Re:Collection - Rush Permanent Waves (Mobile Fidelity edition)
Published January 09, 2008
As for that new packaging style, it's beautiful. I'll always miss the cool and smart Lift-Lock cases, but these mini-LP replicas are very nice. But . . . unfortunately there has to be a "but" . . . for some very strange reason, while Mobile Fidelity focuses so much time and energy recreating the original packaging, with nice, sharp images used for the cover and all photos, they really fudged it when it comes to the lyrics book cover, which is the same as the album cover. Instead of being the same crisp, sharp image, it is a murky, blurry, off-color red. Truly baffling - but it's relatively minor when everything else is so nice.
I'm older, maybe wiser, but certainly by now my hearing should be worse, not better, right? Isn't that how things work? You get older, and time and exposure takes its toll and things start wearing out, right? Perhaps that's not as it seems. Maybe as we get older, our hearing may start to go, but maybe there's a grace period where we're given a chance to really experience things the way we should. Maybe before it starts to deteriorate we get more sensitive. Or maybe I'm just lucky that I decided a decade ago to really start taking care of my hearing by watching the volume and wearing ear plugs at concerts. There are a million maybes. What's certain is that I'm lucky that I decided to give those discs a chance again. I might have missed this window of opportunity all together.
- Re:Collection - Rush Permanent Waves (Mobile Fidelity edition)
- Published: January 09, 2008
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Hard Rock, Music: Progressive Rock, Music: Rock
- Part of a feature: Re:Collection
- Writer: Tom Johnson
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I'm not sure, Mark. It sounds pretty nice - a lot better than the remaster, at least. I haven't compared it to the original, but I will definitely do so and report back. It's blasphemy for me to say this, but 2112 is not a favorite of mine, so I really haven't spent a ton of time listening to it.
I will now prepare for the hate mail from the "real" Rush fans. Come on, people - when it comes to epic Rush, I'm all about Hemispheres and "Cygnus X-1 Book II."
The MoFi 2112 sounds WAY better than the original. There's a lot more detail revealed in their remastering. In fact, I'm amazed at how muddy the original pressing sounds compared to the MFSL disc. It's still, as you say, claustrophobic, but the revealed detail really opens it up.
It brings back memories of 1981....
Yes MOFI is back, and while they have cheaped out on the packaging, the firmware is as good as ever.
Drpth, no tinny, no BASS ID BEST modern mix, and even a bit of distinct stereo separatino clarity.
If you like lossless, still remember "virgin vinyl" and taking back 2 or 3 copies of that new LP to Wee Three till you found one that was free of pops and clicks, than you will appreciate this.
Bling Blingers in SUVS and Wrong Wheel Drive kiddies in rattling crapboxes,and those that think Youtube on your 16:9 is HDTV, need not bother.
Ah, memories are what makes life fun. :)
(embarrassed smiley here) Now I see why the "Please" in "Please preview your comments is in bold"...
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does the 2112 mo-fi sound a lot better than the original? that was a very claustrophobic recording to begin with and then the first transfer to CD was pretty bad.
by the way, a friend of mine is a manufacturing engineer and worked on that lift-loc system, made by a company named Shape, from the state of maine.