More of the Music of The Byrds
Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of The Byrds
Congested and compressed, with no real top, who in his right mind could put up with that kind of sound on a modern audiophile system?
Can the apologists for mono really be taking this ridiculously crappy sound seriously?
I hope not, but I suspect they do.
They seem to like the congested, distorted, top-end-lacking Beatles records in mono, so why not The Byrds? To these ears, the monos for both bands have a lot in common.
And what they have in common is sound we want nothing to do with.
Now, to be fair, we’ve stopped buying these monos, so there may actually be a good copy or two out there in used record land that we haven’t heard and that does have good sound.
In our defense, who really has the time to play records with so little potential for good sound?
What about the Sundazed mono pressings?
The best Columbia stereo copies on the original label are rich, sweet and Tubey Magical — three areas in which the Sundazed reissues are seriously lacking.
Does anyone still care? We simply cannot be bothered with these bad Heavy Vinyl pressings. If you’re looking for mediocre sound just play the CD. I’m sure it’s every bit as bad.
Further Reading
Mono, Stereo, Reprocessed Stereo, We’ve Played Them All!