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

Speakers Corner / Elektra - EKS-75049 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

Mastered by Kevin Gray - AAA 100% Analogue  - Limited Edition - Pressed  at Pallas 

 Speakers Corner 30 Years Pure Analogue  This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production

Like Tapestry or Sweet Baby James, this doesn't need its singer identified, and it still captivates after nearly a half-century. Simon differed from her distaff singer-songwriter contemporaries in that she was less the hippie and more the sophisticate, so the songs are less about protest, angst or political correctness and more about the personal. Few songs are as touching when dealing with nostalgia as 'The Carter Family' – Simon's take on The Beatles' 'In My Life' – in contrast to the LP's most famous number, 'You're So Vain', which could be grouped with that other ode to the louche, Peter Sarstedt's 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?'. This is a real gem. KK Hifi News

Speakers Corner Records has done a superb job in re-mastering No Secrets to 180-gram vinyl. The overall mix is superb (and a good set of stereo headphones will bear this out). Simon’s voice is rendered with pristine clarity and rich tone. The orchestrated enhancements are fluent and never overwhelm the centered vocals. It is a vibrant representation of a singer/songwriter at the height of creativity. Sound 4.5/5 Audiophile audition

This new mastering by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio opens up this compressed space and reveals an exceptional recording. The instruments are spread out, opened up to the point where you can distinguish the individual voices in the background vocals, like Mick Jagger in ‘You’re So Vain’ or Paul McCartney in ‘Night Owl.’ Dynamics are significantly improved, making the original mastering, and the audiophile CDs sound comparatively compressed. This music deserves to be turned up loud, and you can now do so without the mix turning to sludge.Even if your musical tastes incline more to Patti Smith than this slicker product do not let that prejudice deprive you of an extremely well recorded masterpiece. There is no other Carly Simon album that packs so many great songs together nor any better produced or engineered. Carly Simon did it all – Grammy, Oscar, rock star romances – but this is her crowning achievement. Hifi Plus

Everybody's favorite Carly album  In addition to the hit title song, you also get her most controversial hit single "You're So Vain" and a plethora of other hits from this 1973 smash.

Carly Simon’s number-one smash “You’re So Vain” lingers as one of the most clever, famous, and secretive songs ever recorded. The subject of mass speculation ever since its release, soon after which it occupied the top spot on multiple Billboard charts for several weeks, the double-edged anthem has for decades kept a captive public guessing at the identity of its smug subject. To this day, Simon has offered many hints but never revealed its inspiration. Ironically, the question surrounding the protagonist’s identity is perhaps the only mystery on the otherwise sexually open and autobiographically daring No Secrets, Simon’s breakthrough album and an emblem of the 70s singer-songwriter canon.

arly Simon's unquestionably best album, "No Secrets," was also her commercial breakthrough. It topped the Billboard charts for more than five weeks, thus quickly gaining gold status, as did the single release of "You're So Vain." This song determined the album's flippant tone, with its sexually unashamed autobiography ("You had me several years ago/When I was still quite naïve") and its observations on the lifestyle of the jet set.

But Simon's sincerity also meant that her lyricism was double-edged. Now that she thinks she has found true love, she expresses her joy over her relationship to James Taylor with "The Right Thing To Do," another Top Ten hit. On the other hand she was just as willing to recognize her own mistakes and regretted pointing her finger at other people. It was not just Simon's frankness that made the album a success, but also Richard Perry's simple, elegant pop-rock production, which lent Simon's music a vitality it never known before. Perry was mindful in particular of Simon's vocals, making them more perceptive and stirring than in her other productions. And of course her fellow musicians, such as Paul and Linda McCartney, Mick Jagger, Klaus Voormann, Lowell George, Bobby Keys, Jim Keltner as well as her ex-husband James Taylor all contributed to the success of the album, which was awarded official platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head..
All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: September - October 1972 at Trident Studios, London, by Robin Geoffrey Cable
Production: Richard Perry

Vocala  – Carly Simon
Backing Vocals – James Taylor
Bass – Klaus Voorman
Drums – Jim Keltner
Electric Guitar – Jimmy Ryan
Organ – Bill Payne
Piano – Nicky Hopkins
Slide Guitar – Lowell George

    1. The Right Thing to Do
    2. The Carter Family
    3. You're So Vain
    4. His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin
    5. We Have No Secrets
    6. Embrace Me, You Child
    7. Waited So Long
    8. It Was So Easy
    9. Night Owl
    10. When You Close Your Eyes

AAA 100% Analogue   This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 30 Years pure Analogue

 

MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES

AAA 100% ANALOGUE - PURE ANALOGUE AUDIOPHILE MASTERING

We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios Worldwide

180 GRAM VIRGIN VINYL  PLATED & PRESSED AT PALLAS GERMANY

Faithful Reproduction of the Original Artwork and Labels

LIMITED EDITION Released in Limited Quantities

All Licences and Mechanical Rights Paid

 

                                      

 

Are your records completely analogue?

Yes! This we guarantee!

As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time

 

Are your records cut from the original masters?

In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.

 

Who cuts the records?

In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.

At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes. 

 

Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s. 

 

Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive. 

 

So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source! 

 

Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers. 

 

In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers. 

 

In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.

 

60 Years Pallas

 

Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany  For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!