UPDATE 2026
We rarely have either of the first two B,S&T albums in stock, sorry.
The second album is almost impossible to find these days. Our last shootout was in 2024 and it could be years before we get another one going.
Child Is Father to the Man on Speakers Corner is an audiophile hall of shame pressing and a Heavy Vinyl disaster if there ever was one (and oh yes, there are plenty, with reviews for more than 300 on this very blog).
When this pressing of Child Is Father to the Man came out back in 2007, we auditioned one and were dumbfounded at the dismal quality of the sound. We noted:
This is the worst sounding Heavy Vinyl Reissue LP I have heard in longer than I can remember.
To make a record sound this bad you have to work at it. What the hell were they thinking?
Any audiophile record dealer that would sell you this record should be run out of town on a rail.
Of course that would never have happened, and will never happen, because every last one of them (present company excluded) will carry it, of that you can be sure.
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, out comes a record like this to prove that no matter how negative you are about the quality of audiophile record production these days, things can always get worse, and they have.
Is it the worst version of the album ever made? Hard to imagine it would have much competition.
Actually it would, now that I come to think about it. The Gold CD Cisco put out in 2012 was every bit as awful.
There is an abundance of audiophile collector hype surrounding the hundreds of Heavy Vinyl pressings currently in print. I read a lot about how wonderful their sound is, but when I actually play them, I rarely find them to be any better than mediocre, and many of them are awful.
Music Matters made this garbage remaster. Did anyone notice how awful it sounded? I could list a hundred more that range from bad to worse — and I have! Take your pick: there are more than 150 entries in our Heavy Vinyl Disasters section, each one worse sounding than the next.
Audiophiles seem to have approached these records naively instead of skeptically.
(But wait a minute. Who am I to talk? I did the same thing when I first got into audio and record collecting in the Seventies.)
How could so many be fooled so badly? Surely some of these people have good enough equipment to allow them to hear how bad these records sound.
Maybe not this guy, or the “In Groove” guy, but there has to be at least some group of audiophiles out there, however small their number might be, with decent equipment and two working ears, right?
If you are stuck in a Heavy Vinyl rut, we can help you get out of it. We did precisely that for these folks, and we can do it for you.
The best way out of that predicament is to hear how mediocre these modern records sound compared to the vintage Hot Stampers we offer.
Once you hear the difference, your days of buying newly remastered releases may be over.
Even if our pricey curated pressings are too dear, as the English say, you can avail yourself of the methods we describe to find killer records on your own.
Further Reading