Half-Speed Disasters

Linked here are more than 100 Half-Speed mastered records that have exceptionally poor sound compared to the Hot Stamper pressings we’ve auditioned, which inludes both vintage early pressings and reissues.

On this blog we detail precisely what problems Half-Speed mastering causes. These hundred or so pressings are proof of the damage it can do to perfectly good recordings.

Nautilus’s Digitally Remastered Half Speed Vinyl of Rumours Is Junk

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Fleetwood Mac Available Now

Sonic Grade: D

A hall of shame pressing and another Half-Speed mastered audiophile pressing reviewed and found wanting.

So compressed and thin. For all I know the CD might be better than this barely listenable audiophile pressing. In fact I would be very surprised if it were not.

Is the digital remastering the source of the trouble?

Who the hell knows?

And what difference would it make?

A bad record is a bad record regardless of why it might be bad.

What’s the Right Grade for the CBS Half-Speed of Willie Nelson’s Stardust?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Willie Nelson Available Now

Sonic Grade: B to F, depending on the copy

This review was written many years ago, so take it for what it’s worth.

This Hot Stamper CBS Mastersound LP has the BEST SOUND we have ever heard for the Half-Speed of this title. It KILLED the other two CBS Audiophile Stardusts we played. If you think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that any two records — domestic, import, audiophile, 180 gram, or otherwise — sound the same, then you simply need to do a shootout or two with records like these to be disabused of that notion.

One copy was awful; I’d have to say it’s one of the worst sounding audiophile pressings I’ve ever played. Somebody is going to buy it thinking it somehow guarantees them a higher quality pressing, and to that person I say, think again. That’s not the way it works.

This copy, on the other hand, sounds so good you’d think it was one of our hand-picked multi-hundred dollar Hot Stamper pressings. (One of them sold for $750, FYI.) It may not be the ultimate copy, but it sure sounded amazing to us. On the half-speed scale we give it Two Pluses. That’s the highest grade we’ve ever given ANY half-speed; from guys who can’t stand half-speeds as a rule, that’s high praise indeed. 

Silk Degrees – CBS Half-Speed Reviewed

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Boz Scaggs

Sonic Grade: D

Ran across this listing from all the way back in 2005. It takes shots at Badly Half-Speed Mastered records like this awful CBS audiophile pressing of Silk Degrees, as well as the audiophiles who complained about plain old domestic pressings at the time. I should know; I was one of them. Ouch. 

Old customers know that we have been relentlessly anti-audiophile-LP for years, since the early ’90s in fact, when those awful Acoustic Sounds jazz records first started coming out.

Hey, here’s a question for you. When was the last time that anybody mentioned a word about those Heavy Vinyl Disasters, badly mastered by Doug Sax with no presence and bloated bass? They’ve rather fallen from favor, have they not? I wonder why. Could it be because they were as ridiculously bad as I said they were, and it just took the rest of the world a little longer to recognize that fact? Perhaps most audiophiles are making progress. It’s just taking them a long long time. 

Hot Stamper Commentary from 2005!

Hot Stampers finally discovered! This is the SWEEETEST, RICHEST, MOST TONALLY CORRECT COPY I have ever heard.

This album has a long history here at Better Records. I used to complain about the CBS Half-Speeds being too bright.

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Candy-O Is Yet Another Awful Nautilus Remaster

More of the Music of The Cars

Sonic Grade: F

This Nautilus Half-Speed Mastered LP, like The Cars first album they did, is pure compressed muck. Another one of the worst half-speeds of all time. 

If you are buying these modern pressings, take the advice of some of our customers and stop throwing your money away on Heavy Vinyl Pressings and Half-Speed Mastered Records.

People have been known to ask us:

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Folk Singer – Another Muddy MoFi

More of the Music of Muddy Waters

An Audiophile Hall of Shame pressing and another MoFi LP reviewed and found wanting.

The MoFi is thick, fat and murky, with much less transparency than the Classic release (which is no award winner either).

The typical album MoFi remastered on Anadisq suffered from many or most of the long list of shortcomings you see below. If you want to avoid records with these faults, you would be well advised to avoid any of the records we’ve linked to.

Is this the worst sounding pressing of Folk Singer ever made?

That’s hard to say. But it is the worst sounding version of the album we’ve ever played, and that should be fair warning for any audiophile contemplating spending money on this kind of trash.