Van Morrison Moondance 1/2 Speed Master LP 1979 Direct-Disk Labs Audiophile

$

43

                                                                           Van Morrison
                                                                        Moondance
                                                                     Gatefold Jacket
                                Half Speed Mastering from original 1970 master analog tape

                                                                       Item Details
                                              Recorded: Aug. - Sept. 1969 at R&R Studios
                                           Original Issue: Feb. 1970 Warner Bros. WS 1835
                                                                    This Issue: 1979
                          Rare Limited Edition audiophile version sold only by Acoustic Sounds
                                       Lacquer cutting by: Jack Hunt at J.V.C Cutting Center
                                        Pressing: @ Direct Disk Lab's Nashville Tenn. facility
                                                       Label: Direct Disk Labs SD16604
                                                       Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
                             Side 1: (etch:) SD-16004 - A JH/2 (the "J" and "H" are run together)
                      Side 2: (etch:) SD-16004 -B - Re - 1 JH/2 (the "J" and "H" are run together)

NOTE: This audiophile reissue has Van's preferred mix of "Into The Mystic" with him playing 
Tambourine (same as the WB 1st issue). All other LP issues used a rejected version omitting the 
tambourine because of a clerical error.

Half speed mastering allows the cutting head twice as much time to render the groove. 
This means more fine detail on playback (especially in the highs) and less waver on long 
sustained notes. That kind of high frequency detail was noted on my play test of "Everyone."

This LP was gifted to me by my audiophile buddy Dave when he was converting to mostly digital 
listening. Dave took great care of his records but placed stickers and colored dots on his jackets
for some kind of filing system I could never understand. That's why you see them on the front face
(see jacket grading below). Between us it had limited plays only on expertly setup high-end 
audiophile turntables, arms, and cartridges. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke 
and always stored vertically specially designed record cabinets to prevent warpage.

Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse 
(50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I wear nitrile surgical gloves 
100% while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp 
over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones thru a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with 
Voskhod Soviet matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
1: And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Crazy Love, Into The Mystic, These Dreams Of You.
2: Come Running, Brand New Day, Everyone, Glad Tidings.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. 
I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. 
It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright 
and close visual inspection AND play testing with thorough coverage on high fidelity equipment.

Grading 
Note: record grading by text characters is subjective and does not fully describe quality 
levels. Please see photos and my detailed descriptions below.

Outer Jacket: VG+ You can see the number sticker and gold dot put there by the original owner Dave.
There are light bands of shelving rub at the top and bottom of the front face. The rear face has ring 
wear at top and bottom and some vertical wear marks in the lower right corner. The bottom edge has 
light rubbing wear as do all 4 corners. No splits of course and colors are bright/clean.

Vinyl: (NM- visual to NM audio) Surface visuals were first inspected under high intensity halogen light. 
After a lot of tilting in all directions with my eyes really close to the vinyl the only trace I could find was on
 side 1 and it was way less than "hairline," more like a "nano-line" plastic inner sleeve polishing artifact 
barely marking the very top surface. At no point in my extensive play testing of side 1 did I hear anything 
I could attribute to that mark. I doubt that a future buyer would ever even find it. This is the "minus" for 
visuals as the actual vinyl listening quality is a solid NM in my opinion (see below).

Extensive play testing was performed after cleaning. I listened to the beginning and end of each track 
with some of them played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 192k/24-bit WAV files. I 
couldn't really find any negatives during all my play testing. There is a near total absence of any crackle 
on transition grooves which I found remarkable. Ticks were at a very low level and very rarely audible. 
I would rank this vinyl right up with the very best of all LPs I have prepared for sale in the past year, 
including audiophile pressings like MFSL. Audio sound quality was superlative and for me this is the 
definitive vinyl version of all releases. For me, the outstanding tracks for performance and sound quality
were S1:T1,T2,T5 and S2:T3.

Packaging
Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
Original inner plastic printed sleeve is included separately.
Record has been placed into a new "rice paper" sleeve, as the original, even though plastic, 
may be holding onto some abrasive dust. This will keep vinyl surface clean during shipping
and ultimate buyer usage.
Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
Sent in good quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners.

Shipping
Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed within 5 business days 
($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP). If you intend to buy more than one LP do not pay immediately
but wait for my all-combined invoice. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. 
Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.