closest to the source or not, IMO the US Mercury comes last up against the UK Mercury and UK RCA of TMWSTW. it was cut with less high frequency information and dynamics than either of the UK alternatives and the bass level is to the detriment of detail and separation. ample bass on the UK and other RCA pressings, by the way. the Japanese RCA (they all use the same plates, so while a '72 would be ideal, a later pressing will have the same essential character) remains my personal choice.
I want to add my experience of some copies. I have a US 1972 RCA dynaflex, a German 1972’ish RCA, and the US counterfeit. Among the three, the counterfeit has the best balance. The bass seems out of place on the RCAs, while on the counterfeit it dances smoothly along with the guitar and vocal. (But with big dancing shoes that is.) It also sounds less muddled compared with the RCAs, where the guitar seems burried to my ears. Maybe I was unlucky with my RCA copies, but they don’t seem to be played to death by former owners. PS: I like the 2016 Parlophone, and my copy of the counterfeit is much in the same style. All to my ears, of course.
I found three US Mercury's yesterday. I was excited to go through them and then hand-written matrices for all. Bummer, but I shouldn't have been surprised. They weren't even all the same deadwax, so maybe the bootleggers got bootlegged.
pretty sure they did. my copy is among the worst with the skip in WOAC and an extra layer of vinyl noise clearly audible in the run in and run out. the first ones are probably not that bad...but of course still counterfeit.
Was happy to find a '72 UK RCA "leg kick" edition ages ago when I first started collecting vinyl back in 2004, at my old bookstore job. Got it for very cheap. Have to check when I get home, but it may even be a radio station promo copy. Has a sticker on the front. Sounds great, much better than the 90's Ryko CD (which I liked the sound of initially, having nothing else to compare to).
I love mine RVP-6125, pink obi, kick cover. It is bass heavy but I think in a good way if that makes sense. It's clean and clear, mixing choices notwithstanding.
The Japanese RCA “kick” cover is the best sounding vinyl version of this LP, no question about it. This is true, despite Visconti mixing his bass so loud. It’s loud on this version, too, because that’s what’s on the tape. And it’s likely that the reason why this Japanese version sounds so good is because RCA owned the Japanese pressing plant, but it was operated by the meticulous working habits of the Japanese. I doubt there’s anyone who knows where they got the master to press the record. There are rumors that they used the same “plates” as were used for the initial pressing on the UK RCA pressing, which makes sense, as this saves a few step when pressing the LP in Japan. One more thing, this near perfect Japanese pressing doesn’t have to be that expensive. Just find a near mint (NM) copy WITHOUT an obi. The obi looks cool, but adds nothing to it’s sound quality. I’m sorry I’m late to this discussion. I was busy
I recently scored a sealed 1976 US RCA kick cover vinyl for $40 at Record Archive. It still has the NRM price code "C" tag on the shrinkwrap. The back cover has the dynaflex blurb but it's not dynaflex, it's just regular weight black vinyl. Black RCA Victor label with Nipper, printed inner sleeve, no UPC code. Here on discogs: David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World (1976, Vinyl) I figured I'd rip a couple samples of that and of my 2015 Parlophone vinyl from the Five Years box set to share here. I ripped them using my system listed in my profile. filenames with "kick" are samples from the 1976 RCA kick cover vinyl filenames with "box" are samples from the 2015 Five Years box vinyl samples of: width of a circle after all running gun blues the supermen link: bowie tmwstw - Google Drive
Understand. A UK or West German Teldec Pressed RCA would be still an excellent choice, and less expensive, and easier to find. US RCA originals vary in quality, and DynaFlex era predominates.
hi brian, i'll quote my earlier post: "the Japanese RCA (they all use the same plates, so while a '72 would be ideal, a later pressing will have the same essential character) remains my personal choice."
I have this version of TMWSTW: David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Gold label Dynaflex. Sounds pretty good, but I’m wondering if anyone familiar with this particular pressing can rank it against others. As everyone knows of course the production on this album and its complicated release history make this one pretty tough to pin down. If there is a much more definitive version out there, I would refer to grab that one. The Metrobolist included as a possibility though it seems more like a version one might want “in addition to” rather than “in place of”, right?
I have nothing to compare this with. But this 1972 reissue with the orange dynaflex label is just killer. Amazing bass and high-end as well. Mine has the promo radio sticker on the front. Highly recommended. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
