Thoughts on the new pressing of "Bookends" lp from MFSL

I balk at paying $125 to Mobile Fidelity for their One-Step releases, considering they are cutting their lacquers from digital files (though I do own one, Carole King’s Tapestry. ALL other versions are really bad, and I must have the music contained in the album). Their $60 LP’s are that price because the discs are made using their "Supervinyl". I have a number of MoFi’s that were cut from analogue "master" tapes (undoubtedly copies made from the actual master, known in the biz as Production Masters), made of their standard (and excellent) vinyl formulation, which cost only $35-$40.

There are plenty of audiophile-grade LP’s priced at around $40 being released by the likes of Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, Intervention Records, Light In The Attic, Blue Note (their Classic line for under $30), VMP, Cohearent Records (mastering engineer Kevin Gray’s own label), Craft Recordings, even good ol’ Rhino Records (Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris releases very recently).

Some reissues are not just remastered and pressed on high quality vinyl, but contain new editorial content, often from the artist. I buy some reissues of titles that I already have original pressings of, for carious reasons. $40 for a high quality reissue may actually be a better value than an original was at the time of it’s initial release (inflation accounted for).

Everyone is free to buy what they want. Faulting others for buying what you don’t want to? Why?

It was actually $60 but understand your point.

I have 2 old copies of bookends both sound great...those old Columbia Records,sound great.. I'll pass on it ,please enough is enough, I don't need a $125 dollar copy....come on...

@vitussl101 ​​​​​​,  good to know.

@slaw "The siblance on "s"s, seems more pronounced/noticeable."  I always thought that DSD kind of softens the upper frequencies, not make them more pronounced.  

@Imnop, nice to get confirmation on the Japanese pressing.

Regarding MFSL vinyl remasters....I’m a slow learner..... aways the dreamer to my detriment.

Great record. The spoken word parts are still jarring. I’m looking forward to the SACD. I have 2 clean versions on LP. My Japanese pressing is all I want from vinyl. It’s open and dynamic. I’m 50% satisfied with my MoFi vinyl purchases factoring in sound vs. cost. I’m closer to 75% - 80% satisfied with their SACD’s. 

@bdp24 , I thought I had a 2 eye copy as well. May be non-accessable?

@curiousjim , I keep on hoping in spite of knowing better.🤫

I enjoy my copy of “Bookends” by Sundazed.  No surface noise and the music comes through my system nicely.  Can’t compare it to different pressings for this purchase was my first attempt at including this particular album in my collection. 

I have three copies of Bookends. The original pressing, a re-release and the CD which I just had to have. I started streaming a couple of years ago and the high res version on Qobux sounds great, but not as good as the original 1968 release. Yes it’s quieter.  Yes it’s clearer, but the slight changes in the mix bother me.  I say he same thing about the Beatles albums that have come out recently. I just had to buy them too.😁

"Bookends" has always been a favorite of mine in terms of it's influence in my life.

Always dreamed of one day stumbling across a mint mono lp.

My copy of Bookends (my favorite of the duo's albums) is a 2-eye Columbia, and sounds good enough. My Bridge Over Troubled Waters is the Classic Records 1999 reissue, and sounds real good.

I myself prefer Paul's first two solo albums to any of the duo's, and those sound pretty amazing. I have his first in a UK pressing, the second a US, and both in reissues mastered by Steve Hoffman and released by DCC. The musicianship on the second (There Goes Rhymin' Simon) is absolutely spectacular. The players are the legendary Swampers, formerly the house band at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals. They are also the band on Boz Scaggs debut, and all the Jerry Wexler-produced Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett albums. Jim Keltner said in an interview that he wished he played drums more like The Swamper's Roger Hawkins does. Don't we all? 

.....this copy was a $1 find decades ago. In spite of some surface noise, it’s sounds better than the MFSL to me. The least sibilance of the three pressings. My favorite is the Japanese pressing.

I mistakenly deleted a post above. I finished listening to my Japanese pressing. It is more vibrant, with greater inner detail. Paul’s acoustic on "Mrs. Robinson" is so clear. Going to put on a pp "360° Stereo" now.

How many prior releases do you have? The number of Bookend releases is ASTRONOMIC! This is dollar bin record or you can find thousands of those at Goodwill or Salvation Army that will sound better. 

Good luck with your next "annual" release maybe better luck with sibilance.