Nas – Illmatic

Solid cassette Imo though I'm not a crazy cassette guy so I can't speak on all the intricacies, sounds good and can't complain

I've been playing this and it sounds pretty good, some noise and mastering isn't amazing but it is worth buying!

mine came with a huge chip in the record, very disappointing. Purchased retail

Joint best pressing in terms of sound for me.

Firstly, it must be noted i use an AT VM95 Microline cart now having grown tired of IGD and sibilance on many a record with my olde Shure and Ortofon 2M Red (how does this cart even sell!?). Its not a secret by now that many Nas self titled pressings have baked in IGD and with some setups will incur sibilance in the last tracks to boot The acid test for me is It Aint Hard to Tell. This pressing once again does suffer some IGD and dulling at the end of each side and i would think only an uber expensive parallel tracker with a fancy tipped and cantilevered MC will ameliorate this. However i am not getting any sibilance with any tracks here and the balance is smoother than my old CD but still retains decent bite. I really like it and for sure it warrant cranking. Theres no doubt that the value for money option is this pressing. The downside is the suprise that my limited blue vinyl copy is quieter of compound and so is my even more limited gold copy. I wont say its distracting at all but those other two are amazingly silent whereas this is jist not quite. Also the gold copy has the smoothest deepest if slightly most rolled off sound. The blue copy is perhaps the slightly most lively and thus close to sibilant of sound (ot does run the sides closer to the labels than this and the gold cut).

Truth be told id be happy with either one of these three copies ive got. Im a sucker for my limited gold copy with its melted marbled look but i dont want to wear it out so this will get alot more plays. Same goes for the blue copy which i think i shall probably sell. Its just good to report that with the right setup that doesnt break the bank, there are three issues of Nas that can sound good with out any serious distortion nasties!

Compared to my limited (to 1000 total) blue pressing with the alternate cover this pressing notably doesnt run the sides quite as close to the centre labels thus the needle is kept at a better angle at the cost of narrower grooves which i feel contributes to a smooth and deep if slightly rolled off but overall more consistent sound here. It seems by now, that the question as to what makes for an acceptable or better Nas self titled album press, is do Nas' lyrics fall apart in a sea of sibilance on It Aint Hard to Tell (and Halftime to a lesser extent)? Well, played back via my AT VM95ML reviewing cart i can say this pressing and the needle combo keeps any unpleasant sibilance or distortion at bay. Without doubt this is smoother than my og CD (at a cost to outright clarity) and i think it does just edge out the blue vinyl copy which in its defence is quiet as a mouse and still sounds fine, at least with this IGD champ of a needle.

Of the two copies i guess my preference is for this one, mainly because i prefer the og cover and its nice to have the printed inner (the blue copy has just a plain black paper sleeve). Also the thickness and weight of this vinyl adds a perceived quality on top of the rather spiffing "gold" compound which appears to melt towards the centre which frankly just looks pretty awesome! Its a pleasure to own both i guess but this is the copy i cherish the most!

WOW... super quiet (ultrasonically cleaned first) vinyl and mastered well. Of course there is no such Nas debut vinyl pressing without baked in IGD to some degree but using an AT VM95ML means the inner grooves - while naturally abit duller - dont fall apart and end up with Nas sounding splashy as hell like ive heard before. My copy is also totally flat which with modern records is surely some kind of miracle! Its also dead centrered and i cant detect any groove nasties. Its hard to ask for more than this.

To conclude - this is a very worthwhile pressing, if you can find one that is!

anyone else thinks this Nas - Illmatic might just be a variant of this same reissue? shal we start a merging process?

Classic album but a ton of sibilance. Not the best version

does anyone have any info how many were made? mine has beige labels on both side a and b

This 24-bit release (remaster?) sounds amazing. The clarity, dynamics, and mix are perfect. I probably play this much louder than I should ;)