New pressings suck?

Posted by magiccarpetride (A) on April 15, 2017 at 18:16:11

Yesterday I experienced a bit of a shock. I purchased a brand new, sealed LP "Abbey Road" by the Beatles. It is a 2012 180 gram pressing from the 2009 remastered source. The outer shrink wrap had a label "Made in Germany", which, to my mind, spells quality.

I washed the new LP, vacuumed it, rinsed it with distilled water, vacuumed again, and then sat down for a listen, expecting to be blown away. Hmmm, for some reason the LP sounds kind of dull. Muddy, murky. Yes, the bass is voluminous, deep and strong, but where is the sparkle?

OK, maybe I'm imagining things. I pulled my old scratchy Abbey Road copy, the one I bought many moons ago on a garage sale, simply for the iconic cover. I put that sorry old beater of an LP on, and my jaw dropped on the floor -- this old LP sounds so superior compared to the brand new remaster, that it is simply unreal! How can this be? The bass is much deeper, much stronger, the highs are crystal clear, the entire sound is so much livelier. Yes, the record is horribly scratched, was obviously badly abused in its previous life, but nevertheless it still sounds brilliant.

This made me wonder: is it perhaps true that all the good pressing plants are now history, that even in Germany one cannot get a decent LP pressed anymore? Or is this wimpy pale sound caused by the digital source -- the remaster used for cutting the LP is a digital remaster from 2009?

Any ideas?

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Topic - New pressings suck? - magiccarpetride 18:16:11 04/15/17 (25)

RE: New pressings suck? - gordguide 21:36:32 04/24/17 (0)

RE: Not always but - ydavid 07:04:17 04/18/17 (1)

ditto nt - audio_d 20:49:29 04/24/17 (0)

RE: New pressings suck? - Jeffrey Lee 06:28:01 04/17/17 (2)

RE: New pressings suck? - jazzthusiast 07:37:35 04/17/17 (1)

+1 on the purple large logo label - Biff 07:26:58 04/18/17 (0)

RE: if you want a truly good copy of Abbey Road - user510 10:40:55 04/16/17 (12)

A Japanese pressing will give the MoFi a run for it's money. /nt - Biff 04:29:43 04/17/17 (7)

The MoFi is a Japanese pressing...nt - EdAInWestOC 04:33:57 04/17/17 (6)

I realize that. - Biff 05:04:27 04/17/17 (5)

RE: Toshiba..? - user510 09:43:35 04/17/17 (0)

RE: I realize that. - Monchi 06:17:41 04/17/17 (3)

That's the one. /nt - Biff 06:37:00 04/17/17 (2)

RE: That's the one. /nt - Monchi 15:36:21 04/17/17 (1)

It's a good one, eh? - Biff 05:52:28 04/18/17 (0)

The Mofi was cut bright.... - vinyl1 20:39:29 04/16/17 (3)

RE: have you heard it? - user510 20:53:12 04/16/17 (2)

Agreed... - EdAInWestOC 04:29:45 04/17/17 (0)

Agree! (nt) - Crazy Dave 21:19:02 04/16/17 (0)

source, or the person 'doing' the remastering. - 3+4=5 07:27:52 04/16/17 (0)

Its not the pressing plants... - EdAInWestOC 02:54:29 04/16/17 (0)

RE: New pressings suck? - jazzthusiast 19:40:29 04/15/17 (3)

RE: New pressings suck? - Sondek 12:17:37 04/16/17 (0)

+1 nt - jusbe 05:38:09 04/16/17 (0)

RE: New pressings suck? - padreken 23:03:06 04/15/17 (0)

New pressings suck?

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