If any member has bought the second release (on vinyl) of the Beatles album 1967 to 1970 which was rereleased a few years ago after being remastered from the original analogue tapes at Abbey Road I would like to hear their opinions of their listening experience(s) , thank you.

I have had good & bad experiences with remasters, Pink Floyd's DSOTM being one of them (bad) IMO the CD was better, I did get an original on vinyl which was even better. If you don't get any feed back on the album I think you should be OK, Abbey Road have a vary good world wide reputation and it is done by the original analogue tapes. In the 80s music was being transferred to digital so as to be put on CD and this is where things start getting complicated and I have heard people saying that they would never get digital remasters if the music was originally done in analogue, Having said that this album maybe being done from original tapes but remastered in digital, as I said it gets complicated.

 Having just played it again on Thursday I thought I would do a search to see who was the lead singer on the first track, Strawberry Fields, as Lennon could be a bit nasal and Macca a bit high pitched - not a good combo if the recording is not spot on. I found a number of posts and have attached one from Analogue Planet and part of another from Quora, both of these seem to come from people who really know their stuff. 

When you said it was complicated it was an understatement judging by these two posts. It seems to me if this is the best that Abbey Road can do something is very wrong and the public are being taken, pressings were done at Quinlan Road so I do not see an issue with the pressing side of it.  Sorry the attachments are not too clear.

Anyone interested in the two posts just do as I did and type into your search engine "lead singer on Strawberry Fields 1967 - 1970 album". It is really good reading and disappointing at the same time.

The good news is as pointed out by fluddite the cover carries the Universal logo. 

Can anyone tell me why the two screen shots which I loaded onto my posts did not transmit with my text. I first tried by adding them below the text (like an email attach.) when that did not work I converted them to pdf which also failed and then tried a 3rd time sending them without text, another fail. I have copied and pasted before (not screen shot) no problem, is the screen shot the issue ?    Thank you.

Have you posted the images up on a 3rd party hosting site, such as postimages.org?

As I could not select the part of the text I wanted in the normal way I did a screen shot and then Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste - both were showing under the text I had typed when I clicked on Post Reply. Thanks.

You can then save the image to upload to a 3rd party host.

This image is from a screenshot.

It is uploaded to the image host I mentioned.

As a fellow Mac user - I tend to do grabs with Screenshot (should be pre-installed in your Utilities folder, from where it can be plonked onto your dock) and save them to the desktop as jpegs (default for Screenshot) - then check the file size. Bear in mind that 150 KB is the maximum file size for posting to GS Forum mailings - I tend to stick to 100 KB or less, and reduce larger file sizes using Preview.

After that, it's 3 quick stages - click 'Choose File' (from desktop or wherever), click 'Upload' (image should appear in that preview box full of Latin after a second or so), click 'OK'.

As my list of files in that last screenshot included the mighty Tap's Break Like The Wind, I feel duty-bound to inflict its picture-disc wonderfulness on the GS Forum once more...

GZ Media pressing plant and mastering facility in Loděnice, Czech Republic operates 3 DMM and 1 lacquer mastering systems. Full analog chain is possible but rare used... GZ Media concentrates on mass market not audiophil community definitely.

It´s possible to use software control for computer simulation and use full analog signal chain.

http://www.gzvinyl.com/Manufacturing/Mastering/New-mastering-system.aspx - http://www.gzvinyl.com/Manufacturing/Mastering/New-mastering-system.aspx

BTW my short visit in GZ plant was very interesting! Mr. Ladislav Kus (my guide) worked in Loděnice from 1959!

Michal

GZ is a massive plant, one of the largest in the world. And it's definitely true that they focus on the mass market and some of those releases are very hit or miss.

When they want to do great work, they can though. A friend of mine had a record cut by them via DMM and then pressed at their associated plant, Precision Record Pressing (Canada). It turned out great. NOT AAA because the album was digitally recorded to begin with.

A few years ago those Beatles blue and red comps could be had for $10 or less in the U.S. I think prices may have climbed a bit since then, but there are still many common albums that can be had cheaply if you know where to look. I have seen prices on popular classic rock steadily climbing. Many of the records simply aren't worth paying those asking prices based on condition and sound though, IMHO.

Blue Note stuff has really gone through the roof. Even less desirable 70s reissues, 80s DMM cuts, etc. I see at ridiculous jacked-up prices. Besides pricing, it's worth noting that guys like Gray and Smith have very different mastering styles than RVG or his contemporaries had back in the day. Those old records had to be cut to sound good on record changers, console stereos, etc. They weren't made for the kinds of gear we see people running today. RVG would add compression and roll off highs for those old changers.

As others have written there is outrage from some customers about the hidden step, sort of AADA, but little heard from those who said all analogue was what they discerned in MoFi.

Most records I've had off MoFi have been vary good but I did have one which to me for what I paid for it was no better than the original and the quality of the record itself was poor and I thought to myself at the time, they need to get their quality control sorted out, the seller agreed with me and I got a refund.

The good ones I have are very good but when you are spending sometimes as much as £10 more than another copy so it should be.

lfc jon wrote: I see Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) have got them selfs into a bit of trouble over their claim about their vinyl records being all analogue it seems that part of the process is done in digital. You can read more on this on "The Washington Post" website.

I didn't want to comment too much on this because there are huge threads on other forums and I've already commented there.

The issue is lying to customers, full stop. Not anything else.

Not only did they lie in their marketing materials but they lied over private emails to customers. I was a customer that received one of those emails.

Luckily I didn't spend anywhere near as much on MOFI product as some folks I know. There are people that spent thousands of dollars on their stuff over the last 5-10 years.

In any case, MOFI won't get a cent from me going forward, and that includes the parent company Music Direct.

Fatmangolf wrote: The price reflects the product. They are seen as the best records and I can see they would use the best signal processing and record production for this.

There are companies that put out records that are just as good or better and charge less.

Especially in the last few years, MOFI focused on their One Step series which is MSRP at $125 a pop. You get one album and a worthless box of dead air. They don't even include the original jacket art inside and then they lie about the source used to make the record.

Fatmangolf wrote: I used the term "seen as the best" because it is the only way to explain such high prices.

Right. Certainly the marketing hype wanted everyone to believe that! :)

I have few of Abbey Road Studios half speed cutting records and to me they have been better quality, especially the vinyl record itself and better value.