Torsten Nilsson: Cantate Domino
Proprius/ FIM LP
This long time audiophile benchmark LP has now been released by First Impressions Music (FIM) as a 200g flat profile UHQR type pressing manufactured for them at Chad Kassem's Quality Record Pressings plant.
First of the LP itself is perfectly flat and dead quiet, not a click or pop anywhere. That is all well and good, but what about the SQ?
My reference pressing for this LP has always been the Audio Source 1/2 speed mastered version that was pressed in Japan. Compared to that the FIM pressing has a larger soundstage (laterally anyway, the height rendering is roughly the same on my system), more detail in terms of hall sound a and a more well defined sense of space around the individual voices (you get much more of a sense of each singer as opposed the sound of a massed chorus.However, the new version has less of a sense of warmth that the Audio Source Half Speed. So over all I would think that some folks will like it better and others will prefer the old version. (kind of like a tubes vs SS thing)
Myself, I can appreciate the attributes of each one and think I will need to listen to them a few more time before I can say which one I prefer on an overall basis. It may end up being one of those cases where it just depends on what kind of mood I am in at the time.
To each his own.......
