What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?

What you have is a 1976 reissue. They switched to the blue rim orange palm tree label for that reissue.

That fits. I bought it in 77 or 78 at Cheapo Cheapo on Rupert Street, Soho. I don't rate as high for the content as TFTT, but the sound is still very good.

@flash56 

From the link you provided, it looks like I have the second version of the second release 1972. It matches the wax A-3u and B-3u. Everything else matches as well, gatefold etc. It remains my best sounding copy, at least as I recall. I have no idea if my copy is "correct", "corrected" or ? It always sounded very good to me. Fooling around with some new gear so will have to give them all a listen to see what I think. There may be 1 or 2 that I've never even played. 

@billpete

I covet your Cat Steven's collection :)

I managed to snag a NM 1970 A&M first pressing of TFTT for a decent price last night. It is on its way. I hope that it actually is in NM condition. I will just have to live with that for the time being. At least I will know that it was pressed with relatively new plates. If you should find that you have multiple copies of pink rim label Island pressings and would be inclined to part with one. I would be happy to take it off of your hands for a reasonable price :)

Happy listening.

@flash56 

If I had more than 2 copies, I would consider it. I only have the one on Island from the original stuff. I need to try the A&M dbx copy to see if it is different. I may have never played it, can't remember. I wish the 180g was playable. It might have been a good one. Need to see if it's possible to fix an off center drill hole. For whatever reason, TFTT is one record that I have more of than any other. It is one of my favorite albums, that's for sure. To say what is an absolute favorite, I could not do.

I have 4 or 5 copies of Tori Amos, Under the Pink. In the beginning, it seemed hard to track down a decent copy, even on pink vinyl and new/sealed. I have 3 or 4 of them and not one is perfect but one is the best, (quietest). It's a shame because it is such a good recording. Had a black vinyl copy but was a totally washed out version of the original. Gave it away. 

I generally have multiple copies of anything that I am likely to play a lot, such as my reference LP's. Can never have too many. :)

Happy listening to you as well. 

@billpete

I would be interested to know what you think of the dbx copy when you get around to listening to it.

dbx is another form of noise reduction different than Dolby A. If Dolby A had been used already. Why would you apply noise reduction again? There is something about this whole "Dolby A saga" that doesn't play out correctly in my mind. One other question in my mind. Why is Michael Fremer making the decision? He is just a reviewer! If they had a question about it. Why did they not contact Yusuf himself? Why didn't they send him examples and ask him which one was correct? I'm sure that he would have been glad to help, since it is his music. And he was present during the whole process. It would have been the only sensible thing to do before going forward. And why is there not more information out there about this enormous screwup, that supposedly affected every copy made for 35 years? There isn't any information out there, that I can find. Some huge pieces of this puzzle are missing. And I am not buying into it at this point.