Gil Scott-Heron – Pieces Of A Man

La mia copia (180gr) presenta un difetto udibile durante tutta la riproduzione della side B. Un gracchio che cresce di volume proseguendo la sequenza dei brani . Pessima copia. Anche un mio conoscente ne possiede una con lo stesso difetto.

Beautiful pressing. Very quiet. Extremely dynamic. Great acoustics on every track, even Revolution, which is a live recording with overdubs.

@ dailydivefix: Having just received the new 2x45 AAA pressing Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces Of A Man i did a little shootout with this. To start with the obvious: Rainbo did a slightly better job on the jacket, giving it a nice glossy finish, a bit Stockton-tip-on light quality. One could argue that the original pressing from 1971 probably wasn't a glossy finish, but i don't mind and like it.
The (my) record itself looks fine, especially for Rainbo as it has a glossy surface, no mattish laquer horn lookalike. It's flat, plays clean with no noise. The soundstage is quite open, the overall sound's ok, but is a bit muddy. Add some highs and volume and it's still grooving. You can hear all the cool cats, from the Bob Thiel inhouse bass genius Ron Carter, Pretty Purdie kicking the groove while Jackson is flowing and Gill just shines. It's not a pressing you will play to friends to demonstrate great sound - but you can play it easily to show them great music. Allways send me shivers up my spine when The Prsioner rang out - so it can't be a pressing this bad ;-)
All of this is clearly more revealed on the new 2x45, not only the tracks benefit from allowing them more space, the mastering is simply stunning.
Even though Bob Thiele was a man looking for quality production i could image this new pressing might sound better than a og Flying Dutchman US copy. Can't tell for sure (one reviewer tells it this way) as i only own later Arista albums by GS-H, found the mid 70ies titles laked a bit of production.

But even if i appreciate a nice sounding, well pressed platter for sure, i don't fell that comfortable with all this blabla 'bout how wonderful all these audiophile pressings are, how crappy GZ or Rainbo might be, which copy blows whom and what out of the water and so on. It's the music that matters, there's so much good stuff to get your hands on.
Getting deep down in the rabbithole called the quest for ThePerfectSound might be worth the time for some beloved platters (this one's a candidate for me), but mainly i'd prefer to go route for the music, not the sound. In the end all that matters is the possibility to listen to this wonderful music, no matter from what source available. And this pressing isn't for sure a bad source, was happy for it for years until i've heard the new one which has clearly more dynamics and brilliance.

tl;dr: originals are mainly out of reach for most of us; the new Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces Of A Man offers probably the best sound/mastering but might suffer from pressing issues; if you stumble upon this one around 20 bucks in good shape, don't hesitate to grab it.

Anyone have this and able to comment on the pressing? Thanks