Sonic Grade: D to B-

If you own the typical MoFi version of this album you happen to own one of the All Time Mastering Disasters of the modern era. Ridiculously boosted at both ends, their version is all but unlistenable on a high end stereo. 

Some copies are worse than others, so we are conservatively giving MoFi’s pressing a sonic grade of D. We’ve played some in the past that clearly deserved an F (F as in Failing), but we also once played one that sounded pretty good, which we describe below. If you’ve played half a dozen MoFi copies and plucked out the best one, yours might be good too. If you haven’t heard a bunch, chances are slim that yours is any better than awful.

There’s only one way to tell of course, and that’s to pull it off the shelf and give it a spin. You may be shocked at just how hyped-up it has gotten since the last time you heard it.

If you play your records back on an old console, with maybe a blown woofer or two, okay, I can see how the sound of the MoFi might work. But I’m guessing most of you have something better than that, and since you do, one of our Hot Stamper pressings will absolutely positively blow your mind, showing you the real Year of the Cat. We guarantee it.

The Outlier MoFi LP

This Minty looking Mobile Fidelity LP has EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD SOUND for this pressing. The average MoFi is ridiculously boosted on both ends. This copy has relatively well controlled bass which is a rarity for any Mobile Fidelity record.

Side one is slightly bass heavy but on side two the bass is very close to being Right On The Money (ROTM). When we heard how good this copy sounded we cleaned it with the Walker Enzyme Cleaning Fluids and it got even better, which of course is to be expected. It ended up sounding surprisingly good!