Man's Temptation, track 3 on side one, has got some seriously bright EQ happening (reminiscent of the first BS&T album), so if that song even sounds tolerable in the midrange you are doing better than expected.
Clean Cutting
What you get with this copy is some of the most transparent, lowest distortion, cleanest cutting we've ever heard. This copy is high-rez like you will not believe, with an unusually extended top end on both sides.
Turn It Up
Most copies are far too bright and phony sounding to turn up loud; the distortion and grit are just too much at higher volumes. On a copy like this, with more correct tonality and an overall freedom from distortion, you can TURN IT UP and LET IT ROCK.
Season of the Witch sounds amazing at loud levels on this copy, with its big build-ups and quiet breakdowns. It is nothing less than a thrill to just let it blast away at the levels we were listening at. The band is RIGHT THERE.
Side One
A++, big and clear with absolutely ZERO smear! The bass is solid and tight, and there's more transparency here than on the typical pressing. So good!
Side Two
We awarded this side a rare A++++ grade, reserved for the kind of sound that makes us completely rethink the possibilities of a recording! Super spacious and three-dimensional with an amazingly extended top end, this absolutely blew away everything else in our shootout. Rich and Tubey Magical with incredible energy and no smear at all, this is doing everything we want it to. AMAZING!
Red Labels Can Sound Good
Every once in a while, when it comes time to stamp out some more copies of slow but still-selling records, "back catalog" as they are known in the trade, someone has to go into the vault and find a tape to master from. Maybe that person finds a real master tape. Or maybe that person finds a master tape and makes a really high quality dub of it to master from. Either one of those possibilities might produce a great sounding final product relative to the sub-generation, EQ'd, compressed cutting tape used to make most copies, including the originals.
Don't get me wrong: Many originals are superb. All things being equal, I would try to find an original if I were looking for this record. But all things are never equal. There are too many variables involved in the making of a record. One can never predict what the best sounding version is gonna be.
