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Mobile Fidelity - MFSL 2-416 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl -

Numbered Limited Edition - 45RPM -  Pressed at RTI 

Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe

Winner of a Gruvy Award, chosen by AnalogPlanet's editor, Michael Fremer, for vinyl records that are musically and sonically outstanding and are also well mastered and pressed. 

Once again Mobile Fidelity hits it out of the park. Stellar sound. Pristine vinyl. Acoustic guitar, electric bass, violin all sound amazing. The only complaint would be how this copy shows the over compressed and distorted vocals on some of the tracks. Worthy investment.

Amazing! The sound fidelity and packaging are both top notch. I'm hearing detail in Hurricane that I've never noticed before  but, as always, MOFI gave me a total eargasm. LPReview

Bob Dylan cut Desire flanked by more than a dozen musicians, aided by a producer averse to multitracking, and bent on tequila. Reeling from the effects of his disintegrating marriage, the singer penned several of the most heartfelt songs of his career, including “Sara,” the most overtly public broadcasting of his private life and emotions committed to tape. Straddling lines between haphazard and organized, loose and planned,

Desire lives up its title, a masterwork that Dylan would not equal in creativity, performance, and lyricism for another two decades. Mastered from the original master tapes on Mobile Fidelity’s world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI, this restored 45RPM analog version lays bare the catch-all ambience of the sessions as well as the unguarded emotionalism that fueled them. Largely captured at one unruly New York studio date, many songs are first-take arrangements, experienced on this reissue in a raw, realistic fashion that allows chords to swell, vocals to naturally carry, and percussion to span a seemingly bridge-wide soundstage. Accenting instruments—bouzouki, accordion, mandolin, violin, congas, piano—gain their own space and color the music with intriguing textures. The wider grooves mean more information reaches your ears. Surging with a nothing-to-lose disposition,

Desire juggles myriad styles and owns up to no single theme. Disappointment and loss related to Dylan’s broken relationship surfaces directly and metaphorically, but the album isn’t mired in depression or sadness. More often than not, it howls, the sprawling canvas needlepointed with complexity and diversity. In pairing with lyricist Jacques Levy, Dylan invites narrative collaboration he never again repeated, as well as an eclecticism that gives the effort its fascinating charm. Desire finds Dylan at an evocative peak. With the tour de force single “Hurricane,” he composes his first protest song in years, the enraged verses aimed squarely at maintaining the innocence of boxer Ruben Carter, falsely convicted of murder, as a violin melody swirls in the background. He finds similar inspiration in gangster Joey Gallo, turning “Joey” into a beautiful epic outfitted with Emmylou Harris’ transcendent backing vocals.

Flashing a sense of humor, “Mozambique” relishes an irreverent quirkiness that balances the more serious fare. And in the nakedly biographical “Sara,” Mediterranean-flavored “One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below),” fragile “Oh, Sister,” and swirling fable “Isis,” Dylan develops a series of loosely related songs at once flawless, timeless, and tireless. Rarely has the folk-rock icon addressed love, romance, and loss more openly, eloquently, or universally. It’s no wonder they remain amongst the very favorites of many hardcore Dylan enthusiasts, and account for a large reason why Rolling Stone ranks Desire the 174th greatest album of all-time.

Don’t miss your chance to experience it in the best fidelity it’s ever enjoyed

Backing Vocals – EmmyLou Harris
Bass, Backing Vocals – Rob Stoner
Drums – Howard Wyeth
Mandolin – Dom Cortese
Rhythm Guitar, Harmonica – Bob Dylan
Twelve-String Guitar – Vincent Bell
Violin – Scarlet Rivera

1. Hurricane
2. Isis
3. Mozambique
4. One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
5. Oh, Sister
6. Joey
7. Romance in Durango
8. Black Diamond Bay
9. Sara

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 180 HQ 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.