Stunning!  In a word, that describes the sound of this meticulously produced 180 gram LP reissue of Van Morrison’s Moondance from the folks at Rhino (Warner Brothers).  I need not go into the album itself, which is already a popular music classic.  But to hear this release is proof positive that analog LPs can sound every bit as good as digital, and even surpass it.  I played this for a friend who was not in tune with the differences between digital and analog–even she was impressed!  When I tried to pin down her observations, it boiled down to this:  it sounds more “real” than digital.

A real treat, also, is how quiet the vinyl is.  My copy is just about perfect.  On the first play, I went through my usual ritual–put the LP on the turntable, queue up the lead-in groove, then kick up the volume to a predetermined level of background noise.  A few seconds later, you nearly had to peel me off of the back wall of the room–the vinyl is just about as quiet as a CD, and the beginning of “And It Stoned Me” really gave my ol’ ticker a jump start!  The best words I can use to describe the sound of this masterpiece:  warm, fluid and spacious.  The sound is so clean, yet very warm and lifelike.  Highly recommended:  5 stars +!  View the album on Amazon.