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 :-)

lalitk

Showing 1 response by tweed23

These things are always going to come down to individual releases, individual tastes and individual systems and on a macro level, it is hard to come to a consensus on the matter for those reasons. Still, in my experience there’s been no single half-speed master that I’ve ever heard or owned that I didn’t find was bested, often handily, by a well-regarded analog pressing from pre-1985. Some I have found sound really amazing until or unless you put them up against a vintage pressing. Then not so much.

With two exceptions, I’ve sold all the half-speed master version and kept the OG pressing. Not because these two--both 80s CBS Half Speed Master series releases of Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom and Barabra Striesand’s Guilty--were better than original pressings, but because I can demonstrate to someone "Sounds incredible, right? Well this one, the original, sounds way better."

 

Buy a few, see what you think. I decided it wasn’t for me. I especially find the Abbey Road HSM jobs to be not good at all. They just sound like digitally-sourced vinyl to my ears. No thank you.