morren-letter

We Would Never Choose a Different Sound for Tom Petty than the One He Chose for Himself

Advice on Developing Your Critical Listening Skills

One of our good customers wrote to us about the trouble he has been having getting Bella Donna to sound less “cold, steely, sharp, harsh and edgy.”

I believe this comment was originally left on Robert Brook’s blog. I thought it merited a serious response, mostly a defense of why it’s important that some records must sound the way they do whether we like that sound or not.

Peter’s post:

I am sure I do not judge records like you do. I regard listening as relaxation – while your opinion leaders Tom Port and also Robert Brooks never stop to emphasize that the “real men” never lean back and always keep searching for the next 1 percent in sound quality. That’s too fatiguing for me, I am just too lazy.

Peter, a few thoughts:

I should right off the bat that we have never looked for, nor found, a 1% improvement. We’ve found 10%, 20%, 30%, and we’ve found it many, many times over. The difference between the way our system sounds now and the way it did even five or ten years ago is huge.

Look at Robert Brook and how far he has come in five years. He would say his system now is two or three times better. 200% or 300% better. That’s what it feels like when you make the big breakthroughs. Sometimes you can go years without a breakthrough, but then you make one and find out just how much farther you could go.

I do have a special allergy for sharp, edgy, metallic, electronically distorted, or grainy sound. This means that – when e.g., the vocals sound natural and breathy and the music sounds fresh, energetic and lively I am already very happy – and prepared to sacrifice other ” goodies” like ultimate detail, space and air or the very low notes. All ’n all, I am very happy with most of my BR purchases.

There are a few BR purchases that I cannot get to sound “right.”  The most striking example is Stevie Nicks “Bella Donna.”

I have tried many things. I have changed the turntable, tonearm, cartridge, phono pre-amp, cabling and VTA. Whatever I try, her voice and the lead guitar continue to sound cold, steely/sharp, harsh and edgy. Stevie’s voice on this record is SO different from her voice on “Rumours” that she seems to be another person (my copy of “Rumours” is not a BR pressing but a very nice sounding first “Los Angeles” pressing).

Bella Donna is the key to the problem in my view. What you have in Bella Donna is the kind of recorded sound that, when played back on your system, you find not to your taste. You want the sound of Rumours, but Bella Donna will never have that sound.

Shelly Yakus and Jimmy Iovine make edgy, lively records. Stevie Nicks wanted that sound for her first solo album and that is what she got. The album went to Number One on the Billboard chart and has been certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. Audiophiles were not the intended audience. People liked the sound of the hits they heard on the radio, so they went out and bought her record. They were no doubt very pleased with their purchase.

The lively, edgy sound is also the one Tom Petty wanted for his records, which was an equally wise move on his part because the records he made with their help sold in the millions too. Here is an excellent example of what I am talking about. I have no problem admitting that I couldn’t play his records right until about 2014 or so, this after being in audio for forty years.

Tom Petty likes clear and lively, not rich and smooth. Our best copies get that sound right. We would never choose a different sound for Tom Petty than the one he chose for himself.

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“I did not know this was a well known example of a below-standard re-issue…”

More of the Music of Paul Simon

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Paul Simon (and Art Garfunkel)

A new customer writes:

Tom,

I read about your experience with the reissue of Paul Simon’s Graceland.

I did not know this was a well known example of  a below-standard reissue, but your experience reflects my own  a few years ago,  over here in the Netherlands. Being very disappointed about the sound quality, I have returned my copy to the shop and asked my money back.  As I told you, I have done this more often, but always because of excessive surface noise – that does not belong on a new record at a price of €30+ .  This was the first and only time I have done this because of sound quality – apparently it was that obvious.

Peter

Peter,

This is NOT a well known example of a below standard reissue. We are the only critics of this record that I know of. The audiophile reviewers loved it!

A famously clueless audiophile reviewer even visited the hack who remastered it, that hack being a Mr. Ryan Smith, so he could learn more about the man’s approach to mastering.

Perhaps he wants to stop writing reviews for bad audiophile records and learn how to make them. If so, he is studying at the feet of a true master.

A Short History of the Remastered Audiophile LP

Older audiophile records, typically those made by Mobile Fidelity in the 70s and 80s, suffered from a common group of problems on practically every record they released:

A boosted top, a bloated bottom, and a sucked-out midrange.

Nowadays that phony sound is no longer in vogue. A new, but equally phony sound has taken its place.

What seems to be in vogue these days, judging by the Heavy Vinyl Reissue pressings we’ve played over the last few years, is a very different sound, with a very different suite of shortcomings.

These newer records, with few exceptions, tend to be compressed, thick, dull, opaque, veiled, recessed and lacking in ambience.

These are currently the hallmarks of the Heavy Vinyl LP. Whether made by Speakers Corner, DCC, AP or any other label, starting at some point in the mid-’90s, the sound these labels apparently preferred had an infuriating tonal balance problem we noted in practically every record we played — sound that was just too damn smooth.

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