Half-Speed Masters - are they worth double dipping?

@ghdprentice  I'm not quite sure what your point is.  

1) Most contemporary vinyl sounds very similar to streaming the same version/release, but some percentage, call it 15-25%, sounds better.  I think the MoFi release of American Beauty falls into that better category.  The fact that most vinyl and streaming sound so very similar suggests the difference in sound quality isn't due to the differences in my analog and digital front ends.  Whenever I play a new record I stream at the same time and carefully level match and compare the digital and analog source and make notes about how they sound.  

2) Why on earth would you try to get your vinyl and digital systems to sound the same?  If you somehow achieved that why would you ever buy a record again?  

3) I have frequently experienced variation between different copies of exactly the same record and I agree it is likely because of where that particular copy was in the life of the master.  Frankly, it pisses me off and is a source of frustration when it comes to vinyl.  It is bad enough that a record may be warped or pressed with cheap vinyl or gotten scratched in handling but the idea that the quality changes for two copies of exactly the same record makes me crazy  .

pinwa

... Most contemporary vinyl sounds very similar to streaming the same version/release ...

That has been my experience as well.

Why on earth would you try to get your vinyl and digital systems to sound the same?

I don't think it's a goal as much as a natural consequence. After all, if the sound of an LP and its stream are very similar, the system should reveal that. When one is better than the other, the system should be able to reveal that as well.

@cleeds,

Generally speaking, Your impressions are very similar to my listening experiences as well when comparing both streaming and vinyl. The main difference to me is that when a half speed mastered produced album has been treated with all of the aforementioned attention to detail that makes it worthy of a standout album compared to others. Otherwise, the half speed master is just that, a half speed master. I have been purchasing the newer MOFI half speed masters off and on over the years and it seems hit or miss in terms of sound quality. Some sound flat sounding missing dynamic range, while others sound absolutely outstanding.

It is absolutely in the entire recording process and the quality of the source material. I purchased a Barnes and Noble special edition Queens greatest hits album that is absolutely stunning regarding its sound quality. It is not a half speed master album either. I also have a regular store bought Sade album from the 80s, thin vinyl, not half speed mastered, that is also stunning. These are standout albums compared to some of the half speed masters that I own.

I am also certain that the recording engineer may be part of that equation. To me, it appears that Quincy Jones produced albums almost always with great sound dynamics without any sense of compression, just pure music. Michael Jackson Thriller and Earth Wind and Fire are examples of normal albums with very good dynamics that Quincy Jones produced.

My goal over the last fifty years has been to get my system to sound as good as possible. Over the first thirty of these years this goal has led me down some paths where one kind of music sounded better at the expense of others or detail / slam improved but the musicality disappeared from the sound… etc. so my goals had to be revised each time I took the wrong direction. Finally I realized I needed the goal to be to recreate the live music experience and that the ruler to use must be live acoustic event.

By listening to hundreds of those events I tuned my ears to understand all aspects of the live acoustic events. I found the symphonic orchestra to be the best for learning because it contains the very quietest of sounds and the loudest, single instruments and massed instruments in a venue one could learn. Also, it did not contain all sorts of intermediate electronics of rock, electronic, etc music.

I used this knowledge to tune, one small step after another, my system to faithfully reproduce this sound. So, not surprisingly, the sounds of my analog and digital ends converged on the same sound. All genera sounded better and better along the way… instead of having one get better at the expense of all. Now my systems are very musical and get the gestalt as well as the detail in proportions to the real thing.

My point in the comment in the string above is that the sound you get from your system is the result of the equipment you use to reproduce it (given the same recording). The only innate difference is in resolution. Today, most of the time neither digital or analog overwhelmingly wins because of resolution. So, you are determining the sound you get by the components / system you assemble. 

“My point in the comment in the string above is that the sound you get from your system is the result of the equipment you use to reproduce it (given the same recording). The only innate difference is in resolution. Today, most of the time neither digital or analog overwhelmingly wins because of resolution. So, you are determining the sound you get by the components / system you assemble. ”

@ghdprentice …Exactly!