Dark Side of the Moon - Original Pressing vs New Remaster

There has been a lot of chatter over the last few years regarding the "remastered" trend we have been seeing in the vinyl world. In particular Pink Floyd fans have sometimes been dismissive of the remasters and claim the original pressings were far superior, so I thought I would put this to the test for myself. A local record store had the old original pressing from 1973 in what looked like close to mint condition, at least the vinyl is, the cover... not so much. I subsequently also ordered the 2016 remastered copy from an online retailer for four times the price.

I then spent a happy afternoon playing first one and then the other in an attempt to get as good a listening comparison as I could possibly muster. All listenings were via My Rega Planar 3 fitted with a new Rega Elys 2 cartridge, Rega Elicit amp and Snell Elll speakers.

First off, the remaster is of course unplayed virgin vinyl and as such has almost zero surface noise compared to the 1973 version which has minimal noise but it is still there. This isn't actually a problem of any kind but just worth mentioning anyway, and it certainly doesn't distract from the listening experience of the original pressing which is in NM+ condition.

The actual pressings are almost identical in sound quality however, with perhaps only the bass on the 2016 remaster being a little fuller and better controlled. On a lesser system I doubt very much if one would hear any difference at all. I'm actually surprised by how similar they are and almost disappointed having nothing much to report...

I suspect the whole "remastered from original recordings" hype is just another marketing ploy to milk us vinyl lovers of our money. To be fair they are milking the cd market too. Oh well.

Which brings me to a question, is it really worth paying a handsome premium for the newer album when the originals are still in plentiful supply at very reasonable prices. My conclusion is, no. If you can get an older copy in good condition, go for it because the newer version probably won't give you anything better and you could buy three other LP's for the balance of your hard earned cash. For avid Pink Floyd fans it may be worth it just to complete "the collection" as it were.

Why Analogue Refuses to Go Away

I am currently at home recovering from a hernia operation that I had last Monday, and because of this I have a lot of time on my hands right now to sit and listen to music, read and think on such things as the meaning of life, which is the tastiest breakfast cereal and why the analogue medium refuses to go away. When I say analogue I am not only referring to music, but the whole range of “old” stuff that was set to be replaced by it’s newer, more modern counterparts years ago and despite all odds stubbornly refuse to disappear and in some cases, like vinyl records, are actually staging a measurable comeback.

Over the last 49 years since I was born the world has changed radically and quite beyond belief. In South Africa during the sixties we didn't even have television and had to wait until 1976 before it was finally introduced to an eagerly waiting public. Before my father acquired the large wooden cased floor standing television set that graced our living room we would sit down to dinner every evening as a family, and have conversations about our day, what was happening at school or work or with the ailing neighbour down the street. It was a time that I still cherish to this day and for me those were some of the happiest times of my childhood. However, the day that the new television came into our house I distinctly remember my father sitting down at the table, dishing up a plate of food and then departing, food in hand, for the sitting room. We never ate our dinners at the dining room table again, except on special occasions, and the relationship that we had as a family was never quite the same again. Progress had come, but was it really progress at all?

I’m not an Audiophile, I just listen to Great Music!

When it comes to music listening there are really only two categories of people, those that listen to music and those that are obsessed with the equipment for listening to music. It is a very human trait to want better and shinier things, and I have to confess that for a while I was distracted by the desire for the latest and greatest shiny new toy with all the bells and whistles one man could possibly play with, but thankfully that was just a fleeting and short lived phase.

I remember as a youngster growing up in a very typical middle class family in Pretoria South Africa, this would have been back in the seventies when I was young, carefree and ignorant of many of the realities of the world outside of my school, friends and neighbourhood. We were neither rich nor poor, there was always food on the table and my folks could afford a stereo system that was adequate to our music listening needs. We bought and listened to a wide variety of music and in our house there always seemed to be music of one sort or the other playing.

There is no such thing as "Free Music"

I was having a Facebook conversation with someone a couple of weeks ago and when reading more about the topic online I realized that a lot of people confuse the issue of internet privacy and music (or other copyright protected material) “piracy”. I use the word "piracy" in inverted commas here simply because it isn't really the right term that is being used. Piracy involves rogue sailors forcibly boarding and robbing someone of their ship or yacht at sea and doesn't really have anything to do with music, videos or the internet, but it has become the common term for the illegal online theft of copyright protected content and so for better or worse we use the word “piracy”. The use of this word was also probably helped along by the now infamous file sharing site “The Pirate Bay”. I think arguing over whether the word used should be “piracy”, or anything else for that matter, borders on the pedantic and is really just to obscure the actual problem.

I think it would be useful at this point to say that I am 100% against anyone, whether they are individual people, organizations or governments being able to read my personal and private emails, listen in on my Facebook chats or Skype communications and gaining access to my banking details. I am entitled to my privacy on a legal and moral basis and I object very strongly to anybody, I don't care who they are or what reason they have, being able to spy on the intimate details of my personal life. I am sure most people would probably agree with me on this point so let’s move on.

Why I prefer to listen to music on vinyl.

I can still remember as a youngster growing up in South Africa the thrill of going downtown with my mother and visiting the local record store in Belleville near Cape Town. She would allow me to pick out a single of my own choice and I would agonise over each and every purchase. I recall vividly the drive home, clutching my new treasure tightly in my hand, the anticipation being so strong that I would feel almost giddy with the excitement of it all! Finally we would get home, and the engine of our white Peugeot would hardly stop before I was out and making for the large "all in one" music center my parents had back then. It was a large wooden affair with separate speakers that seemed very big to me as a rather small nine (or thereabouts) year old. My mom would graciously let me listen to my music first, which largely consisted of some kind of pop song that happened to be my current favourite from Springbok Radio's friday evening "Top Twenty" show. (Remember Springbok Radio?) On the "B" side there was normally some much less desirable song that the band or maybe the record label put there simply to fill up the other side without giving anything worthwhile away, damn them!