21/08/2026
Just started listening to my RHINO High Fidelity Reel to Reel tape of Crosby Stills and Nash. Now I've heard rumour that it has too much bass...
So, first impression: is there a lot of bass?
Yes.
Is there too much bass?
No, definitely not.
However, I will say that you do need to make sure your amplifier, speakers and room can handle 'MASTER' levels of bass or your system might shout at you.
But to put this in perspective, the next best sounding version I've got to this is the 2024 Analogue Productions Atlantic 75th Anniversary 45rpm Bernie Grundman cut which has a very similar bass eq. profile. Maybe Bernie's rolled off the bass very slightly on the 45rpm cut, but it's very similar so if you know / have that, expect the Rhino tape to sound similar; just clearly more dynamic, more detailed, more focused, more open, more present. Just plain more real!
And while we're at it, recently there seems to have been a whole load of confusion (BS) about what is a master, well, let's examine the tape notes reproduced with the Rhino Reel to Reel. So, we can see the source tape is a/the* "MASTER". *Were there more than one original MASTER? Frankly I don't know, if there were it'd mean that there were two same generation 'twins' born of the same mix-down or mastering process. That's not impossible, it does happen, but either way, unless one of them gets damaged, does it really matter?
Secondly, let's look at what this is not: it's NOT a:
Eq'd Limited Master
1:1 Copy (Master)
Safety (Master)
nor is it a
Cassette Duplicating Submaster
nor an
8 Track Duplicating Submaster
Note that all of these are correctly classified as 'Masters', just not 'Original Masters'.
So, what is the tape that I'm holding in my hand?
Well, let's start with the "MASTER" pictured. Two (possibly more) 'Production Masters' were made from that by Warner. So, these are still Masters, 1st generation copies of the original master pictured, then Recording The Masters in France make the copy you can buy (and I am holding / listening to) as 1:1 copies of those Production masters. So, the copy I have is a 1st Generation Copy of the Production Master, a 2nd Generation copy of the Original Master (pictured), or if you consider the Original a 1st Generation tape (it isn't a copy of anything: it is the final mix with mastering changes applied), then what I have here is a 3rd Generation tape. However I'd prefer to not use that nomenclature as who's to say the final mix down is the first tape that contains this music? It isn't, the first tape would be the 16 track or 8 track or whatever according to how the original recording was made. So, I prefer to regard the original master as ground zero, and count generational copies from there on.
