More of the Music of Michael Jackson
More Reviews and Commentaries for Thriller
Don’t blame the digital step for the bad sound of this pressing. If it were all analog, you can be sure Mobile Fidelity would have screwed it up every bit as badly.
If this is the sound audiophiles are interested in, lord have mercy on their souls. They must be as lost as lost can be.
Side One:
Track One: thin and small, clear but badly lacks body and punch.
Track Two: unpleasant cymbals, no real dynamics.
Side Two:
Track One: no dynamics, bright and small.
Track Three: unpleasant and small.
Two Questions
Is this the worst version of the album ever made?
Hard to imagine it would have much competition.
Are any of these Mofi One-Step pressings any good?
I seriously doubt it. Until one comes along that doesn’t sound awful, the jury is out. Those of you looking for miracles are likely to be disappointed.
Having said that, I’m sure there are audiophiles and audiophile reviewers who like the sound of this pressing and have said so online.
Based on what we heard, how on earth are these people qualified to judge the sound of records? I guess that’s three questions.
How bad does a record have to sound before they notice? Make that four, sorry.
Bernie Was The Man
Bernie Grundman cut the original pressings of Thriller. About the nicest thing we can say about him these days is that his work at one time was excellent.
Our evidence? When you hear a killer copy of Thriller — a recording with a lot going on and one that no doubt was difficult to master — the fact that nobody else has even come close to cutting the album as well as he did all those years ago stands as proof that he will always be considered one of the greats. (If he would only stop taking Chad’s calls, the record world would be in a much better place.)
Speaking of Chad, we have now auditioned the new Aja UHQR and will be posting our review soon, so stay tuned.
Below you will find our reviews of the more than 200 Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years.
Even as recently as the early 2000s, we were still impressed with many of the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we’d never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles seem impressed by.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
This is one of those “even worse” records.
Some audiophile records sound so bad, I was pissed off enough to create a special list for them.
From our point of view, setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — is a clear mark of progress.
Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered counterparts, we know that our customers must be seeing things the same way.
Here is the breakdown for the more than 300 Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve reviewed to date:
Further Reading
- New to the Blog? Start here
- Improving your critical listening skills is a good idea too
- First get good sound – then you can recognize and acquire good records
