In brief
The Alan Parsons Project: I Robot – UHQR versus One-Step
An analogue cut from the early eighties against the One-Step pressing with a DSD stage – for “I Robot”, the comparison is clear-cut.
Luckily I managed to get hold of some of Mobile Fidelity’s UHQR pressings in the eighties. I sold one of them, “The Dark Side of the Moon”, in spring 2023, and without regret: it is in the good hands of a serious audiophile who runs a high-end manufacturing business in the north of Germany.
When the One-Step pressing of the Alan Parsons Project’s “I Robot” came my way by chance, a comparison was the obvious thing to do. Both editions go back to the same stereo mix that Alan Parsons recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1976/77; they differ in mastering. The UHQR was cut from the master tape in the analogue domain, while for the 2022 One-Step, according to Mobile Fidelity, the signal ran through a DSD256 conversion on its way to the cutting lathe.
With Santana’s “Abraxas” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, the One-Step editions with their DSD stage had thrilled me; the sound was perfect. All the more surprised I was with “I Robot”. The UHQR sounds thoroughly warm and wide-ranging, the One-Step clear but turned down in level. It is not bad, yet I had the feeling the singer was sitting in a cage. In this case the all-analogue transfer makes the difference. No wonder, I suspect, since the master tapes are decades older now – you can hear it.
The original speaks of “DSD mixing”; what is meant is the DSD stage in mastering. Whether it, the age of the tapes or something else causes the difference cannot be determined with certainty from a listening comparison. Details of the editions from Mobile Fidelity and Discogs.
This post first appeared at AudioCirc and is published here with kind permission, translated and edited. Photos: AudioCirc. Original post at AudioCirc ↗