MFSL Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas [Ultradisc One-Step LP]

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Available from December 13, 2024!
Mariah Carey didn’t become the Queen of Christmas just because of her fervent love of the holiday. Or as the result of a brilliant marketing plan. The iconic singer earned her title by way of her blockbuster “Merry Christmas”, a 1994 album that quickly joined the likes of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”, “A Jolly Christmas” from Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” as an all-time holiday vocal classic. Featuring a balanced mix of inspired originals and well-chosen covers, Carey’s fourth studio record has only grown in stature as new generations discover its magic. Mobile Fidelity’s 30th anniversary edition reissue of Merry Christmas makes her spellbinding performances and upper-tier register come alive like never before.
Pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, the pioneering label’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set of “Merry Christmas” plays with riveting detail, depth, and dimensionality. Available in audiophile quality for the first time since its original release three decades ago, and featuring the bonus track “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” the nine-times-platinum set breathes with a newfound transparency that enhances the spirituality, passion, and festive tenor of Carey’s singing.
The One Step LP boxes from MFSL are the benchmark in the field of audiophile re-issues and qualitatively even above the other productions of the probably most famous remastering studio in the world. The original analog tape was transferred by the MFSL sound engineers into a 4xDSD file after an individual adjustment of the track position of the tape and the bias setting for each individual title. This was then used to create the lacquer cut in the Sebastopol studio.
What's special about the LPs is not only a new vinyl granule without carbon colorants used at RTI in Camarillo, but more importantly the one-step process of LP manufacturing. The only place you can get closer to the sound of the master tape is at MFSL's studio in California. By this is meant the following: In normal LP productions, the lacquer cut is turned into an initial "father stamp with inverted groove structure." From this, a "mother stamp" with correct groove structure is then created. From this, the actual press stamp with inverted groove structure is then created and consumed for pressing the actual LP with correct groove structure. This approach allows almost any number of LPs to be pressed with just one coating cut.
In the One-Step process, this is all done much more simply. The actual coating cut itself is converted directly to the press die used to make the LP. So two steps of mechanical conversion are eliminated. Unfortunately, each coating cut can only produce a limited number of LPs. So if more than a few hundred LPs are to be produced, several lacquer cuts are needed. MFSL has issued the motto that a new set of press stamps should be used every 500 copies. This means that for a run of 7,500 copies, fifteen sets of the four lacquer cuts are used. However, since things sometimes go wrong in production, 18 sets are usually created at once. That means 72 lacquer cuts are made for the double LP. By hand, one after the other. Every day, the created lacquer cuts are flown by express to RTI for reworking and then a test pressing must be created for each side and also listened to in MFSL's studio. A time-consuming and also expensive process, resulting in an expensive product and high collector demand. The delivery is made in an elaborate box. The serial number is entered by hand on the back. MFSL states that there will be no further re-pressings.
Limited to 3.000 copies.
1. Silent Night
2. All I Want for Christmas Is You
3. O Holy Night
4. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
5. Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)
6. Joy to the World
7. Jesus Born on This Day
8. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Gloria (In