I doubt I need to post a picture of the 2011 vinyl reissue of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. So let's go straight to the heart of the matter - how it compares to the Kevin Gray mastered vinyl EMI put out several years ago.
Despite Michael Fremer's positive review of this new pressing, I have to piss all over another shitty efforts by EMI's beancounters. Fremer claims the Rainbo pressing is good, and even that Rainbo is focusing more on quality control. If that is the case, they sure missed the mark on their biggest opportunity of the decade to showcase what they can do. My first copy of DSOTM looked like it had been run over by a Fedex truck, heavily and deeply scuffed edge to label on one side. About a half inch wide scuff at that - just real ugly. I took it back to my local store and we opened another - same thing. And another - same thing. I figured they are all going to be just as bad so I walked out with the third defective copy, and tried it out at home. I asked at a couple of other area stores - they say folks have been complaining to them about the shitty pressing too, and they have had returns - which, in vinyl folks, the retailer cannot send back to the manufacturer - they have to eat the shit for the labels.
Yes, that scuffing is audible. But really, there are ticks and pops all over so it doesn't really matter. Sonically I find this new remaster less dynamic and robust as Gray's - mellow, or more like veiled, not bad at all, but not nearly as engaging as the earlier version.
Of course, neither comes close to my Toshiba Pro-Use DSOTM. That is awesome.
But for both sonic and pressing quality reasons, stick to the earlier Gray version. It's a quality piece of vinyl and better (analog) remastering. This one is just a cash grab.
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