In regards to the a&m audiophile series...i have supertramp's breakfast in America and crime of the century and i find them pretty spectacular. I have also heard that the police's a&m aud series are quite nice as well. As for cbs half speeds, they are anywhere from poopy to very good....many are only equal to original pressings....pink floyds wish you were here is supposedly the holy grail of cbs half speeds but many prefer a UK a1, b3 over the cbs hs....it should be noted that the second cbs hs pressing of wywh is worthy. It has the 43#### catalog number in deadwax and not the 34####. You have to be careful though because some have the 34#### on one side and 43#### on the other.
CBS Half Speeds? Digital?
I bought a fine collection of audiophile discs here on audiogon from a nice fellow back East. I was just interested in the MFSL and Nautilus vinyl but the 50 or so albums included about a half dozen CBS half speed "audiophile" pressings. Curious I spun Billy Joel's "The Stranger" and couldn't believe how badly it sounded. Like a CD with noisy vinyl. There was a write up on their "technical" specifications and if I'm not mistaken they actually converted the analog master to digital and then cut the vinyl from this "exciting" new master. These were pressed in the early 80s when digital conversion technology was primitive to say the least. Any of you audiophiles care to shed some light on these discs? I tried the Springsteen and a couple of Michael Jackson albums and they sounded equally bad. If they did in fact convert analog masters to digital tapes and then pressed vinyl the persons responsible should be forced to listen only to MP3s for the rest of their natural life.
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