GENESIS The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway CLASSIC QUIEX SV-P Audiophile SEALED

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GENESIS  The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway New & Sealed Vinyl - 2 Record Set - Audiophile
Record Label: Classic Records/ATCO SD 2-401 Year: 1974
An extremely hard to find SEALED audiophile reissue by Classic Records. Mastered at half speed from the original source master tapes, this was Classic Records' attempt to achieve the ultimate in vinyl sound quality . An all-analog, tube amplification process was used at every step and then pressed on Classic's proprietary 200 gram QUIEX SV-P Vinyl. The packaging is beautiful as Classic pride themselves for releasing each album with the original artwork, LP labels and any other materials which were included with original pressings. This title is LONG out of print and growing more collectable by the day.
Record is new and still sealed in it's original plastic sleeve. Perforation is completely intact. Corners are sharp, spine is straight and colors are vibrant. Although the plastic is sealed, there is about a 1 inch split in the sleeve on both sides of the gatefold (NOT the plastic sleeve) on the very top. 
Songs: 
Side One 1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway   2. Fly on a Windshield   3. Broadway Melody of 1974   4. Cuckoo Cocoon   5. In the Cage
6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging   7. Back in N.Y.C.   8. Hairless Heart   9. Counting Out Time   10. The Carpet Crawlers   11. The Chamber of 32 Doors  
Side Two 1. Lilywhite Lilith   2. The Waiting Room   3. Anyway   4. The Supernatural Anaesthetist   5. The Lamia   6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats  
7. The Colony of Slippermen: The Arrival/A Visit to the Doktor/The Raven   8. Ravine   9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway   10. Riding the Scree   11. In the Rapids   12. It  
Review: Classic has done another great job. The improvements on this one leap out at you. I used to think the original release wasn't too awfully bad and didn't leave too much room for improvement. But I was wrong.
Even before this re-issue, the bass on this album was crushing to say the least. It's some of the deepest bass I've heard on vinyl from a rock band. It's even better now. As side two starts with Back in NYC, a repeating single note (really deeeeep) bass chord sets the undertone of the entire song. Bass like this on vinyl, is as rare as hens teeth, and the best part, it's not overdone in the least. Then they roll into Hairless Heart, which has even deeper bass. On the original release, the deepest bass sounded a bit weak, almost flabby and unpronounced now it's firm and authoritative. This album could easily take it's place in the bass-heads hall of fame :-)
The vocal tracks on the original release tend to be a little hard to handle. Peter's voice, when he pushes it to extremes, is right at that frequency that causes paint to peel. The old pressings didn't help this aspect at all, in fact it made it a lot worse. There was a lot of distortion on the outer edges of his voice, the Sss's, Ch's and elsewhere. The Classic re-issue is far smoother. You can now crank it where before it was almost unbearable at high volumes during the vocal passages.
On the original release, the sustain of Phil's cymbals was almost non-existent, now you can clearly here the decay, almost to the noise floor. I was thinking that maybe somebody had used a compressor on the original masters so I called and talked to the guys at Classic about what I was hearing. They told me that they had just taken the master tape and properly cut a master lacquer then made a mother (and then stamper) from that. They hadn't done any re-mixing or added any effects (eq or reverb) at all to this release.
So that lead me to the question, "Why is your reissue so much clearer than the original piece of vinyl?". There were actually a whole host of reasons. First, Classic is out to get the best possible sound out of each piece of vinyl they produce, unlike (so many) record companies of yesteryear who were just out to flood the market with product. Extreme attention is paid to each album that is reissued to insure that every detail that is on the master tape is faithfully reproduced on the vinyl. Back in the "good old days" they just didn't care as much about the quality of the end product. Remember, we audiophiles hadn't been invented quite yet or if we were, we weren't really cognizant yet.
Another issue existed back then that effected the sound quality of a record, many times the record company's original lacquers would often sit for days prior to being plated. During that time the lacquer could be subjected to all kinds of environmental conditions that can have a negative impact on the end product. Classic actually has the master lacquer plated the same day as it is cut, "hot off the press" so to speak.
On The Lamb Lies Down reissue, Classic has tamed nearly all of this nastiness. Gone are most of the sibilant distortions. The low level detail that we never heard is now here for all to behold. The Classic release is so much more enjoyable to listen to. It's as if a veil has been lifted from the entire album. The treble is far clearer, more delicate and refined. The instruments and vocals almost jump out of the speakers at times. As for the bass, it's like I mentioned earlier, this one could go in the hall of fame. I do have to say I did run across a couple of spots that were a little "hot" but it was literally only two or three spots and those had to be due to tape saturation (way over +3db). There's nothing anybody can do about those.
The Quiex vinyl easily lives up to it's billing too. I had it cranked pretty good (105db) on The Lamia, which is a fairly delicate (but bizarre) song and the surface noise was dead quiet. All I heard in the background was the (very) soft analog tape hiss.
Musically, The Lamb Lies Down is (arguably) the groups best album. Forget about my interpretations of the lyrics for a moment, this album takes you on a musical journey that is nearly unparalleled in progressive rock. This release proudly is ranks right up there with of the rock and roll giants like, Physical Graffiti, Tommy, and Dark Side of the Moon without a doubt. This is one of the best progressive rock albums ever recorded.
The finesse in which the crew at Classic applied to this one is quite stunning. Comparing the original release to Classic's reissue, the choice is simple. The Classic Records re-issue beats the pants off the original release. ~ TNT Audio
Shipping:
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