The Who – The Who By Numbers

So apparently MCA Coral is a budget label but this uses the original master cut at The Mastering Lab by Doug Sax and sounds great.

Better bodied bass and mids and alot more 3D of stage than the newer Half Speed but its also rolled off up top and suffers baked in IGD. This is sadly a case of what could have been. If the treble was better present throughout and the pressing abit quieter then id be all over this, as it stands its a slightly sad pressing. Where the later Abbey Half Speed is bettered by a Youtube stream and considerably more so further by the outstanding 1996 Polydor CD this one does sound close to the 1996 CD bar the rolling off at the side ends and the tics that even my Degritter couldnt completely alleviate

Oh dear. A very poor cut with a flat and lifeless sound. The mastering is muffled from the off and the bass/mids lack body throughout. There is little soundstage depth and width to speak of. As the sides progress the poor cutting becomes evident as Dreaming From The Waist has some hints of presence region breakup and Imagine A Man has distortion both from Roger's peaks and again in the presence region. All this with a microline tipped cart to boot. Hell, the streaming on youtube sounds significantly better and thats never a good place to be but worse still when i pop my 1996 CD in and A/B this pressing is DEAD AND BURIED.

Tommy and Who Sell Out Half Speeds are superb and Quadrophenia is ok-ish but this one along with Who's Next goes down as a dud thats hard to believe how duddy it is

Not perfect, but not a perfect recording. I’ve never heard it sound any better than this.

The drums in some places sound thunderous, in others weak - just like the original recording - imaging & soundstage are great, Daltrey’s voice is nuanced and detailed throughout, as is Pete’s.

I bought this new when it was released, and don’t listen to it often, but am always impressed.

Great, loud and dynamic! What more could you want, honestly?

Compared to QUADROPHENIA, WHO BY NUMBERS is an unpretentious album with no overarching concept. "They Are All In Love" is an underrated gem in the band's catalogue. This 1980 pressing sounds perfectly fine, and my copy plays nice and clean with faint surface noise at the beginning of each side.

Very pleased with this album. Its a good copy. Realizing that 180 gram means nothing . Older presses can sound better

My vinyl has problem in the beginning of the album,both sides A and B.Needle vibrating and making shaky sounds.I think i had warped vinyl..Otherwise recording is very nice...

Sounds great! Don't really have any other versions to compare with, but I heard this is the one to get and will probably call it good here, unless I decide to score a nice OG copy at some point.

In reference to variant 6. Never being one of my fave Who albums makes it harder to assess fairly. Being used to an earlier Canadian MCA CD edition, The Who - The Who By Numbers, that is quite wide open, this remix sounds like it has been noise reduced and attenuated causing it to sound muffled. Then there's the bonus tracks which, unless part of the album proper, really should be on another disc or just don't bother, which would apply in this instance.