For Vinyl Junkies Only: Review of 200 gram vinyl Sugar Mountain
This review is for vinyl junkies only, so if you're an MP3 iPod type, you may want to just move along. (Because sound matters, even Dylan The Dog gets it).
So here's a stellar review of the 200 gram vinyl edition of Neil Young's Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House from My Vinyl Review:
This vinyl package promised to be super-premium and has delivered in every way. The dual 200 gram discs, pressed in Japan at Toyokasei, arrived perfectly flat, clean, and were both extremely quiet during play. Not a single mark or fingerprint could be found on either disc, which are housed in anti-static poly sleeves inside of a Stoughton gatefold cover made of extra-heavy cardstock.
In preparation for this review, I became well acquainted with this recording by repeatedly listening to the cd version. While the cd sounds very good, the vinyl beats it in direct comparisons. Like the material itself, the recording was a very simple two-track affair, and both the cd and vinyl contain a significant amount of hiss that thankfully wasn't futzed with by either the digital engineer, or by Chris Bellman, who mastered the vinyl release.
Once you get used to the hiss, which easily happens once you turn up the volume, it's just Neil and his guitar with you in your living room. While this recording doesn't have quite the presence of Massey Hall, the simplicity of the performance and the recording should deliver genuine satisfaction to the audiophile purist.
More of review on my vinyl review: Neil Young: Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 200 gram vinyl.
Also, see more Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain Live" Reviews.
6 Comments:
Thanks for the post Thrasher! Just got this 200 grams black gold yesterday.
Two notes on this post:
1.
Thrasher writes: "This review is for vinyl junkies only..." Come on T., I am not a vinyl junkie, I am only a music lover..., because music is love...
2.
From the review: "both the cd and vinyl contain a significant amount of hiss that thankfully wasn't futzed" Well, this simply isn't true on my equipment. The vinyl version doesn't have that much hiss. It is almost gone....
Anyway this is a really amazing record, a hundred times better than the cd I bought a while ago. The cd version really sucks compared to this vinyl. And Dylan the dog is right about that. Massey Hall was not much better on vinyl, only different... And, yes, sorry, I have to say it again: Chrome Dreams 2 is a complete different album on vinyl, one of my all time favourites... oops.
Good to be back on TW anyway after some time on the road. Looking forward to the most amazing month of 2009 with Archives and Live Neil...
Did anyone have problems with ordering the Archives at Neil's site? Just found out I didn't receive a preview disk?
Bring on FITR on vinyl!
Because Sound Matters
Oh yeah, there's one little thing about Sugar Mountain on Vinyl... hmmm... maybe it's better not to post it over here... Cough Up The Bucks... BSM
60 euros in Paris....
True... Neil's vinyl is definitely not cheap. I'm sure he has his reasons to use the manufacturer that he uses, but it's odd to have been turned on to the joy of analog sound by Neil and then not be able to afford his LPs, haha!
Vinyl; Once you get passed the hiss and the stink, you got her licked. Ecstasy is soon to follow. I don't know if it's worth the money, but it sure enough is worth the effort!
I bought the vinyl from ebay and to say I'm happy with it would be an understatement! Utterly brilliant and goes to show why the whole concept of CD replacing vinyl was a misguided myth. CD's suck!
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