![]() ![]() (To be clear, only the best copies share it. They all share his trademark super-punchy, jump-out-the-speakers, rich and smooth ANALOG sound. Garay is the man behind so many of our favorite recordings: James Taylor’s JT (a Top 100 title), Simple Dreams (also a Top 100 title), Andrew Gold, Prisoner In Disguise, etc. Kudos once again must go to Val Garay, the co-engineer here with Dave Hassinger (who owns The Sound Factory where the album was recorded). Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does. No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space.Natural tonality in the midrange - with all the instruments having the correct timbre.Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low.Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1976 The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing.The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space.What The Best Sides Of Hasten Down The Wind Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear We know because we cleaned and played it and listened to it critically in comparison to other copies, and we did it all by ourselves. ![]() We know that this copy is about as correct as can be. Some are thick, some are thin, some are too clean, some are not clean enough, every sonic issue you can imagine can be heard on this album if you have enough copies to play, and we had plenty. Perhaps the result of too much Aphex Aural Excitement? Some have a phony boosted top end, a subject we have discussed on Linda’s records before. If you own the record see if you don’t notice some of them on your own copy. Most pressings of this album have quite obvious problems. In other words, this is Classic Analog from the ’70s, recorded by none other than Val Garay, one of our favorite engineers. ![]() The sound is rich, smooth, full-bodied and natural on both sides.
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