Carole King Tapestry 1/2 Speed Master Sound Audiophile Recording CBS HE 44946

$

21

• Carole King.
• Tapestry.
• CBS Half-speed Mastered Extended Range Recording LP.
• Deluxe Gatefold Jacket.

Item Details
Manufactured in: USA
Recorded: At A&M Recording Studios
Lacquer Cut By: Columbia Mastering, New York, NY On The CBS DiscComputerTM
Pressing: At Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute, IN.
Original Issue: 1971
This Issue: 1980
Label: ODE HE 44946
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (stamp:) HAL 44946-1D (etch:) D10 ? T1
Side 2: (stamp:) HAL 44946-1E (etch:) C1 T1 ·  · · · ·
Was gifted to me by my good audiophile buddy Dave when he was converting his music sources to digital. Dave took pretty good care of his vinyl but always put some kind of stickers on the LP covers as part of an indecipherable filing system. You see them in all his glory in my photo. They might be removable but do full research and pre-testing for glue solvents that won't affect the surface printing. While under my care it has just a few plays only to get dubs for mix tapes, CDs, and iTunes. I played it only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with Voskhod Soviet matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
1: I Feel The Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful, Way Over Yonder.

2: You've Got A Friend, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, Smackwater Jack, Tapestry, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Record grading by text characters is subjective and does not fully describe quality levels. Please see photos and my detailed descriptions below.

Outer Jacket Inspection:
VG++/NM
Dave's filing system sticker-fest disqualifies any NM grade in my book, but the front face is NM otherwise. Also of minor note is a little crease on the lower left corner and the bottom edge has a little bit of rub wear. The rear jacket face and inside gatefold are pretty solid NM.

Vinyl visual inspection:
The surfaces looked visually perfect but for about 4 shimmery reflective hairlines that looked like polishing marks from sleeve removal/insertion. These could only be detected when viewed at a specific angle under my very bright halogen inspection light. The 2nd side also looked perfect until I found a visible reflective hairline trace passing thru T1. I made a note to check that whole track very carefully in play testing to make sure it did not affect play.

Play Testing:
NM/NM
Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection. I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 192k/24-bit WAV files. Continuous written notes were taken. Here is rundown of each side from my notes.

Side 1 Play
First thing I noted was that the LP lays "flat as a pancake" on my platter (I do use a record clamp). The 2nd thing I noticed was that the lacquer was cut at a pretty high level which usually reduces the chance of any vinyl noise intruding on the listener. But even so, at the end of T1 the transition groove was dead quiet indicating a very low vinyl noise floor and a really top pressing. T2 is a famous song of Carole's and it was very clear, detailed, and bold - fully faithful to the master analog tape. T3 was my favorite of the side. I thought T4  had the overall best mix and audio quality. My notes did not register a single audible tick during the music until I picked up a single one in T4.

Side 2 Play
I played T1 (a loud & proud classic track!) 100% because of my visual check note and the hairline seen did not produce any ticks repeating per revolution. I did hear some lead-in groove low level crackle for the first few seconds as it faded up into the song and then later on I heard a single soft tick in the track. T2 is another great classic with a spare mix of piano, bass and acoustic guitar that had good audio quality and I thought it was a standout for the side. T3 was crisp, clear, and incisive. T4 is the title cut and I found that re listening again after so long I had a greater appreciation for it. T5 was dead quiet except for the very end as it faded into the lead-out groove when I head just a few small ticks.

The original recording sounded like it was mixed using compression to achieve higher average sound levels so there isn't that much dynamic range here. But I think the re-mastering effort did manage to get all one could expect out of the master tape so one will be hearing all there is to be gotten out of a classic King album. This may be the last of the LP gifts from my audiophile buddy Dave to be sold. So far they all have had a common attribute of very low vinyl noise and play like they came right out of the jacket for the first play. This one just reinforces that opinion and so I am very comfortable giving the final NM/NM grade.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Dave's replacement VRP ant-static inner sleeve is included separately.
• Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" sleeve, as Dave's, even though soft plastic lined, may be holding onto some dust. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
• Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
• Sent in good quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners.

Shipping

• Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
• If you do buy more than one LP  on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.