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Simon and Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" MOFI UD1S

I’ve had my copies for awhile now and have had a chance to listen to it several times. This is the newest Mobile Fidelity "One-Step", (UD1S) that was just finally released.

While this is on par with the first three UD1S reissues, it just falls a little short. I think maybe I was expecting too much?

It’s a fantastic recording and sounds superb, but it left me puzzled. The first side is excellent, very quiet and dynamic. Side 2 with the song "Cecilia" is just SUPERB! It’s hard to say that the track "Cecilia" alone is worth the price of admission, well, because $100 for one song is kinda silly, but WOW, this track is really, really good. Side three is kinda weird and seems to vary from song to song. This can be said to a much lesser degree for the whole album, but side three is inconsistent. This could just be the way the tapes are now, many years later.

I did compare this to my US first pressing and my UK first pressing and this UD1S is better in every way. Quieter, more dynamic, deeper bass, cleaner vocals and way more open sounding.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a WONDERFUL album and recording and I highly recommended it, but not as highly as the first three...
mofimadness

Showing 1 response by 4trackmind

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4trackmind
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The "closest" thing which would've been near the master source when *new* (and: NOT duplicated from any dubious RIAA-eq'd "cutting master" down the line) would've been: the 3 3/4ips reel to reel tape of Columbia catalog number "HC1212".

Since it's a collector's novelty for the sake of sound comparison purposes: I have a 16/44 WAV upload of my copy on a soundcloud.  There's (obviously) more hiss at the slower speed (and, as I did NOT use any outboard NR filtering); however, next to (I think?) the discrete quadraphonic 8-track-only mix (the cart in the orange case?)....this reel IS one of the cleanest-sounding analog (original) sources of B.O.T.W.

side 1
https://mega.nz/file/Cd1WzZpb#TaWR-a7p1yIhdlWzAbg980KJjhgTPldL5X1jeiFc8Bo

side 2
https://mega.nz/file/fFkG2TLA#CRYQw9vZl_6HhSne6Qs07FkNvS5SX4DKRI664TX8rTw
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