{"product_id":"yes_close_2606","title":"Yes - Close To The Edge - White Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a white mark that plays 2 times at a light to moderate level about 1\/3\" into track 2 on side 2, \"And You and I: II. Eclipse\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis original Atlantic pressing (the only ones we sell) 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 Close To The Edge 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:%221972%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1972\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\u003eWe Love The Complexity\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe had started and then abandoned this shootout multiple times prior to 2008. Most of the pressings of Close To The Edge we played were painful to listen to, and even the better pressings weren't all that we had hoped for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere was the Tubey Magical analog sound with the phenomenal bass that we knew so well from the best copies of Fragile and The Yes Album?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet's think about it. This is a \u003ci\u003ecomplex\u003c\/i\u003e recording, with \u003ci\u003ehuge\u003c\/i\u003e organs, light-speed changes, lots of multi-tracking, and what practically amounts to an \u003ci\u003eoverload\u003c\/i\u003e of information. Can you imagine how irritating all that can sound crammed onto a third-rate copy? We didn't have to imagine it -- we heard it. We feel fortunate to have survived it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut that's exactly what made the shootout so rewarding. We had finally gotten the sound we were searching for from Close To The Edge, although it was anything but easy. The toughest peaks to climb are the ones you feel proudest standing atop, and I have no doubt that many of you will be able to get there, just as we did.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Close To The Edge\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLess grit -- smoother and sweeter sound, something that is not easy to come by on Close To The Edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA bigger presentation -- more size, more space, more room for all the instruments and voices to occupy. The bigger the speakers you have to play this record, the better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore bass and tighter bass. This is fundamentally a pure rock record. It needs weight down low to rock the way \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22eddie-offord%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEddie Offord\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e wanted it to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePresent, breathy vocals. A veiled midrange is the rule, not the exception.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood top-end extension to reproduce the harmonics of the instruments and details of the recording including the studio ambience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast but not least, balance. All the elements from top to bottom should be heard in harmony with each other. Take our word for it, assuming you haven't played a pile of these yourself, balance is not that easy to find.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur best copies will have it though, of that there is no doubt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Challenge\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis album, like a number of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink recordings by the band, ranks fairly high on our \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22difficulty-of-reproduction%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edifficulty of reproduction scale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. Do not attempt to play it using anything but the highest quality equipment, tweaked to perfection, and fed the best electricity, in a carefully treated room. Proper VTA adjustment is a must.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are cacophonous passages that have what sounds like board overload, mic preamp overload, tape saturation or some combination of all three. As a rule, the less the distortion the better the pressing, and our best pressings will have very little distortion indeed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe British originals can be good, but they are hard to find and \u003ci\u003eusually\u003c\/i\u003e have bad vinyl and weak sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt seems as though our Hot Stamper pressings are the only game in town for those who want to hear this wonderful music sound its best, but you've got to be up for the challenge. If you haven't done the work with your stereo that must be done to play a recording like this, you might want to spend your hard-earned money on some of our other Hot Stampers, the ones that are easier to reproduce.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBetter yet, buy it and consider it a challenge. When it starts to work its magic in your system, that's a pretty clear sign that you've really accomplished something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus 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 later 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 originals.\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 Rock Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClose To The Edge is a recording that belong in any serious rock collection. Others that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-rock-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Yes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52039267025192,"sku":"yes_close","price":999.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/yes_close.jpg?v=1782838793","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/yes_close_2606","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}