A while ago, DLedin offered a comparison between the two versions below:
Peronally speaking, I actually enjoyed the two rips (also MFSL UHQR Japan 1982 custom pressing (MFQR 1-100) made by Dr Robert and also by Pbthal (Patrick Buckingham)
Also, the Australian Audio5 EMI Australia 1983 only 500 copies ever released on vinyl was an excellent condender.
The Beatles
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
Nimbus Supercut PCS 7027 (1984)
versus:
The Beatles
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFQR 1-100 (1982) UHQR
For some time I've been curious how the Sgt. Pepper Nimbus Supercut pressing stacks
up to the Mobile Fidelity UHQR pressing. The difficulty has been that I've not seen
any drops of the Nimbus Supercut pressing circulating as it's a rare item.
While I'm very reluctant to add yet more Beatles needledrops to what seems to be a
preponderance of them by other droppers, I thought others might have an interest in
this so it's with no small amount of trepidation that I share this project.
So what you have here is a comparison of the Sgt. Pepper Nimbus Supercut and the
MFSL/UHQR pressings.
For those who are unfamiliar with these pressings, the Nimbus Supercut was a very
limited pressing made available in 1984 through the audiophile magazines 'Practical Hi-fi'
and 'Hi-fi Today'. I have found estimates on the number of copies pressed ranging between
500 and 1500. That makes this LP quite rare. Here's a further spiel I found on the 'net
regarding Nimbus Supercut pressings in general:
QUOTE:
Nimbus Records have achieved somewhat of a legendary status within the audiophile circle
for their 'Supercut' releases, which were only available by mail order through the Hi-fi
magazines 'Practical Hi-fi' and 'Hi-fi Today' in the early 1980s. Nimbus mastered each
release from the original master tapes using the best available mastering processes.
In fact, Nimbus employed many techniques for each release that were not commonly used.
For example, generally when bass moves from channel to channel on an LP, groove modulation
is employed to reduce the movement of the stylus and this results in this bass being centered
more over both channels. Most audiophiles would argue that this - and in fact anything, which
changes the original recording should be avoided although this is common practice on most LPs.
For example, the release of 'Joan Armatrading' had bass moving from channel to channel in
several places, but Nimbus did not limit this, resulting in an outstanding pressing.
Nimbus also had the ICI company produce an extremely pure vinyl for the LPs, which has amazing
frequency reproduction and is virtually noise free - similar in quality to the 'super vinyl'
used on earlier Mofi pressings. Due to their rarity and small pressing quantities, they are
often more expensive than audiophile LPs from other labels, but the sums paid can be justified
by the outstanding quality of the pressings and the fact that they tend to rise in value over time
and as such are deemed as investments by some audiophiles. Other releases included Pink Floyd's
'Wish You Were Here', Beatles 'Sgt Pepper' and Wings 'Band on the Run' and many other excellent titles.END QUOTE
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The Mobile Fidelity UHQR pressing was limited to a run of 5000 LPs and they were all serial numbered.
Released in 1982, the UHQR pressing was perhaps the most technically sophisticated pressing of its time
and has a very respectful following. For many it's the "definitive" pressing for Sgt. Pepper.
Though there have already been several drops of the UHQR pressing circulating, rather than utilize any
of those previous efforts, I decided to do my own transfer of the UHQR so that my comparison would be
between audio from two different pressings captured on the same equipment. This avoids speculation based
upon differences in hardware/software that others use and allows for a more controlled comparison.
The audio here is from a sealed copy.
I make no claims of this audio being definitive in terms of audiophile quality compared to previous
droppers. I will only state that the two pressings here have been transferred by me, using the same
setup. This should at least provide us with an idea of what differences or similarities may exist
between these two pressings based on how they're represented via my particular setup.
Now, if we could only locate the very rare Australian Audiophile pressing of this LP….
The tracks included are:
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
8. Within Without You
9. When I’m Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning, Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In The Life
The setup used:
-Technics SL-1900 direct drive turntable running an Ortofon 2M Black cartridge
-Underwood/Parts Connexion performance-modified PS Audio GCPH phono preamp
-E-MU 1212M sound card
The audio was captured at 192/32-bit (float)
All pops & clicks were removed manually in Audition. No EQ or NR has been added.
Sample rate conversion to 96kHz & 44.1kHz and down-converting to 16-bit audio was accomplished via iZotope RX Advanced.
Artwork is included for those who care for it.