Best sound quality of a 70s prog album?

All depend what the listerner defines as best sound quality.Everyone has a different hear & a way they judge whats good & bad...Some may think CD with it'd dreadful bright in yer face quality to be the dogs bollox & others may find that Analogue playback (Record/Tape) to be correct.I personally think you can never beat the sound of record,so called crackles & pops are a thing created by poor mis-use & poor playback equipment which just highlights the problem.However whatever medium you choose to listern to it's your choice,but as a vinyl man i will always choose EMI recording as the best to me ie:Early ish Pink floyd,late beatles,most recording on Harvest records etc.

70sSoundquality wrote: Saying it could be the worst "since it was produced at their newly built Britannia Row studios" is like saying Relayer is the worst Yes album, since it was only recorded in Chris Squire's garage. The gear is good, regardless of how immature the studio is. They had money for the best equipment, and the best engineers. Animals is clearly a winner...maybe note as spacey as dark side, but FAR superior in fidelity and noise floor.

Maybe so. I'd just like to point out, though, that the studio had inferior recording equipment compared to that of Abbey Road.

Just for sheer crisp clarity and good mixing:

Brand X - Moroccan Roll (w/ Dennis McKay at the controls)

Gong - Gazeuse   Again, with good 'ol Dennis McKay!

 

Yams wrote: 70sSoundquality wrote: Saying it could be the worst "since it was produced at their newly built Britannia Row studios" is like saying Relayer is the worst Yes album, since it was only recorded in Chris Squire's garage. The gear is good, regardless of how immature the studio is. They had money for the best equipment, and the best engineers. Animals is clearly a winner...maybe note as spacey as dark side, but FAR superior in fidelity and noise floor. Maybe so. I'd just like to point out, though, that the studio had inferior recording equipment compared to that of Abbey Road.

Well, I have yet to see a list of all the equipment at abbey road, but comparing apples to apples, i highly doubt they were that far off the mark considering the time (1977).

Abbey road, along with Britania row used the best of the best. In the 70s, no major studio recording an extremely professional band would settle for less than MCI, Neve, Harrison, SSL, ABE, chilton, etc etc. When your in that league of professional electronics, comparing them to each other is pretty moot. Same with the recoder- there is really no such thing as a "worse" 2 inch machine than another; one might have more features, and they might all sound different, but this is preference and how many bells and whistles you want (which typically have nothing to do with sound).

fairchild comps, u 87 mics, 1176 limiter amp, a good discrete console, a good discrete recorder....typical and to be found in any professional studio in the 1970s. It just depends on who uses it. Abbey road had EMI plates....yet so did Britania! its all the same really