Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song

A lovely edition. Good mastering on this pressing. Highly recommended.

The matrix runout on my copy is SM-1-1967 J-29 JAM on side 1 and SM-2-1967 H-23 JAM on side 2.

Bad quality, left chanel isn’t good and sound very noisy.

The mastering on it is quite nice, but the source was clearly digitally remastered and suffers from a rather heavy handed use of digital noise reduction which creates a slight pumping effect on the vocals as they decay. If you can get it cheap (as I did on clearance), it's not a bad listen, but I think for a more authentic listening experience, I'm going to seek out an earlier pressing. I will also agree with the comments of pops through these were largely on the first side for me, the second side was nearly silent.

Listening on an ATLP120XUSB with a VM95ML cartridge.

Found at Goodwill, picked it up because it features a few songs in the film 2046 by Wong Kar-wai.

This audiophile SACD is remarkably clear and present, a quality production which this all time Christmas classic deserves. I did a comparison with a standard redbook CD issue of the same title, and it blew it out of the water - the standard CD sounded like it was created from a worn out running master. It is very obvious the this SACD was mastered from the original recording.

Very well mastered as it sounds quite nice despite when it was recorded. Unfortunately there are lots of pops throughout play even after wet cleaning and brushing. Took a risk with the translucent green press. It looks nice but in my experience these colored translucent presses tend to have issues esp from United where this was pressed

the color of the album is the same one that is

Absolutely no complaints - it sounds great, the green is pretty, and the goofy cover is as iconic as ever.

Call me strange, but I think this record sounds really great on a crackling vinyl - not too overbearing, but just enough to where it isn't a bother. It really adds to the nostalgic Christmastide imagery for me and certainly enhances the fireplace aesthetic shown on the front cover. A Christmas classic - this record, Andy Williams, and Phil Spector are the only Christmas albums I'll ever need.