"Tapestry for Dummies Thread": What is your favourite version of TAPESTRY?

Yes, I know I am opening up a BIG can of worms, and yes, we need this thread like we need a hole in each of our heads, but I am curious. Which version is your go to version? I have an Ode vinyl pressing and a strange Spanish pressing (NO bottom end at all and highs that could stun killer bees at 40 miles away) and I was debating on whether or not I should get this as an HD download or as one of the new vinyl pressings or an SACD. I have been reading very good things about the ORG 45 rpm, and that there are different versions of the record (bass guitar in one channel as opposed to centre on a few tracks). Let's make this the Tapestry thread to rule all Tapestry threads. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the forum...let the games begin!

 

I never knew a 45 RPM version existed (must have come out before I got back into vinyl), but I absolutely love my MOFI reissue. The amount of detail is amazing. Iforget what song it is on, but there is a section with a pedal hi-hat, and I can swear I can feel the air rushing out from between the cymbals as they come together when the pedal is depressed.

 

I've been asked to find out if a particular Tapestry CD is anything special. It's a Japanese release, MHCP 257, issued in 2004 with 14 tracks, same lineup as the 1999 CD. The owner bought it to give as a gift, so it's still sealed and I can't play it to evaluate the sound. Anyone here have this one? How does it sound? Thanks!

 

Apparently we're not talking about Don McLean?

 

Ah, so that's why this thread didn't take off back in January, no one had any idea it was about Carole King!

 

Never owned it

 

The multichannel SACD is my go to.

The 45 of It's Too Late was a treasure, until I lent it to a woman that never returned it, in 1980.

 

My favourite version HAS to be the Carole King version.
The original CBS CD sounds nice to me but it's the only copy I've got so my opinion means nuffink.

 

The SONY and MFSL SACD's are the best I've heard digitally. I do not have a preference they both have good and not so good points.

 

original CD for me.

 

The original Ode LP. There must be millions of 'em in existence.

 

Other....

7.5 ips 4 track stereo reel to reel tape ODE OR-7709

It sounds fantastic.

 

I've got just about every digital disc that's been pressed, and I like the Sony stereo / 5.1 SACD a scrinch more
than the MoFi hybrid.. I bought the Sony SACD when Tower was going out of business, I think I paid $5 for
it, along with the Dire Straights 20th anniv BIAs and Peter Gabriel's Shaking The Tree SACDs, both for $4.99
or $5.99 each. One incentive for buying the Oppo 105 years later...

 

I have found the "original" Ode LP to be quite variable. Some copies sound pretty good, some sound somewhat less vibrant. Finding one that plays well in the album's many quiet sections can be a challenge, as well.

My best vintage copy is a promo label pressing with T1 matrices, made by Columbia Terre Haute. It's got Bernie Grundman's characteristic handwriting in the deadwax. It's warm, natural and smooth sounding.




That said, I feel the most "audiophile" sounding version is the ORG 45rpm, also mastered by Grundman. It seems to have the most detail and clarity overall. That clarity does expose some of the original recording's shortcomings, like the distortion on the lead vocals. That distortion is present on every version I've heard, but the original vinyl, being all warm and fuzzy, tends to mask it a bit. And, the Classic Records 33rpm reissue (mastered by Grundman) is nice as well, to my ears the best "audiophile" 33 1/3 version.

 

Nice promo!

 

+1. My copy is a Japan for Europe Epic/Ode CDEPC 82308. It has always sounded very good to me - still does.

 

Japan for Europe here too. Sounds good.

 

Ode original vinyl has been with me for yeeeears. Sounds very nice.

 

1999 remaster sounds just fine.

 

I keep two copies of this record for demo purposes. A Monarch pressed original Ode, and a Ode/Epic Columbia pressing with the same cover. That's where the similarity ends. The MR sounds like music, the other one does not.

 

I went for the Ode/A&M vinyl because it's the one I have.

 

Mofi SACD for me.

 

I have the ORG 45rpm pressing and the MoFi issue. To me, the Mobile Fidelity LP sounds better to my ears. It has more clarity than the ORG pressing. In fact, it sounds like the ORG was pressed from a copy tape compared to the MoFi.

 

As I mentioned my numorous different editions above, first on vinyl, and once I warded off snap-crackle-and pop from my music and not
my cereal, my MoFi sounds exceptional yet my original Sony stereo / 5.1 SACD sounds so much more real & authentic, just as so many out
here prefer the original Stones' Seventies albums on the original CBS CDs. The Sony doesn't possess a hyper extended treble nor does it
have a synthetically pushed via lousy EQ'd bottom end. The Columbia SACD sounds like it ought to be, which might sound obvious yet I'm
giving the SACD mastering personnel a kudos for really making such edition sound so right, like it was originally intended....

 

Interesting, as my reaction was exactly the opposite.