Black Sabbath Paranoid Best Vinyl Pressing

Not all wwa have the vertigo stampers. All vertigos and wwa use second pressings from the gloss cover forward for paranoid.
Only the first press is 1/1 1/2.

 

The Rhino Kevin Gray is great.

 

The Rhino Kevin Gray is not great. And it's not his fault. They gave him the US tapes (the ones with inherent War Pigs problems).

Don't forget; the US tape sounds decent, but it's still a poorly made copy. Any disc mastered off it (including US Warner comps like Sold Our Soul to R&R) suffer from it.

Well documented, as others point out.

 

Its great, I know original pressing purists don't agree, and I never said it was better. It is a fine reissue.

 

Just listening to pbthal's needledrop of the Vertigo Swirl again and to me it is muddy sounding compared to the recent EU vinyl collection box version. I was considering the Kevin Gray Rhino but I've heard a needledrop, lots of tape dropouts and volume fluctuation on War Pigs. No thanks!

 

That's what I thought about the Vinyl Collection box as well, boosted bass and treble to impress. Did not sound natural on top of being digitally sourced.

 

Right, it's quite a contrast from the brighter sound of their first album on the first matrix UK Vertigo. It gives Paranoid a much more heavy metal "slowed" doom metal sound. It just sounds better the louder you turn it up.

 

UK and German Vertigos both sound mighty fine to these earz...

 

Im curious to know if the 1Y1 2Y1 and 1Y2 2Y2 Vertigos both sound the same? I know some of the Swirls are 1Y2 2Y2 and the later Spaceship pressings. Hopefully this will confirm that my S/T and Paranoid Spaceship label sound the same as the absolute 1st pressings.

 

I compared my WB Quadradisc pressing to my UK spaceship just now....UK....Noticed the Quad has a different abrupt ending to War Pigs,not the sped up one.
Can't imagine the UK Swirl 1Y1.2Y1 sounding too much better than the spaceship.

 

I own all of the 1st pressing UK Vertigo swirl Black Sabbath LP's. IMHO, none of them is anything less than superb. The recordings are spacious and crystal clear with superb clarity. On my system, they are far far superior to any of the later pressings.

 

So I'm listening to this 2011 reissue and, I dunno, I think it sounds great. Really open with great spacing. Is this one not well regarded?

 

According to Wiki : NEMS Records, or NEMS Records & Tapes or Nems Records Ltd., a record label from London that existed from 1975 to 1983.

So who is making 'NEMS' ?

 

I own the UK Spaceship Vertigo pressing with high-glossy gatefold cover and it sounds great !!!

 

I had both Y1 and Y2 pressings of Paranoid and they sound the same.

 

I've a recent NEMS repress and it sounds fantastic. I'm also fascinated to hear who/what they are. V mysterious.

 

I don't even think that's a genuine NEMS, its a bootleg. The genuine NEMS paranoid isn't as well regarded as the Vertigo or WWA.

 

Well… crap. I bought this in my early days of vinyl listening (yes, I started very late) before I knew any better. I still think this sounds good, so I'll keep it around while I search out a Vertigo or WWA.

The NEMS reissue (bootleg?) from probably the same time of S/T on red vinyl I'll say leaves a lot to be desired. The cymbals are real sizzly and I feel the EQ is "rock scooped". I've never heard either of these on wax though, so I guess I'm back on the hunt!

 

Those "NEMS" reissues are occasionally discussed, it has been said that they are pressed by Scorpio (a common source of inexpensive vinyl LP reissues, generally ill-regarded), but I don't know if that has been verified. Occasionally people have posted that they have that reissue of Paranoid and it sounds quite good, but it generally is not recommended because we really don't know where it came from or what sources were used to produce it. But hey, if it's in your hand and it sounds good, nothing bad about that. I have an original 1970's NEMS LP of Paranoid and I'm sad to say that it is noticeably (and last I checked, audibly) off-center, so if yours isn't, I'd rather have yours!

 

As with other bands in demand,can`t the UK reissue all analog Sabbath records right from the masters sounding as good as the first issues?
The US Rhinos seem to be selling well enough,I don`t know who has the rights or what the legal situation is.

 

I still prefer my original US Warner Brothers first pressings records. I just want mention also that the first pressing of the debut album on Green US label WB has a different mix compared to the other editions with palm trees label & white WB label.

 

Different good or different bad?

 

Which makes one wonder why he chose to work with it in the first place, poor judgement call on his part.

 

So is this considered the best version? Can anyone point this release out on Discogs? http://www.discogs.com/Black-Sabbath-Paranoid/master/302

Is there a considerable runner-up?