By request this video follows up on my previous video about this astonishingly great album from the Cure: Songs of a Lost World, in which I compared the 'standard' black bio vinyl LP release, mastered and cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, and the 'Retail Exclusive', 'mastered by Brian Lucey and Bernie Grundman', pressed on grey marbled bio vinyl, both at Pallas GmbH. For this follow-up video I also purchased the 'Abbey Road Half Speed Mastered' Miles Showell cut 2LP double album, the Deluxe 3 disc set (2 x CDs / 1 x Blu-Ray) and finally, but by no means least, the cassette release, mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis.
So, finally with all seven different stereo versions on hand, how do they compare? Is there an absolute winner?
Please enjoy the video.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
06:30 Sound quality shoot-out
06:53 1. Qobuz 24/96 stream
07:58 2. Compact Disc
09:22 3. Blu-Ray 24/96 'Hi-Res Stereo'
11:53 4. Miles Showell single LP
18:23 5. Miles Showell double LP
20:59 6. Bernie Grundman 'retail exclusive' LP
27:26 7. Cassette
32:58 Summing Up
If you've not already watched it, do check out my original video on this album: https://youtu.be/deLrWbp413M?si=tJJWL_WBJ8WIfWCb
I'd also thoroughly recommend The Cure's own video of the live performance of this album: https://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo?si=axnDzmLECvNBFOma
You can buy most of these versions direct from: https://shopuk.thecure.com