1975.

What strikes me as just as crazy is that at my age my hearing can still detect this kind of stuff!

Good for you.

[gmku]

Yeah, somehow I knew I could count on you to share my enthusiasm. Go back to your drink.

What drink? I'm at work, Mr Boring.

[gmku]

Okay, Mr. Churlish.

I'm sure others will appreciate what I'm talking about.

Still no reply to this thread. They are all fighting for space.

[gmku]

I'm not saying you're wrong, of course, Porky. I know I'm boring. I just don't get why you want to stomp all over a guy for being boring.

Maybe you'd like to pay attention to threads that have a little more flair?

Oh, you're making me feel sorry, now. Would you like a strawberry lolly?

[HaydenAsche]

Originally Posted by gmku

For another comparison, if you've ever had swimmer's ear and had a doctor irrigate your ears and notice how bright and resonant sounds are afterwards, it's a little like that--the difference between a run-of-the-mill pressing and a "hot stamper." Like a layer has been removed.

Everything sounds so sweet after having your ears irrigated. I wonder if using the ear drop medication if you don't have swimmer's ear would make your ears cleaner.

[atari 2600]

Maybe you have some "magic" pressing there; I suppose it's possible. I'd like to read anything that might be able to shed more light on this.

In my experience, sometimes a record will go through a great phase for awhile after the grooves have been worn down "just right." To be on the safe side, I would record the lp to digital .wav or a good tape deck right now while it's sounding so fine.

Anyway, the title of the thread puts me in the mind of one particular album:
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session.

[Glice]

Ears can be trained. It's well-documented. They 'deteriorate', but they can also be sharpened. I suspect it's the first time you've noticed, but it's probably been happening for years. It's not a great massive deal, but well done. It's for this reason that headphones are not necessarily a good thing.

[terminal pharmacy]

gmku - yeah this is on literally millions of recordings and i love the feeling that it gives, almost a sense of you being more present in the room that the music was being played. gastr del sol's serpentine similar has it, most dirty three albums have it. the downward spiral even has it. it depends on the recording enviroment. some studios kill everything in the room so they just get the cleanest sound possible from every instrument, others have nice reverberant room which add to the texture. i always love hearing these types of recordings.

[ZEROpumpkins]

You can also by Aphex Twin's drukqs in an audiophile LP version. It's very heavy though.

[gmku]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

Maybe you have some "magic" pressing there; I suppose it's possible. I'd like to read anything that might be able to shed more light on this.

In my experience, sometimes a record will go through a great phase for awhile after the grooves have been worn down "just right." To be on the safe side, I would record the lp to digital .wav or a good tape deck right now while it's sounding so fine.

Anyway, the title of the thread puts me in the mind of one particular album:
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session.

http://www.dccblowout.com/showpages.asp?pid=1037

This place has the right idea about all this and the information, but they're all wrong about how they price this stuff!

It really is true that some pressings sound better than others. Almost any original (first) pressing of anything is going to sound much better than its reprints. There are exceptions. I'd venture to say that many of the audiophile reprints today on 180 gram come close to the sound of first copies of the original release.

I know I have a couple copies of Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. The pressings of those albums sound different from one another. It's a subtle thing, but it's there. My UK copies (from the 70s) have better bass and detail than the US copies.

I have no less than five copies of the White Album and they all sound drastically different in their pressing sound. I have one that I think is, according to the old school term, a "gasser," meaning it has exceptional range, as close to a master tape quality as vinyl can get.