Black Sabbath question..

[diabretic]

Question for any of you that are Sabbath fans...which are the best versions of Master of Reality and Volume 4? Need to add these to my collection.

[streetwaves]

The Vertigo pressings.

[faaip de oiad]

I have the first 6 on the 2016 color pressings. These are very well pressed. Also you can check out the Sean Magee cuts as well. But always you can never go wrong with US and UK first pressings. Also have a 1974 repress that's not to bad sounding. BS were pressed SO many times. You can just keep buying these till you get a good sounding one. 

[roadmonkey]

any pressing! Both albums are just amazing to listen to!

[TheGhostOfRandySavage]

7 hours ago, diabretic said:

Question for any of you that are Sabbath fans...which are the best versions of Master of Reality and Volume 4? Need to add these to my collection.

The consensus seems to be that the original Vertigo presses are superior to anything else. I have US first presses of all the Ozzy era stuff and they sound pretty good to my ears. I've never had the pleasure of listening to any Vertigo pressings though.

[tco]

I have the vertigo uk 2st pressings. For Vol 4, a Spaceship label version is hard to beat

[kmart]

I don’t have any experience with the more recent reissues of Vol 4, but I’ve heard/owned 4 or 5 of the 70’s pressings and the best by far is the UK 1st Vertigo swirl with the George Peckham sigs.

MOR is a better sounding album all around, there again a UK with 1st matrices is your best bet, both can get a little pricey in nicer condition.

good luck!

[danyc]

As already stated, the early UK Vertigo swirls are where it's at, but the German and I think Aussie Vertigo swirls are supposed to be good as well. Be prepared to spend $200-$300 for the early UK though. 

Recently I went through the Sabbath I have and found this pressing to sound pretty solid. https://www.discogs.com/release/2270266-Black-Sabbath-Master-Of-Reality

 

Good luck! 

[burntwolf]

I don't have much complaints about the Rhino reissues I have but I haven't heard the holy grail pressings. Out of my budget.

[somethingvinyl]

I have a green WB early pressing of Paranoid and it's great. But if you're willing to spend the money, get the Vertigos. 

[mcpherson123]

Let's be clear about the sound quality on Vol. 4 though. That record was recorded or mixed in a way that has a huge midrange hump across it and for that, it pretty much lacks any sharpness in the high end. The bass area isn't terrible but its not extremely strong. It sort of sounds washed out overall and I don't think there has been anything done to counteract that overall tonality until the late CD age and even then, it still pretty much sounds how it sounds. I'm the kind of listener who hates when midrange seems to be scooped out or cut heavily but Vol. 4 is a weird example of too much and too wide.  Once you adjust to this its a great record overall but it takes some getting used to for me anyway. I have an Australian Vertigo pressing and had a US Warner Bros. pressing. I can't remember exactly which US WB press it was though. They pretty much sounded about the same in terms of being the same album. Can't really recall much difference between them. For what that album is in terms of mixing and EQ, both sounded great.