Todd Rundgren Something/Anything? 2X LP Bearsville 2BX 2066 1972 Press NM Play

$

60

• Todd Rundgren.
• Something/Anything?.
• Bearsville 2BX 2066 Double Disc Gatefold Jacket.
• Includes Eight Page Folded Insert of Lyrics, Photos, and Credits.
• 1972 Terre Haute Pressing.

Item Details
Manufactured in: USA
Lacquer Cut By: Robert Lee Hulko. President, Stirling Sound (LH in matrix)
Pressing By: Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute, IN ("T" in matrix)
Recorded: Late 1971 at I.D. Sound, Record Plant, Bearsville, & Runt Recorders Studios
Original Issue:February 1972
This Issue: 1972 (based on label design and matrix)
Label: Bearsville 2BX 2066
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (etch:) T1 2BX 2066 31360-1C (stamp:) STIRLING (etch:) LH 2 (stamp:) H (etch:) 44
Side 2: (etch:) T1 2BX 2066 31361-1D (stamp:) STIRLING (etch:) LH 3 (stamp:) D (etch:) 13
Side 3: (etch:) T1 2BX 2066 31362-1D (stamp:) STIRLING (etch:) LH 3 (stamp:) E (etch:) 48
Side 4: (etch:) T1 2BX 2066 31363-2-1 (stamp:) STIRLING (etch:) LH 3 (stamp:) A (etch:) 7
Was bought new by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection (you have absolutely known provenance). Was very seldom played except to dub onto mix tapes. The plays have been only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I neutralize residual static charge with a Zerostat immediately after cleaning. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with NOS Soviet Voskhod matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
For track listings, please see my attached record label photographs.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Grading LPs by text characters is subjective and at best are only a guide as no two used records are of exactly the same quality. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. eBay no longer allows me to enter separate grades for each side of the sleeve or record so you may not see any in the box above but are listed below. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are graded and described in detail separately for your complete assessment.

Outer Jacket Inspection/grading:
VG+/VG+/VG+/VG
The front face has ring wear and other surface dulling inside the ring. This is no surprise because nearly every first pressing copy has ring wear (even sealed copies!). This is because of defective dyes used in manufacturing the finish. So, if anybody has an original copy with no ring wear, hang on to it!! The front right-side corners have blunting creases and rubbing wear. The spine corners also have rubbing wear but not much notable blunting. The two inside gatefold faces do not have ring wear but do have some finish peeling near both bottom corners. The right side gatefold has blunting at both top and bottom corners. The rear face has more noticeable ring wear than the front and my bright photo lamps seem to really bring it out much more than it looks in person. Still, I downgraded it to "VG." The bottom edge has shelf sliding rub wear and the top edge has much less of that. The spine has a very thin/narrow white line of wear at both corner bends. The jacket is still very study with no splits anywhere.

Vinyl visual inspection/grading:
VG++/VG+/NM--/VG++
Record 1 Side 1
The surface looked NM at first glance but when rotating and tilting under bright halogen lights I could see some light grayish spots of surface mottling. This is most likely the result of the top vinyl surface pressing against the paper sleeve for many decades. I also was able to find a few of those nanometer-width surface hairlines that can show faintly reflective when tilted at special angles. Did not see anything that could possibly affect play. VG++

Record 1 Side 2
This side looked very close to a solid NM because of seemingly less reflective extremely thin reflective hairlines and mottling than Side 1. When I continued to rotate and tilt around the whole record I finally saw a brighter reflective trace through tracks 5 and 6. This looked like it could have been caused by an accidental turntable bump that made my needle drag over the top vinyl surface. It made me worry about possible repeating ticks per revolution during play. So I made a note to listen 100 % through T5 and T6 all the way through to the lead-out during my play testing. But, as you will see below, I heard nothing but the music all the way through that region and was mightily relieved. So, VG+ for visual

Record 2 Side 1
Same appearance as Record 1 Side 1, but closer to NM than VG+, so NM- or NM--.

Record 2 Side 2
Similar to Record 1 Side 2 but even cleaner. I did happen to catch an elliptical shaped vinyl "hill" about 1/16" wide located about 1/8" into the start of T7. I have seen theses before and they are pressing artifacts that usually cause no problem during playback because the grooves are running right through and the height of the hill is gentle enough to not bounce the stylus. I still made a note to listen through this area in case it might produce an audible low frequency "thump" (it didn't). So, VG++ even though its overall closer to NM-

Play Testing:
NM-/NM/NM/NM
Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection (continuous written notes were taken). I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. When the track width was noticeably greater I took more play samples to get good coverage. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 96k/24-bit WAV files. This allowed me to go back and re-check some of my notes on digital playback in ProTools. Here is rundown of each side from those notes.

Record 1 Side 1 Play
I'm writing this now from my notes after having completed play testing of all sides. I have general opinions of the overall audio qualities. The recording and mixing job was really good. The high frequencies have more extension and detail than I expected. Cymbal brushes have lots of "air" and extension. I could easily hear those very fast little "ticks" as the drummer's stick lightly tapped cymbals. Bass is very solid too without "boominess" but very tight and deep. Voices are clear with just the right stereo perspective and massed voice chorus parts do not get congested or shrill. Lee did a great lacquer cutting job in keeping the levels high to very effectively mask any residual vinyl noise but avoided hitting cutting limits without compressing the dynamic range with too much limiting. All this was evident when recording T1. Not a spec of vinyl noise was heard from start to finish. T2 was recorded also and it was the only track that had moderate level ticks, but just two. Afterward I went into the ProTools waveform displays to find them. The first was easy as it was the louder one at 00:23 seconds from the start. The second tick was harder to find as it was much smaller and narrower. Finally found it at 00:25, was only a few samples wide and very low in amplitude (hard to notice as it goes by so fast). T3 was totally quiet. On T4, I was able to make out a few "micro ticks" well below music levels in about the middle of that track while actively listening for vinyl noise. T5 was one of the tracks noted for outstanding bass resolution. T6 was clean too except for a small amount of vinyl crackle just as it gets to the lead-out. My top picks for the side were tracks 1,2 and 5. My take-away at the time was that this side sounded "unplayed." Overwhelmingly NM quality but because of the little bits of vinyl artifacts noted above I'm adding a minus (NM-).

Record 1 Side 2 Play
The Intro is just Todd talking about "sounds of the studio". The transition grooves from T1 into T2 were dead quiet, the same as T1. The carousel on T2 was stunningly realistic and will feel like "you are there." T3 and T4 were my top picks for this side. T4 had a one small tick in it's very last grooves. T5 was mixed at very high volume levels but T6 was mostly Todd on the piano singing, so volume levels much closer to the vinyl noise floor. T5 and T6 are the tracks with that noticeable reflective trace going though them that I wrote about in my visual notes. I sort of held my breath waiting and waiting to start hearing very audible ticks or clicks that kept repeating on every revolution but they never came. Nothing in the transition grooves and nothing all the way through T6 except for one insignificant tick about 1/4th of the way into it. I was both amazed and relived. So the trace I saw was only a cosmetic flaw. My notes said: "grooves must be cut deep enough, thanks Lee!" My happiness with this side's audio quality (very near to never played) led me to a final NM grading.

Record 2 Side 1 Play
My conclusion from play testing this side was that was exceptionally well preserved. I'm pretty sure I played it only once before and that was just a quick sampling of the beginning of each track. T1 has some searing electric guitar leads. I took a lot more samples of it because its a wider band. Only picked up a single small tick. T2 had some very rich vocal harmonies. T3 was my top pick. The acoustic guitar lead-in was very cool. T4 was very quiet and T5 had some really mega-distorted electric guitar licks. A very solid NM.

Record 2 Side 2 Play
On this side the lead-ups into and out of songs into transition grooves are all filled with Todd talking to the band between recording takes. OVERTURE is deliberately "low-fi" audio simulating an old mono recording sounding like it was sent through a telephone. T1 is in the opposite direction with very lush high fidelity. My top picks on this side were tracks 2, 3, and 4. I found T2 very fun and entertaining. T3 is the famous hit and it was my last chance to grab it with the best audio resolution. About a month ago I had spent 2-3 days meticulously re-calibrating my phono cartridge's channel balance and azimuth crosstalk to within 0.3 dB matching. Sounded just superb. Can't at all describe why but I loved T4. T5 and 6 were clean all the way through but I did hear some small bits of vinyl crackle during the non-music patter transition between T5 and T6. Oh, and there was nothing at all heard when my arm passed though that elliptical-shaped vinyl "hill" artifact within the start of T6 (no noise or skipping). So, another solid NM in my estimation.

The strength of these LPs are their close proximity to original first-play quality. My analog front end is much better quality now than what I had when this album was bought and it showed me how much potential it always had. If you are seeking a copy that plays with an audio quality very close to a sealed original pressing I doubt you can find one much better than this.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Original inner sleeves are included separately.
• The 8-page folded lyric/photo/credits insert is included separately.
• Records have been placed into new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeves, as the originals are just paper. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean and safe from abrasion during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
• Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
• Sent in high quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners and all corners double-taped.

Shipping

• Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
• If you do buy more than one LP  on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice.eBay does give you the option to "Request an invoice from the buyer," but this option is not available on the eBay mobile app. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.