Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

We recently found ourselves with an unexpected opportunity — we were given the chance to hear the mono pressing of Saucerful of Secrets, the one that Bernie Grundman mastered for Record Store Day back in 2019.

We had ordered a vintage stereo pressing from a dealer, and instead of sending us what we ordered, we got the RSD mono instead.

Knowing the record well, we figured why not give it a listen. Maybe the mono mix is the way to go! Who can say until they’ve heard it.

Well, we’ve now heard it, and if there is a worse sounding version of the album, whether in stereo or in mono, we would find even the possibility of such a thing very hard to believe. You’re going to have to prove it to us, because this record is as bad as it gets.

I can’t say we hate a lot of records — most of the time we’re just disgusted and disappointed with all the crap Heavy Vinyl being produced these days — but we sure hated this one.

If you had played it, I can only hope you would have hated it too.

Side One

Track Four

• Very flat and veiled and clean
• This mix sucks compared to stereo

Track One

• Steely top on vocals
• A bit flat and hissy

Overall grade: NFG

Side Two

Track Three

• Vocals so bright and hissy
• Hi-hat too
• Very weird bass
• Wonky and hollow
• Pretty awful
• I hate this

Conclusion: Nope

Comments

We were surprised to find anyone on Discogs who wouldn’t be willing to rave about the sound of the record. This has been our experience in the past. No matter how bad the sound, the reviewers will almost always be unrestrained in their love for the pressing in question and heartily recommend it to those who want to hear the music finally have the best sound it has ever had.

Except the guy you see below. He actually had some criticisms! Can you imagine our delight?

Note that although he seems to be a fan at the start, the more he writes, the less he seems to like the sound.

Everybody else on Discogs loved it from beginning to end.

Dumbfounded

We have been dumbfounded by Bernie Grundman’s work for more than twenty five years.

The notes you see above are the result of the emotions we experienced while sitting through sound that had been completely screwed up.

Keep in mind we brought this on ourselves.

We volunteered for this duty. We don’t get paid to review Heavy Vinyl pressings. We do it as a public service.

Ruined

And it was ruined not by some audiophile wannabe engineer making audiophile records. A guy like this has an excuse. He clearly doesn’t know anything about making good sounding records.

Along those same lines, this guy doesn’t know how to master records either, but of course he never claimed he did.

His problem is that he doesn’t even know how to hire those who can masteri them well, and when they are done making crappy sounding records for him, he honestly has no idea how bad they sound.

No, this Record Store Day title was made by someone who should know better than to turn in such shoddy work.

It’s inarguable that Bernie Grundman used to make good sounding records.

We know that for a fact because we’ve played them by the hundreds. Apparently he’s lost whatever skills he previously possessed, no matter how many audiophiles choose to deny it.