Just a few observations in Beach Boys vinyl nerd-dom.
This past weekend I was at the swap meet, and I picked up a late 70s or early 80s tan label "Starline" reissue of the 1966 "Best of the Beach Boys" Volume 1 LP. I played it on my stereo, and was rather impressed with the way it sounded. It prompted me to get out my other, earlier copy of the album and do a comparison.
The later swap meet copy was catalog number DT-502545, and the trail-off has "Mastered by Capitol" on it. The earlier copy from my collection had the original catalog number of DT-2545 and has no such print in the trailoff. It looks like it was pressed from an earlier stamper, comparable to what was used in the 60s. The "Mastered by Capitol" copy was drastically less compressed and sounded awesome. I noticed a similarly improved sound from listening to the stereo tracks on the "Endless Summer" LP from around the same time. Whoever did these remasters in the 1970s really knew what they were doing.
The catalog number DT-502545 corresponds to a Columbia House pressing. All of the Columbia record club have the >50< prefix.
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