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Breakfast in America

Progmeister

Progmeister

The Progmeister
Which is the best version of this. I know it was remastered in 2010 though i am unsure if it was better or worse. I am looking to acquire a digital version of the album as i only own a copy of the first generation LP.
 
Some audiophile controversy about Breakfast In America:


I find myself disagreeing with this guy quite a lot about other albums he’s reviewed/compared. My suspicion based on his reviews is I’d find his system too bright and forward for my taste, e.g. he doesn’t like typical ‘70s Japanese Blue Notes, whereas I absolutely love them. They just sound so alive and dynamic here, but with no glare or edge, yet he thinks they are way, way too bright. As such maybe apply a pinch of salt, but still very interesting. I’ve nothing constructive to add as all I’ve heard is the UK original vinyl, and that is great to my ears. I actually dug mine out after watching this review many months ago to see if I could hear what he hates so much about the drum kit metalwork etc, and to my ears it sounds fine. Typical ‘70s approach to drum recording, which is far from perfect, but sits about where it should in the mix to my ears. I’d not have singled it out. By saying that my system (Quad powered Lockwoods) is very likely what it was recorded and mastered through, so it should sound about right. I agree it is not as good a recording as Crime Of The Century, but it still sounds fine to me. It’s not something I’d personally be interested in exploring beyond the best and earliest UK vinyl you can find. Get that, consider it done. I think mine is a nice clean A3/B4, something like that. I liberated it out of a £1 charity shop bin decades ago.
 
Is this mother talking about the same record as i bought when it was released? I think he may need to check hid needle!
 
I have just played my original 1979 UK pressing and the latest MoFi pressing - just the first track.
Original - what I assume are cymbals are recognisable only because they, presumably, can't be anthing else. Snare drum excellent, drums otherwise good.
MoFi - cymbals, if anything, slightly worse, snare drum similar to original. I am not convinced that the indistinct cymbals do not include, or are, zills (had to look up what they are called - tambourine without a skin), especially second half of the track. Whether cymbals or zills, they are similar on the two records.
 
Vinny said:
what I assume are cymbals are recognisable only because they, presumably, can't be anthing else.
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The (pre-punk/new-wave) 1970s were often really odd for drum sounds! It amazes me just how bizarre a lot of UK prog albums etc are in this regard. There seemed to be a fashion for damping the toms down to the point they sounded like soggy cardboard boxes and hi-hats were often EQd to sound like a thin almost white noise. I recall (I think) Trevor Horn saying the ‘hi-hat’ part on some of his records was actually the hiss hiss hiss of a rhythmically played aerosol can! Much 70s disco was the same, really extreme drum EQ with heavy damping extending to the snare too. The whole kit sounding like it was covered in blankets. As such I don’t see the Supertramp album as being anything out of the ordinary, it is the sound pallet of its time. They clearly weren’t aiming at ‘real’ and it stands as what it is. This is not Art Blakey’s drum kit!
 
Tony L said:
As such I don’t see the Supertramp album as being anything out of the ordinary, it is the sound pallet of its time. They clearly weren’t aiming at ‘real’ and it stands as what it is. This is not Art Blakey’s drum kit!
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Indeed, absolutely so. I would not have had a listen but for the prompt here. Normally I would listen to the music, not the instruments, so to speak.
 
Tony L said:
Some audiophile controversy about Breakfast In America:


I find myself disagreeing with this guy quite a lot about other albums he’s reviewed/compared. My suspicion based on his reviews is I’d find his system too bright and forward for my taste, e.g. he doesn’t like typical ‘70s Japanese Blue Notes, whereas I absolutely love them. They just sound so alive and dynamic here, but with no glare or edge, yet he thinks they are way, way too bright. As such maybe apply a pinch of salt, but still very interesting. I’ve nothing constructive to add as all I’ve heard is the UK original vinyl, and that is great to my ears. I actually dug mine out after watching this review many months ago to see if I could hear what he hates so much about the drum kit metalwork etc, and to my ears it sounds fine. Typical ‘70s approach to drum recording, which is far from perfect, but sits about where it should in the mix to my ears. I’d not have singled it out. By saying that my system (Quad powered Lockwoods) is very likely what it was recorded and mastered through, so it should sound about right. I agree it is not as good a recording as Crime Of The Century, but it still sounds fine to me. It’s not something I’d personally be interested in exploring beyond the best and earliest UK vinyl you can find. Get that, consider it done. I think mine is a nice clean A3/B4, something like that. I liberated it out of a £1 charity shop bin decades ago.
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He probably likes a particular sound & rails against anything different from that. I think it is a very dynamic sounding record, perhaps not tonally accurate but it presents as the band intended.
 
Only have original UK vinyl version but whilst overall I regard it as a pretty decent recording I have always found it rather thin and bright sounding... the sort of album which if I had tone controls I may be tempted to set it at bass +1 and treble -1 or so
 
I only have the remastered iTunes version, which sounds pretty good.
Audacity shows a small shelf lift above about 7 kHz, only a dB or so, no other obvious mangling and still plenty of dynamic range.
I guess this would could be too much if you have bright speakers like PMCs or old Triangle
 
I'm with Arkless on this. Played my UK original vinyl and I thought it sounded pretty horrible. Thin and bright sums it up. I would be intrigued to here a DSD version but I suspect it would be wince level treble. However on SA-CD Net it is very highly praised so I think I could be tempted.
 
Don't have the vinyl version anymore as I sold off my collection of 3000+ albums years ago. However, I have 3 copies on CD/SACD. I have an original CD version, the remastered CD version and the Mobile Fidelity Hybrid SACD version. I find the original CD listenable, but a little bright sounding. The remastered CD is on the verge of being unlistenable and I'm not sure why I still have it. The MoFi SACD was obtained a couple of months ago and to my ears, it not only sounds the best version, but it finally sounds like a well balanced album to me. I've probably played the album more since I got the SACD than I have for many years.
 
Just played the first two tracks of the UK vinyl (mine is actually quite a late A8, so really nothing special at all) and I stand by what I said above. It is what it is. The sound aesthetic is clearly deliberate and centred around the electric piano, voice and sax. It does have that uplifted kit sound that I associate with the late-70s and way too much cocaine. I notice it was recorded in LA, which was the epicentre for cocaine as a recording tool, so I’d put money on it having been recorded and mixed far too loud through huge blue-face JBLs by people totally off their box. A lot of late-period classic rock albums are like this, e.g. Al Stewart’s Year Of The Cat has a similarly top-lifted sound.

PS BIA is not really lacking in bass, that is largely present and correct, certainly easy to follow (both bass guitar and kick drum), but it doesn’t have the ‘small speaker bass boost’ so many expect these days. Sounds fine on the Tannoys, just a little cocaine-lift at the top, which I put down to intentional aesthetic.
 
It was such a success at the time there was a TV prog about the making of the album. Fixed in my mind is a sun-drenched John Helliwell arriving at the studio on an enormous motor cycle - no helmet then, of course - while I was trying to make a career of policing in the cold, forbidding people’s republic of South Yorkshire and I remember wondering which of us had been dealt the better hand.
The next time I heard of Helliwell he was a guest on Test Match Special and Jonathan Agnew had never heard of him nor Supertramp so that set us on a more equal footing.
Haven’t played my LP in years but Crime of the Century still gets aired.
 
slavedata said:
I'm with Arkless on this. Played my UK original vinyl and I thought it sounded pretty horrible. Thin and bright sums it up. I would be intrigued to here a DSD version but I suspect it would be wince level treble. However on SA-CD Net it is very highly praised so I think I could be tempted.
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He never actually said that it sounded horrible though. I think it’s pretty decent sonically.
 
I’ve got the new remastered CD, just dull dull dull.
I hear the record is based on that.
Not better on Spotify, same remaster I guess.
My old battered LP, 1979, sounds incredible – but definitely bright and bass-light – in spite of the now loud pops. It’s the way I’ve listened to it for 40 years.
Oh and I have a DCC tape which also sounds better than the new CD.
 
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