Definitive Audiophile pressings

@Mather

So I picked up that Tricky album off the Amazon sale you mentioned so I can give you a opinion once I play it. Did you end up getting it?

Off the top, I can tell you it's an Optimal pressing. The records come in printed inners but all three discs are scuff-free and clean. I haven't checked for other defects yet. Did some quick needle drops and the vinyl is extremely quiet so it bodes well. Fingers crossed.
 
Turbo said:
@Mather

So I picked up that Tricky album off the Amazon sale you mentioned so I can give you a opinion once I play it. Did you end up getting it?

Off the top, I can tell you it's an Optimal pressing. The records come in printed inners but all three discs are scuff-free and clean. I haven't checked for other defects yet. Did some quick needle drops and the vinyl is extremely quiet so it bodes well. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
As I'm sure you're aware I literally bought it seconds after asking y'all about it.

Vinyl was dirty as hell but records played very clean. Quick review... There's more extension on vocals and instruments, the extra room to breath on the vinyl basically accounts for this I suspect. Noise floor is very low, quieter than the MOV. The bass is slightly less than the MOV and the entire thing sounds cleaner and more... delicate. It's refined whereas the MOV is more raw. YMMV depending on setup and preference but I'd say it's a better master and pressing however it may be too polite for some who would prefer the boomier bass and dirtier sound of the MOV.

The extra remixes are cool and the raw edits and a capella stuff are interesting but probably not gunna spin those much.
 
And just as a follow up to my thoughts on the new Portishead Live at Roseland, I've listened to it a few more times and done a direct comparison to the MOV. Fidelity wise they're actually pretty close, the MOV definitely holds up. But where the new press really shines is on the songs towards the end of each side, they allowed a bit more room for this pressing with less deadwax and when you get to the inner groove tracks you can tell. Where the MOV tends to get pretty congested and muddy on these tracks the new pressing is clear as day. On "Half Day Closing" as the song crescendos at the end on the MOV it kinda just turns into a brick of noise whereas the new master you can pick out individual strings and instruments, just sounds a lot clearer and cleaner. The crowd noise has been cut down and the vocals brought a bit farther forward which does kill the live sound a lot, but it's not as different from the MOV in this respect as I had initially thought HOWEVER... since they are now using all the correct tracks from the Roseland performance and not substituting other recordings in their place the new Sour Times and Roads inclusion are... not my favorite. Sour Times is kinda boppy and upbeat and Roads excludes all the clapping from the original pressing as that was not actually from the Roseland performance. Those will be down to individual preference but I'm not sure I like these versions as much even though they are the "correct" set list. All in it's a great pressing and technically speaking sounds better than the MOV, but less live, more polished and the new tracks are... ehhh...
 
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