AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Mobile Fidelity - MFSL2-351 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue

Pure Analogue Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich from the Original Master Tape at MFSL

Numbered Limited Edition - Two Disc -  Pressed at RTI  

Half Speed Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity The Gain 2 Ultra Analog System

The recording by Hank Cicalo is superb. It captures just enough of the hall sound to bring you to the concert, yet the perspective is sufficiently close to produce the feeling that you've got the best seats in the house. If the reflective hall doesn't sound a bit hard, your system is too soft! This is pure live concert music making of the highest order, recorded to perfection. A gem of a time capsule and considering the price of a concert ticket today, this LPis of course a bargain. Michael Fremmer Analogplanet

Carole King The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971 on Numbered Limited Edition 180g 2LP from Mobile Fidelity. From-the-Vault Live Release Captures Iconic Singer-Songwriter at Height of Her Breakout Period. Stripped-Down Songs Teem With Warmth, Nuance, Emotion; James Taylor Also Appears. 

Every so often, a from-the-vault release captures our hearts, minds, and attention in such a way that it’s impossible not to tell all family, friends, and neighbors about its existence. Originally issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Tapestry, Carole King’s The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971 is such a record, a fortunate document of an absolutely magical period in the singer-songwriter’s legendary career and a revealing look at the then-stagefright artist turning in a commanding performance just as she was becoming a superstar. 

Half-speed mastered from the original tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered limited-edition 180g LP of this compelling concert album brims with liveliness, depth, dimension, detail, and transparency. The nuances of King’s spare performances and warm vocals emanate as if she’s sitting five feet away. Stripped down even further than they are on the studio albums, songs breathe with palpable earnestness and emotion, the subtle differences from their more polished studio brethren allowing listeners an insight into King’s creative genius. 

At the time of its recording, King still suffered from shyness—and who could blame her? She had been accustomed to penning lyrics for other artists and sitting behind a desk in the Brill Building. Only recently did King strike out on her own and enter the public realm. This set encapsulates this contrast in thrilling fashion. Disarmingly genuine and daringly honest, The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971 benefits from the inclusion of King’s nervous between-song banter that exposes who she is as a person and performer. Most importantly, despite her anxiety, she turns out stirring renditions of tunes from 1970’s Writer, Tapestry, and even a few from the yet-unreleased Music (also available from Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-352). 

Her control is demonstrated on the record’s six opening cuts, which feature King alone at her piano. For the remainder of the program, she’s accompanied by guitarist Danny Kortchman, bassist Charles Larkey, and a string quartet, which enter and exit according to arrangement. As such, the concert is profoundly intimate and personal, an “unplugged” session that predated the use of the term by nearly two decades. Longtime collaborator James Taylor joins her for a memorable medley of some of her biggest hits—“Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Some Kind of Wonderful/Up on the Roof”—the chemistry evident of why the duo’s 2010 tour was one of the most in-demand outings in years.

Mobile Fidelity’s remastered sound ties everything together and is what makes this release extra special. By going to the original source, the audiophile label considerably opens up the sonic perspectives, revealing the spacious acoustics of the famed venue that act in concert with King’s music. In particular, the songs from Writer benefit from the no-nonsense production. You can literally picture King’s piano beside her, and her voice—sincere, tender, melodic—is rich, full-bodied, and penetrating. Listeners can even hear it crack on occasion, the results a consequence of her nerves. Unpolished and non-synthetic, the performance is better for it. 

No, they don’t make albums like this anymore. The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971 as real as it gets. And so is the sound. Get your collectible copy now

 Live Release Captures Iconic Singer-Songwriter at Height of Her Breakout Period Mastered from the Original Tapes:

• Numbered, Limited Edition • 33rpm Speed Edition

GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ is a proprietary cutting system built and designed by legendary design genius Tim De Paravicini, with consultation from one of MFSL’s founding fathers – Stan Ricker, an audio engineer responsible for many of MFSL’s most heralded past releases.

The GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system is comprised of a Studer™ tape machine with customized reproduction electronics* and handcrafted cutting amps that drive an Ortofon cutting head on a restored Neumann VMS-70 lathe. (*It is worth noting that independent studies have confirmed that the GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system can unveil sonic information all the way up to 122kHz!)

First and foremost, we only utilize first generation original master recordings as source material for our releases. We then play back master tapes at half speed enabling the GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system to fully extract the master’s sonic information. Our lacquers are then plated in a specialized process that protects transients in the musical signal. (Due to this process, there may be occasional pops or ticks inherent in initial play back, but as the disc is played more, a high quality stylus will actually polish the grooves and improve the sound). We further ensure optimum sound quality by strictly limiting the number of pressings printed for each release. These limited editions, in addition to being collectors’ items, ensure that the quality of the last pressing matches the quality of the first.

As you can imagine, all these efforts involve a tremendous amount of time, technology, cost and effort. The introduction of GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ maintains Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s position as the world’s leading audiophile record label, where a passion for music with extraordinary sound quality matters most.

RTI HQ-180 Vinyl

Record Technology is a world class record pressing plant located in Camarillo, California. We have been operating since 1974, pressing for most audiophile record labels and for many quality minded independent and major record labels from around the world.