Here's an old article discussing a Tusk audiophile, when the format was new.
New York Times (NY), July 6, 1980
RECORDINGS HIGH-QUALITY DISKS FOR THE 'AUDIOPHILE'
JOHN ROCKWELL
Fleetwood Mac ," the 1975 album by the group of that name and its first with its current personnel, is one of the best-known of all 1970's pop disks. The album was released by Warner Brothers and is still available on that label. Yet recently it also appeared as part of something called Original Master Recordings, which in turn is put out by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. This is a higher-priced, limited edition "audiophile" pressing, the product of one of the four companies now issuing such refurbished disks of well-known pop stars. And the differences between it and the record you probably already have in your collection are marked.
The 1975 release was and remains a superbly produced high-fidelity record, but the audiophile version is finer still. It is not so radically altered as to be unrecognizable: the differences are not as pronounced as, say, a recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony made in the 1930's and one of today. But the bass notes are more sharply and cleanly defined, the highs are more crisply etched, the mid-range is more solid, the overall texture is more transparent and natural, there is less distortion and the surfaces are quieter. If you have a good enough sound system, and you play it loud, the record sounds as if you are listening to the playback of the final mix straight off the studio monitors.
Audiophile" in the broadest sense means any recording designed for the high-fidelity connoisseur. Audiophile recordings of all sorts have proliferated in recent years, and can be seen as the restless stirrings of an industry presumably on the verge of abandoning record players as we know them and shifting over to the new digital playback equipment. Thus the various forms of audiophile recordings are probably the last, desperate refinements of an already-outmoded technology. But in the short run, the results are still spectacular, and require no alterations in play-back equipment.
In fact, the very reason for the audiophile "software" is that the sophistication of present-day playback equipment (or "hardware") has long since outstripped the capabilities of the average, mass-produced LP and cassette. Various avenues to superior audiophile recordings have been attempted. There are digital recordings transferred to conventional "analogue" disks, but awaiting final conversion into true digital disks, once the playback equipment is in American homes. There are "direct-disk" recordings, in which the artists simply play the music straight onto the master disk. And there are the new, more highly responsive chromium-dioxide cassettes.
But all of these have their limitations. Digital-to-analogue disks are an obvious compromise, and don't sound all that superior to analogue recordings. The digital recording process doesn't yet offer the full range of overdubbing so beloved by pop producers. That is also the principal drawback of direct-disk recordings, which by their very nature allow for no overdubbing at all. Besides, direct disk seems unsuitable for top-selling pop records, since the limited life of a master disk makes it difficult to press millions of vinyl records. And the very nature of cassettes right now seems to preclude sound that can equal the best disks -although cassette proponents might dispute that statement.
For pop audiophile recordings, the preferred method is to take an already-recorded, analogue master tape and prepare from it a superior LP pressing. The reasons for this method of operation are two. One, it allows pop fans who are also hi-fi buffs to hear their favorite records in sound they may never have realized was there; in classical music, there can always be a brand-new performance made of a familiar work, but in contemporary pop, piece and performance are usually one. Two, it lets the artists make their records without worrying too much about new technology. Indeed, they don't have to worry about anything, unless they choose to approve the new masters, since the recording is already finished before the audiophile labels move in.
Original Master Recordings, which made the Fleetwood Mac record described above, was the first of the new pop audiophile labels, and has the largest catalogue of such pressings. Super Disk, which is also near Los Angeles, and Nautilus, in Nashville, came next. And now a "major," the New York-based CBS, has inaugurated its own Mastersound series.
All four of these labels do the same thing, with one exception. They lease the master tape of a well-known pop recording from the original company, and release a specified number of their own version. The exception is CBS, which can draw from its own roster of artists and thus needn't restrict itself as to numbers of records pressed. The key step in the audiophile process for all four labels is the making of a "half-speed" master. This process involves playing the master tape and the master disk at half the normal speed, with a resultant improvement in frequency response, definition of the grooves and lowering of distortion. Thereafter every step is refined to a degree that mass-production doesn't seem to allow: the metal stampers are made more carefully, better vinyl is used in the actual disks, there is greater quality control all down the line and the disks are inserted into special static-resistant sleeves.Original Master Recordings has its disks pressed in Japan; the other labels do their pressings in this country.
A sampling of the various companies' catalogues gives a hint of what is available. Original Master Recordings offers disk by Supertramp ("Crime of the Century"), John Klemmer, Al Stewart, George Benson, Little Feat, the Grateful Dead ("American Beauty"), Emmylou Harris, Pink Floyd ("Dark Side of the Moon"), Gordon Lightfoot, Poco, Steve Miller, the Beatles ("Abbey Road" - which is especially pristine to hear, given its age), Neil Diamond, Styx ("The Grand Illusion"), Steeleye Span and others. In addition, disks by Steely Dan ("Katy Lied") and the Crusaders are already out of print.
Direct Disk has, among others, Carly Simon's "Boys in the Trees," Elton John's "Yellow Brick Road" and the Who's "Who Are you." On Nautilus are Heart's "Dreamboat Annie," Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark." The first such pop disks on the initial CBS Mastersounds release are Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," Boston's "Boston" and Billy Joel's "The Stranger."
These disks are rather erratically available (given both distribution troubles and the limited numbers originally pressed) at selected record stores and audiophile shops. The average list price is $14.98, which covers both the costs of taking greater care and, when necessary, the payment of a royalty to the artist and the original record company.
The future of such recordings is unclear; by next year, they may have gone the way of the picture disk, although that degree of ephemerality seems unlikely. Clearly they do not presage a massive upgrading of normal pressings: the demands of the mass market and the need to keep the already-escalating prices of conventional records as low as possible preclude that. And presumably they won't survive into the era of the true digital disk.
But CBS's entry into the audiophile market indicates that research has indeed revealed a tangible market for such quality products. Right now the question is, whether enough owners of moderately priced reproduction equipment will think it worth their while to invest in these audiophile disks. In the meantime, pop fans with at all substantial playback equipment have an exciting treat in store.
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