Phish – Junta

A top quality pressing — excellent dynamics, remarkably low surface noise for colored wax, creative mastering overall. Even the isolated finger snaps at the end of You Enjoy Myself are more dynamic than most multi-track renderings. Highly recommended.

I definitely don’t hold the mantle for being the biggest Phish fan on Discogs; saying that this is one of the best sounding pieces of vinyl in my collection. I can compare it to the 1992 compact disc and this is just better sounding in every way, and the CD was no slouch. The vinyl is beautiful, a black and white tye dye look and it’s dead quiet. A joy to listen to, rich and detailed instrumentation and soundstage, near flawless. It probably has a digital step in the mastering process but they aren’t claiming AAA and when it sounds this good who cares?

This is truly an impressive pressing. Dead silent. Undoubtedly one of the best sounding records I have. Big ups to the team who brought this seminal album to wax.

Sounds so good, what a great recording quality and pressing

Yet another great pressing, sounds as good as the other pressings that use the same plates. Go figure!

Sounds incredible. Fee sounded so good I just started laughing. There is a little bit of surface noise on side a, but not enough to complain about. Wonderfully done!

I have the 2013 release as well to compare this to so will make some notes.

The tri-fold feels of similar quality to me across both versions. I didn’t get the single printed inner sleeve in this release that was included in the 2013 one, so they either stopped including it or mine is missing it.

The 2023 records feel more flexible to me and I believe are likely a lighter weight than the 2013 release, though I didn’t weigh to confirm.

Sonically they are very close and could be equivalent. That said, and I might be imagining it, but I do feel the 2013 sounds slightly better. A part of that is the pressing quality between my two copies puts the 2013 copy far in the lead. There is a more noisy floor on the 2023 one and visible no-fill with the velcro/scraping scattered noise throughout at least side A. The 2013 has none of these issues.

I also have played several copies of the recent Lawn Boy olfactory hues pressing on my turntable that had the same issues velcro/scraping sounds in spots on the first disc. The Rift Bitter Blue pressing didn’t have this issue for me. Makes me wonder if GZ is decent with solid colors, but maybe has a higher defect rate with mixed color. I am working off a small sample set here so hard to say.