{"product_id":"simonbridg_2609-2","title":"Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water - Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHey Guys and Gals, What's With the High Prices for Common Rock Records?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason we rarely have this record in stock is that our failure rate for the copies we buy is probably between 70 and 80%. Some of those records we pay a hundred bucks for these days, five times what they cost us five or ten years ago. And they are few and far between.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis vintage Columbia 360 Stereo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn't showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to \"see\" the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It's what vintage all analog recordings are known for -- \u003ci\u003ethis sound\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Bridge Over Troubled Water Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221970%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1970\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePassing the Tests\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo many copies of this album sound wrong in so many ways, it would be impossible to list them all here. Suffice it to say, a Hot Stamper copy has to pass a lot of tests before we’re willing to vouch for it, and this copy easily passed those tests.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe love this music, but let me tell you the truth -- this is not a shootout we look forward to doing. The sound of many copies borders on painful. If you play a couple dozen copies, you'll probably turn up a good one eventually, but you're likely to end up with a headache before you do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou would have to look far and wide to find a copy that isn't plagued with transistory, gritty, opaque and\/or unmusical sound. Fortunately for you, dear Better Records customer, you don't have to look any further than your email inbox to find a good sounding BOTW, because we found it for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eRecent Findings\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most interesting findings in recent shootouts was that no Red Label copy scored remotely as high as the best 360 Label copies -- even when they had the same stamper numbers. The later labels are often clean and clear, but ultimately they lack the Midrange Magic, warmth, and sweetness of the best early pressings. Since this recording has a problem in all those areas to start with, most Red Label copies are missing too much of the Simon \u0026amp; Garfunkel magic, the kind of magic that is so wonderfully evident on their two previous outings: Parsley, Sage... and Bookends.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy do the two previous albums have more magic? They're simpler productions, the kind that can be handled by the four-track machine they were recorded on. Bridge is the boys' Musical Statement for All Time, with production and scope far exceeding their previous work. Like the Beatles with Abbey Road, they gave it their all and went out on a high note. (The Beatles planned it that way, while S and G fell victim to their ambition, which you can read about in the AMG review.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat a Masterpiece they achieved. Ten weeks at Number One on the charts. Depth and breadth of material only hinted at on their earlier efforts. Who can argue with this being one of the most important achievements in popular music of the last fifty years?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Bridge Over Troubled Water\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The vocals aren't \"back there\" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22roy-halee%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRoy Halee\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e in this case -- would put them.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight punchy bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Price Must Be Paid\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sonic problems and promise of the multi-track approach can both be heard in one track: \"The Only Living Boy In New York.\" The song starts simply, focusing on the duo's lovely voices, with only minimal instrumentation. It sounds \u003ci\u003ephenomenal\u003c\/i\u003e on the better pressings, and very good on even the more run-of-the-mill 360 copies. Halfway through the song, heavy-handed production kicks in, and the sound suffers significantly. You can't fault the band for going big, but neither can you blame audiophiles for wishing they had kept it simple.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis kind of musical and sonic complexity has a price. Play the ending to the title song and you will hear immediately what I mean. They had only four tracks to work with, and four is just not enough to squeeze all the sounds they wanted to record. Compromises had to be made. Reductions of four tracks into one were done numerous times. This process leaves three fresh tracks of tape for more overdubs but adds a generation of tape to the tracks that were reduced. Those extra generations of tape cause the added problems one hears on the big production songs on this album and Bookends as well. (Save the Life of My Child comes immediately to mind.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, our job is to find the pressing that captures as much of the magic as possible with as little of the distortion. This means three things: proper mastering, good vinyl and tender loving care from previous owners, a tough combo but not an impossible one we're happy to say.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Popular Recording\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider this Simon and Garfunkel album a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22pop-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. It's a recording that should be part of any serious popular music collection. Others that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-pop-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis album also ranks close to the top of our \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22difficulty-of-reproduction%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edifficulty of reproduction scale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. You're going to need a hi-res, super low distortion front end with careful adjustment of your arm in every area -- VTA, tracking weight, azimuth and anti-skate -- in order to play this album properly. If you've got the goods you're gonna love the way this copy sounds. Play it with a budget cart \/ table \/ arm and you're likely to hear a great deal less magic than we did.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon and Garfunkel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52324070687016,"sku":"simonbridg","price":299.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/simonbridg.jpg?v=1788199553","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/simonbridg_2609-2","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}