Dark Side Of The Moon on CD: a blind listening test

There will always be people who like it, and there is limited supply.
It's a very typical master. Personally I love that relaxed sounding midband and the very distinguished sounding bass.

But I'm really surprised by how different the MFSL sounds to all other masterings. Those are much more alike. If MFSL claims that they use the master tape and nothing but the master tape, are all other masterings EQ'd then?? I don't think I believe that…

 

That's interesting in it's own right (that the three I leaned towards had the inverted polarity!) I'll have to get around to opening this lot up in Adobe Audition and doing a bit of an experiment with them in terms of polarity and levels!

 

Check out the smiley-face equalization for MFSL mastering of Money revealed in the earlier thread (graph 3 of the post uses 1993 mastering as a reference)...

 

I'd like to design a new blind test on Wish You Were Here but unfortunately I do not own at least two important masterings, the Sax and the Japanese 2-track. If someone can help please send me a PM...

 

Why are the samples gone? I didn't manage to dl F properly the other night. Haven't checked through the thread as I didn't want to spoil myself.

 

Grandegi you should pick an album which does not carry Pre Emph

 

I must be too late to listen to the samples, all I got was a page saying "This folder is empty". Years ago, I did an AB comparison of the Mobile Fidelity gold CD with the umpteenth reissue vinyl on Capitol and it was no contest. The vinyl was a spacious 3D sound while the CD was thin. After that I sold my Mobile Fidelity gold CD's to an audiophile.

 

Some bias in the form of preferring most what sounds most familiar as a result of repeated listenings over the years?

 

Sure it would be easier, but how could I escape Wish You Where Here?

 

Sorry, I revealed the sources, so it would not be a "blind" test now.
I admit I should have handled this better, setting the poll duration at the beginning.
I re-uploaded all the samples with a different coding scheme (G, H, I, J, K, L) to allow folks who didn't chime in earlier to take part in the game. I'll reveal the sources only to folks who will send me a PM clearly indicating their preferences.
I asked a Gort if the poll can be closed. (the poll, not the thread)

 

The poll has been closed. Amen

 

Wish You Were Here, sorry for the typo.

 

that was an interesting experiment!!

thx for doing it

 

Indeed they are hard to get in Europe, a member of this board helped me some years ago to get one at a reasonable price from US.
And thanks to this poll, prices are already getting higher: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pink-Floyd-...994-Reissue-Capital-EMI-Remaster/331612397977

 

I recognize that DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is an iconic album, but up until the last decade, I'd never heard the full album. Let's face it, as a fan of Carpenters and Herb Alpert, stuff by Pink Floyd wasn't high on my radar. Nevertheless, I ended my career in radio working for a classic rock station, so tracks from the album were very familiar to me.

One day, late in the afternoon, our DJ Andre (and sometime member here) announced that he was going to play the full album. I can't recall the reason, but I remarked to him that I'd never heard it in its entirety (which he then promptly announced to the audience, to my embarrassment). So instead of facing the 5:00 traffic rush, I sat at my desk and listened through the entire album. It was an enjoyable experience, and I stopped at a record store on the way home. (Obviously this was some time when there actually existed record stores on the way home!)

There in the racks was a CD copy of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and I added it to my collection. I thought it was a nothing-fancy, generic, Capitol issue, probably something that the membership here would look down on. But gee golly gosh! It was "E" and it's now officially a Forum Favorite!

Kind of takes the sting out of the fact that I'd voted for "C".

Harry

 

Cool, really appreciate it, thanks for the effort

 

This is a really great thread. Kudos to everyone who contributed their time and effort! I owned DSOTM on vinyl as a kid but gave up records for CDs long ago. Based on some Google searches I figured that the MFSL CD was probably at least "pretty good" so I bought that. Very pleased with it so far. I like the sound even though it is boosted a bit in the very low bass - gives a nice weight to the synths.

 

Ha, I meant to compliment the related technical thread http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/pink-floyd-dark-side-of-the-moon-analysis.264920/

This one's great too, though.

 

Foobar2000's thread is very interesting and informative.

 

Wonder if listeners who first look at the wave forms, dynamic range, etc. before listening are influencing their listening test? Power of suggestion? I often find the differences in the wave forms are well outside of the human ear's detection abilities.

 

Forgive me if this has been explained elsewhere but is the aforementioned 1993 Capitol disc the same mastering as found in the Shine On box?

 

I love graphs because they are objective, but not everything can be found in the frequency distribution. Looking at foobar's graphs, at first I thought the Sax and the 2003 Guthrie would sound similar. For some reasons to my ears they sound completely different instead.

 

Inverted polarity?..

 

I blind-tested myself yesterday on polarity. I took a 1-minute sample, inverted its polarity creating another file, copied each file 5 times, moved the 10 resulting files in a folder (5 having "+" polarity and 5 having "-" polarity), asked my girlfriend (I'm sure we'll soon break up by the way) to rename all the files and re-sort them. My attempt was trying to "group" the files by polarity. Could not detect any differences. So to my ears that "something" which makes the Sax and the 2003 Guthrie sound very different is definitely not polarity.

 

Interesting.
If the Doug Sax-mastering (E) is also present on the 20th Anniversary edition I used to have (which seems likely) I thought it sounded very clinical compared to the old European EMI mastering (C).

The one I currently have is a UK blackface, which is the same mastering as the Japanese non-TO (D) and it rules, the best DSOTM I heard so far.
I prefer a nice, warm presentation over clinical sound any day. Just my $0,2.

Edit: Yup, checked Vernon's site and I'm right about the mastering on the 20th Anniversary edition.