What Record Are You Hearing Now?

Yup; I sometimes buy a couple hundred records at a time and they may stay in boxes for months..or years.. before I go through and clean ‘em. Once in a while I try to organize and get some on a shelf. I usually forget what all I bought. Probably have around 1500 mostly still in boxes, waiting a turn on the Nitty Gritty. Someday..

Buying them and cleaning them are two completely different things! ;) I still have a stack to wash yet. Then I should be all caught up.
 
The Beatles - Abbey Road (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Original Master Recording MFSL-1023):

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I got around to A/B-ing Supertramp’s Breakfast in America — specifically, my 1980s Mobile Fidelity pressing and the new 2017 MoFi pressing. I didn’t expect to hear much of a difference, but the difference was vast. As you know, Mobile Fidelity has long touted “we only use original master tapes” and “there is no tinkering, no processing, no equalization”, yadda yadda. If that’s the case, why do these pressings of the same title sound so different? I have never been a believer of the 200 gram vinyl thing, and that heavier vinyl gives you better sound — I don’t believe any of that. But hearing these two LPs side-by-side, they sounded so different from each other — enough to make me think there may have been a little tinkering with the signal. Sorry, MoFi. I first listened to my original U.S. A&M pressing, then the original U.S. A&M CD, then the 1980s Mobile Fidelity pressing, then the 2017 MoFi pressing. The original U.S. pressing sounded great. The original U.S. CD sounded a little better here and there. The original Mobile Fidelity better them both, but then the 2017 MoFi was a different animal altogether. I selected “The Logical Song” for each listening test, and with the 2017 MoFi pressing, things sounded about the same at the very beginning, but then the first bass hits came, and there was just more there. The bass was much more prominent than in any of the other recordings. Almost excessively so. For me, the more prominent bass was a distraction. There was also an almost exaggerated sense of air, echo, and reverb. The soundstage also seemed artificially bigger. Has anyone else done this comparison? Any notes?
 
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