Half-Speed Masters - are they worth double dipping?
I have pretty much read all that being said online, what is your personal experiences with half-speed mastered records. I see a growing trend in lot of re-issues now being sold with half-speed mastering.
The two records I am interested in are,
Ed Sheeran’s X -10 Anniversary and Police - 30th Anniversary Greatest Hits.
One good thing is, they are reasonably priced and under $50 :-)
Lots of good posts since I last visited. I am not going get into never ending ‘format’ debate as there are too many variables when you start to compare the two. IMHO, it should be all about how a piece of music invokes emotions when you press play and/or when the needle touches the grooves. @sokogear thanks for the tip on tru-lift. |
| Post removed |
@drmuso I have also compared the MFSL American Beauty to Qobuz streaming but I found the vinyl to be better and easily differentiated. I’m open to the possibility that it was a psycho acoustic delusion, but generally I trust my ears in this situation. Vinyl side is a VPI Super Scoutmaster with JMW 10.5" tonearm with a Skyanalog Ref cartridge and Allnic H-3000 preamp. Streaming side is Qobuz/Roon from Eversolo A8 to Holo May KTE DAC. Both sides level matched by Roon’s LossLess Headroom adjustments and switched from an Audio Research 5SE. Personally, I wish I didn’t hear these differences since it would save me thousands of dollars a year. |
If the versions are the same, then the differences in sound quality are likely to be between the Skyanalog Cartridge, JMW tone arm, Allnic phono stage and the Eversolo A8 / May KTE DAC. You should be able to confirm by lining up a series of the same recordings in vinyl and streaming and verify a largely systematic difference in character.
My analog and digital ends sound the same. I chose them that way. I chose the DAC and phonostage from the same company (Audio Research) hence they are voiced the same and I chose the cartridge for its sonic character. While on the average they sound exactly the same, there remains a notable variation on the vinyl side, which I attribute to the mechanical wearing on masters used for pressing as the best pressings occur early and the poorest last before the brief life of a master is over. |
“My analog and digital ends sound the same.” That’s one of the reason I sold off my all ARC system - pre, dac and amp. Every source I’d tried, sounded the same and after a while listening became a chore! My current system (much credit goes to my Integrated) allows me to enjoy the distinct characteristics of upstream components and digital/analog cables. |
