Half Speed Mastered Vinyl - any good?

There's a nice discussion of half-speed mastering online.

Other more technical discussions are readily googled.

Abbey Road Studios have mastering facilities listed on their website:

http://www.abbeyroad.com/mastering#masteringsuite

If you scroll down to Room 30 you'll see that's where half-speed mastering is done.

As far as sound, I have about 20 half-speed mastered LPs and I'd say about half sound excellent and half have a sluggish, heavy sounding bottom end. Most of these are MFSL from the 1980's and the vinyl they used is very high quality and tracks silently. Lessons were learned in the 80's and I think the process has gotten better. When the half-speed mastering is done correctly, the LPs sound wonderful. Hopefully the latest half-speed masters you mention have got the technical aspects correct and are producing excellent sounding vinyl. I'd be interested to hear what you think if you buy one.

I've heard its only half-good...

I'm not sure what it is about the MFSL Half-speed mastered LPs.  Maybe it's an EQ thing, maybe the half-speed mastering, maybe a combination of both, but they are generally just not as rhythmically engaging as a decent original pressing.  What they are though is nice and quiet and quite "impressive".  However, I have found that as my hifi has improved over many years, regular LPs have sounded better and better but the weakness in the MFSLs have become more and more apparent.

In recent years I spent an evening with Chris Murphy in NZ comparing some favourite LPs with their MFSL versions, and time and again the regular LPs were just more engaging.  

However, Decca used to use half-speed mastering on their early stereo releases - this was to get around the technical shortcomings of the equipment of the time, specifically the limited high frequency response and the difficulty in cutting deep bass.  The latter was partially solved by mixing the deepest bass down to mono, but you'd never guess it when you listen to a pristine SXL of the late '50s or early '60s. The sound from these LPs can be really rather lovely, and in some cases preferable to later remasters of the same material.

I saw a Doors album I would have liked but it was 45rpm, I don't want to get up every 3 songs to flip it. Besides, changing the band on my Palmer TT is a very thin membrane and several have broken on me. I wouldn't want to stress it too much.  I vote for the original format every time tho the new remasters,or whatever, do sound wonderful.

I agree with Richard on the half speed mastered MFSL records, at least with the 33rpm issues. The Bob Dylan 45 rpm LPs are generally excellent, but there is the up and down to change sides element to them. Think of it as exercise.

One half speed mastered original issue I have that's really special is Dire Straits first album. Worth looking out for in the bins.

I've a CBS half-speed copy of Carole King's Tapestry that's very good indeed (given that the original wasn't a particularly good recording anyway) but as others have mentioned, the MFSL ones never impressed me, nor indeed most MFSL stuff in comparison with the original vinyl. Always a bit dull to these old ears. I suppose some might find it smooth.

I have recently purchased the 45rpm remastered Peter Gabriel 1 which I found very disappointing. I also agree with Steve that the constantant up and down does not add to a very relaxing listening experience. 

Graham.

In my early teenage years (late 1980s), the double tape deck reigned supreme and high-speed dubbing was all the rage. I used it too, until I realised that, with the HF response of that sort of deck's heads - to say nothing of the response of the cheap tape that was most peoples' default - only going up to around 15 kHz, dubbing at double speed but playing back normally would restrict the response to 7.5 kHz at best, to say nothing of other issues.

Not knowing much about it, but assuming it does what the name suggests, I would expect half-speed mastering to reverse this problem and turn it into a benefit, i.e. that it should increase the HF response. Interesting then that there are suggestions that they sound sluggish!

Mark

Whether or not half-speed mastering is intrinsically better, there are other elements in the reproduction chain that are very important so one needs to know exactly how the LP will be produced. There is a generally very sceptical thread on the Hoffman forum that is specifically about the Sound of Vinyl products. Search for Abbey Road half speed.

Clive