What are you even talking about? What do you mean "Everything around that time was audiophile"? Audiophile means high quality, not limited edition. And if by audiophile meaning high quality (Not limited), then yes I would say that the majority of EMI Australia's titles were audiophile (As long as they had access to great tapes). The EMI Australia vinyl from the 70's and 80's that I own beats any Japanese pressing or new "Audiophile" pressing that I own. Hands down. Their studio at the time was the best in the world. They literally spent millions of $ (in the 70's) upgrading it to be as good if not better than Abbey Road at the time. There are quotes by Alan Parson's saying it was the best studio he'd ever seen when he visited. Mate you need to stop. Please. You are embarrassing yourself.
so for the record. your AR was not cut at half speed, not cut from a 30 ips copy of the master, and most likely not near the amount of time was put into AR as pepper but
So you don't know anything about the studio, yet you know for certain that "AR was not cut at half speed, not cut from a 30 ips copy of the master, and most likely not near the amount of time was put into AR as pepper but" Please do elaborate.
I honestly don't even know what you're talking about any more. You've completely lost me. I'm requesting that you're banned from this thread. You're just wasting my time with your nonsense. Goodbye.
I have the Aussie Blue Box. Every disc is flat and silent. All sound beautiful. The covers are heavy card. Abbey Road is color correct matt finish, with no issues of excess red tint. All bar ‘ Pepper’ are Oz pressings as indicated on the disc centre labels. ‘ Pepper ‘ is a Japanese pressing. The matrix numbers are stamped as follows; Sgt Pepper - a side - YEX 637 5 S 22 b side. - YEX 638 5 S 3 8 Abbey Road - a side - YEX 749-3 b side - YEX 750-2 Let It Be - a side - YEX 773 3 U b side - YEX 774 3 U I have many re-issues, remasters, and digital editions. Not had the opportunity to hear first issue U.K. so cannot compare. That said, the discs in this set are gorgeous, and everyone who hears them has an ‘aaah’ moment.
That's super interesting that your Aussie box has Japanese stampers haha. Never heard that before! Sounds like you must have the 82 box as the 70's one was mostly UK cuts
Sorry to say and has already been pointed out, the Australian AR -4/-3 cut is totally unrelated to the 1983 EMI Audiophile Series. The -4/-3 was mastered earlier; 1979 according to Discogs or around 1980/81 according the Beatles Australia site. Therefore it precedes that series, although it would have a been mastered with maxicut, a variable depth cutting process. It's not an Audio 5 process either, Sgt Peppers was one of 5 releases sold at the July 1983 Sydney Hi Fi Show as a marketing exercise to show EMI's vinyl capabilities during the rise of the CD. Vinyl was on the decline and the Sydney EMI pressing plant was no more by November 1990. Audio 1 - a classical release from memory, it's not listed on the blurb you posted Audio 2 - John Keating, Space Experience Audio 3 - Earl Klugh, Late Night Guitar Audio 4 - Little River Band, Time Exposure Audio 5 - The Beatles, Sgt Peppers There was also a Pink Floyd album on the short list for the audiophile treatment but it was dropped.
I'm not saying it's part of the series. Just by the same mastering engineer at the same time, at the same mastering studio. And using the same super vinyl and "special" presses (if you're going to press anything on your special press it's going to be the Beatles). As mentioned the vinyl is very different to my other regular Beatles presses from the late 70's / 80's. It's much thicker. More shiny and even more silent (and the others are ridiculously silent) Side 1 -4 was most likely cut in 1980. -3 was also cut in ~1980 -3 DB was cut in 1984 at the same time as the show. I Am The Platypus - The Beatles Australian Records Labelography - ABBEY ROAD ( PCSO 7088 ) It's also kind of ilrelvent of the exact years. It's the same team, and same gear. Like saying the Kevin Gray got better or worse on the same kit two years apart.
It's hand written and looks like it was done at the same time as it's exactly the same handwriting. I'll post a photo when I'm home. The only thing im not certain on is if it was half speed, but who cares, it sounds that good
It's not half-speed, they would have required a new 30ips copy tape, the same as was sent to Japan in January 1978 for the Pro Use version.
Yeah fair enough. I think I might have got the 30ips tape part wrong. They got a 15ips tape in 1979. If it were mastered half speed from a 30ips tape would it have sounded better? Who knows? Everything else aside (Studio, engineer, vinyl) is the same. From the wax it looks like side 1 was definitely done at a different time to side 2 Side 1 is stamped (Most likely done in 1980) Side 2 is handwritten (Done in 1984 according to platypus). Again both taken from the same tape in the same mastering studio by the same guy. It's essentially like Kevin Gray cutting a record in 2017 and then recutting the second side 4 years later from the same studio and from the same tape. But then pressing it again in 2021 copy on better wax than in 2017. Anyway, I'm done with arguing about this. People are acting like I'm trying to inflate the price of this or something to AUDIO5 levels. The AUDIO5 costs so much because 1 it's meant to sound amazing, and 2 it's ridiculously rare. All I care about is the fact that this sounds spectacular. Compared to my original Aussie, my Japanese Flag, and both Aussie and Japanese Blue albums, it walks the floor with them. Is it better than the Pro Use? I don't know, but I'm not going to pay hundreds to find out. I'm never selling this, it sounds that good . I just cranked Here Comes the Sun. It's so good. The bass is making the couch shake (I've never heard the bass like this on HCTS), and the mids and top end are perfect. Everything is so balanced. You can farking crank this and there is literally no distortion it's that well mastered. This is the first time I've really heard how ridiculously good Paul's bass lines are on AR. They're so powerful, but so clean, and so balanced. The instrument separation is SO GOOD!
Just put my Eagles One-Step on to see the comparison in sound quality. The One-Step is cut significantly louder for a start. Apart from that Aussie AR cut holds up. Obviously they're completely different albums, but I'm not hearing any major differences in things like clarity or instrument separation. The One-Step definitely punched me in the face with how much hotter and louder it was cut, but you can definitely crank the AR right up. The AR has significantly more bass than the One-Step. They really highlighted Paul's playing on this cut. Both are incredibly well balanced. All I can say is I am very happy with the AR 1984 cut. If you can find one, buy it. I paid $50AUD. I don't know how readily available it is (I bought it on a whim while I was drunk one night). But it's worth looking out for.
Dude, the AR wasn’t cut at half speed. The 1969 original is the one to own because it uses the same plates as the UK 1st pressing. Don Bartley is a fine cutting engineer but not everything that came out of EMI in the 70s and 80s is the holy grail of sound. Most of the time LPs were cut from copies of copies and sometimes of copies of vinyl. A lot of Aussie vinyl is also painfully thin, has cereal box cardboard for covers and often poor artwork. I know this to be true because I have about 5000 Aussie LPs in my collection. I have a 1987 copy of The Beatles 1962-66. 2 sides are UK sourced metal, the other two DB recuts. The differences are obvious. The UK metal wins every time. Australian Beatles vinyl is often good, but it isn’t the last word. Please stop talking it up like it is some holy grail.
Mate I NEVER said this was cut half speed. Infact I've said numerous times that it wasn't. Please don't jump in and throw shade on what isn't being discussed here. I own a mint 1969 Aussie cut, plus a lot of other great AR cuts. Read the thread. The whole point of this thread is that I bought a 1984 cut and it blew my mind. In my opinion comparing the og vs Japanese cuts vs the aussie blue and the Japanese blue vs the 1984, the 1984 is a lot better.
No problem in enjoying good things but your tone here and in some other posts is just a tad evangelical. Aussie vinyl is good but it isn’t always quite the world beater you portray. Suggest you buy Jae’s excellent book on Aussie Beatles LPs. It covers a lot of ground, including how bad some of the early-mid sixties Beatles LPs sound.
No worries, happy to have a read. I'm just saying that after listening to some of the best Beatles presses of all time, including the best AR presses that this sounds phenomenal. It's very likely that most people have never heard this mix, and would never think that it's good. But I'm an Aussie, I've run a music magazine in Australia for 10 years, worked with Australian record companies for 10+ years, Dj'd in Australia for 10+ years, and am fanatical about good music, especially Beatles records, Im confident to say that this is good.
I love that you love good music! I do too! I’ve been collecting it for 48 years (eek). We just need to be mindful that this is a global forum and not everything produced by EMI Australia is amazing. I have some late 80s singles that could pass for flexidiscs, some LPs that sound like they were cut from cassette and others that sound like they were pressed on asphalt. Despite ultrasonic cleaning, nothing can improve those
