Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado – MoFi 33RPM Review
Vinyl surface noise: 5+
Dynamic Range: 4+
Stereo Imaging: 4+
Image depth/perspective: 4+
Overall frequency response: 4+
Track List:
Side One:
- Eldorado Overture
- Can’t Get It Out Of My Head
- Boy Blue
- Laredo Tornado
- Poor Boy (The Greenwood)
Side Two:
- Mister Kingdom
- Nobody’s Child
- Illusions In G Major
- Eldorado
- Eldorado Finale
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are a British rock band who formed in Birmingham, England in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood together with drummer Bev Bevan. ELO was formed out of Lynne’s and Wood’s desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones.
Eldorado is the fourth studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra. It was recorded between February–August 1974 at the Warner Bros. De Lane Lea Studios, London and released in September 1974 by United Artists Records (US) and in October 1974 by Warner Bros. Records (UK), going gold in America. Mobile Fidelity has re-mastered this latest release from the original analog master tapes and had it pressed at RTI on 180gram SuperVinyl, a new vinyl formulation developed by NEOTECH and RTI providing improvements in both noise floor and groove definition.
This 180gram, 33RPM, SuperVinyl, Numbered Edition (MFSV1-001) was released by Mobile Fidelity in March 2022, together with a numbered SACD (UDSACD 2213). Both were created from the original 1/4″ / 15 IPS / Dolby A analog master, mastered to DSD 256 then to the analog console and lathe for the vinyl.
Mine is number 006006.
For those with deeper pockets Mobile Fidelity have also released (02/2023) a 180g, 45RPM, SuperVinyl, 2LP Box Set version (MFSL45UD1S-015), using their one-step ultra disc system for $125.00
Musicians:
- Jeff Lynne – lead & backing vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, bass, Moog, production, orchestra & choral arrangements
- Bev Bevan – drums, percussion
- Richard Tandy – piano, Moog, clavinet, Wurlitzer electric piano, guitar, backing vocals, orchestra & choral arrangements
- Mike de Albuquerque – bass & backing vocals (departed during the recording of the album)
- Mike Edwards – cello
- Mik Kaminski – violin
- Hugh McDowell – cello
- Peter Forbes-Robertson – spoken word
- AND a thirty piece orchestra – conducted and arranged by the late Louis Clark
Reviewed using a Hana SL, MC cartridge, Entre Lentek head amp and MX-VYNL pre-amp.
See here for my vinyl review playback hardware.
This is an outstanding pressing with exceptionally low surface noise. The disc is ruler flat, perfectly concentric and looked to be a pristine pressing, all shine. In my eagerness to hear this album I forwent cleaning it with my Nitty Gritty prior to its first play. As soon as the stylus hit the vinyl I just new this was going to be a memorable experience. The vinyl was dead silent, and I mean CD silent on both sides. I have never heard any vinyl so quiet and devoid of any discernible surface noise. Nor where there ANY pops or clicks on either side.
OK, yes, I am an ELO fan boy, but it’s not because I was born in Birmingham and almost as old as Jeff. The ELO gang, in particular Jeff Lynne, are excellent musicians and together with their engineers, producers and mastering houses produced some terrific albums. This is a testament to one of them.
Now remember, this album was never created to be an audiophile recording and was mastered to 1/4″ tape at 15 ips with Dolby A noise reduction. So do not hold your aural expectations too high. In my opinion, several sources seem to have been rather generous with their use of superlatives when describing the albums audiophile qualities. My comments are based upon having worked in professional music recording studios and relative to my other (MoFi) albums on my system.
The disc is well mastered and even with five tracks per side, the cutting head still seemed to extract what dynamic range was available from the master tape. However, the recording still sounds a little compressed, with many tracks exhibiting similar dynamic ranges and many of the instruments being recorded at similar levels, not exhibiting large dynamic ranges.
All tracks are a real pleasure to listen to and make for easy listening, providing well detailed and balanced sonics with tight bass, warm mids and clear highs, all with either light reverb or short studio decay. Lynne’s lead vocals do not provide high presence, occasionally coming across as a little “brittle”. There are no hard edges to any instruments, with strings coming across smooth and silky and trumpets clean and bright . The overall sound is quite warm and open with good separation and detail, providing moderately good imaging but with a limited depth perspective, even for the orchestral and backing parts. The top end detail is extended but not over bright, I found the bass lines rather anemic but clean, supported by a kick drum that occasionally dug quite deep. The kick drum having a solid punch with occasional beater sound, the snare, toms and cymbals sounding very natural, having good detail but generally lacking impact. Orchestral parts and instruments provided a slightly setback broad image with moderate depth. Guitars, strings, piano, keyboards, trumpets and other instruments providing natural and well defined accompaniments on all tracks.
Clearly, significant care and attention was given to the mastering, cutting and pressing processes. The final result being an excellent rendition of the original master tape, providing moderate dynamics and a respectable frequency response. All rounded off by some great musicianship and tracks.
There are several notable and famous hit tracks to include; US top ten hit, Can’t get it Out of My Head S1T2, Boy Blue S1T3, Nobody’s Child S2T2 , Illusions in G Major S2T3 and the title track Eldorado S2T4. However, even with the albums excellent mix of music and high standard of mastering and pressing this audiophile pressing does not rise to the level of a reference/demo album.
With that said, this album is probably almost as good as it will ever sound and without doubt a progressive rock/pop masterpiece and outstanding pressing. If this is your style of music then you should own it. For those wanting the ultimate playback quality, you have the option of the “One Step” pressing.
In Stock (3/19/23) on vinyl and SACD from; Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds and SACD from Mo-Fi and MusicDirect.
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