Sonic Grade: B-
Another MoFi LP reviewed and this one’s pretty good!
I played this record a while back — it’s one of the Mobile Fidelity’s I remember liking from the old days — and sure enough it still sounds good. It does not have the phony boosted bottom and top that most MoFis do. Since it’s such a well recorded album, the sound is very impressive. Also the music is great. This is one of Previn’s best piano trio records. And Shelly Manne drums up a storm.
If you want a dramatically better sounding pressing of the album, we would love to find you one, but they are very hard to come by these days.
Some Relevant Commentaries
A Technological Fix for a Non-Existent Problem
How to Make All Your Records Sound Like Mobile Fidelity Pressings – For Free!
A Half-Speed that Actually Beats Most Originals
Adding 10k Was a Dumb Idea, But They Did It Anyway
Half-Speed Stamper Variations Are Real
Where Did All the Musical Information Go?
Why Is This Album So Compressed?
This Beatles’ Albums Are Consistently Spittier on Mobile Fidelity – Why Is That?
Head to Head It’s No Contest
Visit our Hall of Shame (300+ strong) to see what, in our opinion, are some of the worst sounding records ever made.
Note that most of the entries are audiophile remasterings of one kind or another.
The reason for this is simple: we’ve gone through the all-too-often unpleasant experience of comparing them head to head with our best Hot Stamper pressings.
When you can hear them that way, up against an exceptionally good record, their flaws become that much more obvious and, frankly, that much more intolerable.
FURTHER READING
Half-Speed Mastered Disasters
Half-Speed Mastered Mediocrities
Half-Speed Mastered Winners
Half-Speed Masters – The Complete List
To learn more about records that sound dramatically better than any Half-Speed ever made (with one rare exception, John Klemmer’s Touch), please consult our FAQs, found here: