Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

My careful comparison of original UK mono pressing and original UK stereo.

In short:
This album kills in MONO.

Longread:
I always prefered mono for psychedelic era albums, but Piper was just a revelation honestly.
Overall impression is that mono version gives you much more widespread, massive, dense and tight punchy sound coming from all directions !!!
I really mean it, the wall of sound fills the room with very balanced instruments & vocals presentation.
Stereo version simply destroys all the magic. Stereo sounds less atmospheric and mysterious.
For example, the beginning of Astronomy Domine sounds very different because you can barely hear the cosmic names through a megaphone.
Stereo version also missing the scarry whoosh in the middle of the song as well as other futuristic effects and psychedelic sounds.
Lucifer Sam is the same story. All those roaring and thrumming psych sound are not as haunting.
The famous percussion sound feels like it's with you in the room in mono, while clearly coming out of the R speaker most of the time in stereo.
Entire album in stereo gives you the feeling that either R/L channel is too much going on simultaniously, the panning in quite sloppy in my opinion.
Also, stereo is top-end heavy in a way that isn't all that pleasant in some places. Too sharp and edgy guitar riffs. Sometimes vocals overpower everything else.
The only song I enjoyed more in stereo was Bike. And obviously that moment with moving channels panning at the end of Interstellar Overdrive is super cool.

p.s. Considering how much I have payed for this pressing, I initially planned to cherish my 1st UK mono on the shelf but omg, after comparing each song one by one trying mono vs stereo it really feels like the mono is significantly superior and I will exploit this pressing until its worn...

THE psychedelic masterpiece of all time - Syd's opus! This revolutionary and brilliant album captures the duality at the heart of the emerging psychedelia scene of the mid 60’s - the experimental instrumental freak-out pieces showcased by the group's themes of space travel as metaphors for hallucinogenic experiences and the pleasures of expanding one's mind and perception, and an underlying threat of sinister mental disorder and even lunacy as the impression of chaos and confusion lurks beneath the bright surface of Syd’s catchy, colourful, childlike, playful and humorous melodic acid pop songs. One of the hidden gems (and unsung heroes) of this record must be the eerie farfisa organ keyboards from Rick Wright that underscore the spacey psyche atmosphere with hypnotic, snake-charmer lines amid a dizzying merry-go-round of sound effects.

"Music seems to help the pain... Seems to cultivate the brain." Syd Barrett