Does SPJ-3732: Supertramp / ...Famous Last Words Audiophile Series exist?

nik10101

New Member
Hi there, long time lurker but my first post - I owe a million thanks to all the contributors on this forum with such good information shared.

I've been scrolling through a number of Supertramp posts in the Hoffman forums and noticed there have been a couple references to
SPJ-3732: Supertramp / ...Famous Last Words… Audiophile series. I've researched online and can't seem to find any examples of this particular pressing, nothing on eBay, Popsike or even Discogs which I've found quite odd, especially when the catalog number has been referenced twice as far as I can see in those forums.

I'm a collector and Supertramp fanatic and I quite like this album (already have a first UK press) so have been looking for the audiophiles series if it in fact exists! Does anyone actually own one of these pressings in their collections?
 
The only one I own is Breakfast in America, and I recall seeing Crime of the Century in the record bins back in the day. (I never purchased it since I already owned that on Mobile Fidelity.)

I've never actually seen SPJ-3732 in person, but since there was a catalog number listed for it, it must be a rarity if it indeed exists.

This was the list of titles I originally had many years ago. I forget the sources I used to compile it:

SPJ-4245: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass / Greatest Hits​
SPJ-4790: Herb Alpert / Rise​
SPJ-3601: Carpenters / Singles: 1969-1973​
SPJ-4568: Chris De Burgh / Spanish Trains & Other Stories​
SPJ-4658: Chuck Mangione / Feels So Good​
SPJ-3715: Chuck Mangione / Fun and Games​
SPJ-9020: Nazareth / Greatest Hits​
SPJ-4753: The Police / Outlandos d' Amor​
SPJ-4792: The Police / Reggatta de Blanc​
SPJ-4831: The Police / Zenyatta Mondatta​
SPJ-3730: The Police / Ghost In The Machine​
SPJ-4822: Split Enz / True Colours​
SPJ-4280: Cat Stevens / Tea for the Tillerman​
SPJ-4313: Cat Stevens / Teaser and the Firecat​
SPJ-4519: Cat Stevens / Greatest Hits​
SPJ-3711: Styx / Cornerstone​
SPJ-3719: Styx / Paradise Theater​
SPJ-4559: Styx / Equinox​
SPJ-4637: Styx / The Grand Illusion​
SPJ-3647: Supertramp / Crime of the Century​
SPJ-3708: Supertramp / Breakfast in America​
SPJ-3732: Supertramp / ...Famous Last Words…
SPJ-4560: Supertramp / Crisis? What Crisis?​
SPJ-4634: Supertramp / Even in the Quietest Moments​
SPJ-5014: Supertramp / Brother Where You Bound​
SPJ-6702: Supertramp / Paris (2 disc)​
SPJ-4722: Gino Vanelli / Brother to Brother​
 
Last edited:
Aren’t all of those Canadian pressings?
I have The Singles 1969-1973. Excellent sound.
 
Aren’t all of those Canadian pressings?
I have The Singles 1969-1973. Excellent sound.
The titles were (oddly enough) distributed by A&M in Canada, but they were pressed in Japan by JVC, same facility that pressed Mobile Fidelity's LPs, using the same virgin vinyl formula (which was originally used on CD4 quad LPs, since it was more durable to handle the 38kHz carrier signal used by CD4). While Stan Ricker didn't master any of the A&Ms, the initials in the deadwax matched another Mobile Fidelity engineer, who I can't remember offhand.

The actual EQ changes for the mastering were left up to the label, though--A&M's were relatively untampered with, where MoFi was sometimes accused of boosting the lower and upper frequencies on a couple of their titles.
 
Thanks Rudy. Yes, I've come across a similar list of these catalog numbers before but have yet to physically see a copy of Famous Last Words online or in person. I'm hoping this did in fact exist and is a hard to find record so I can finally find it one day. I do have a Canadian release on KC-600 vinyl on the way an expect that one to sound great (going by how my UK first press sounds). The collector in me must have this Audiophile Series version if it exists!

Thanks for your reply!
 
I am starting to wonder if I got some incorrect information when I put that list together. Since A&M was releasing titles from their most popular artists using KC-600 vinyl from about 1982 onward, there really wouldn't have been a need for an A&M Audiophile pressing. If you notice, the first four Police albums are in the series, but Synchronicity is not, as that was first released on KC-600.

It could be a situation where they might have announced doing an audiophile series release at some point, but never actually pressed it.

This album was a 1982 release, and while I probably could never compile a complete list of all of A&M's KC-600 pressings, I do know that my copies of Styx's Kilroy Was Here, Joe Jackson's album Body and Soul, and all of the A&M/CTI reissues were pressed on KC-600. As was Herb Alpert's Blow Your Own Horn, if I'm not mistaken. I'm probably forgetting a few also. (I would have to look through a complete list of A&M's releases during that time and look them up to see if they were pressed on KC-600.)

From a US copy, apparently:


1660706983812.png
(Image courtesy of Discogs)

I think I may have picked up a dollar bin copy of this album at some point--maybe I should see if I can find it, and check for the blue glow. 😁

1660707240772.png
(Image courtesy of Discogs)
 
That's a great point - I have noticed that there wasn't any 'Audiophile Series' after '81 from what I can see online. Discogs says the live 'Paris' album was released in 1982 however I'm not sure how that was determined.

I did receive my KC-600 Canadian press and was very happy with it!

In the unlikely chance it does exist, I will still keep a look out!
 
In 1983 A&M switched to "high quality vinyl" which (if you held it up to a light) showed as a clear deep violet color. This (to many) meant there was no need for "audiophile versions" as this was a superior "super-quiet" vinyl...

--Mr Bill
 
The audiophile series was half-speed mastered at the same studio that mastered Mobile Fidelity's LPs back then--I've never seen Stan Ricker's initials "SR/2" in the runout area, but I know that one of the same engineers who did MoFi's records did the A&Ms. The A&Ms were also pressed by JVC (Japan), same place as the MoFi records. I always found it curious that they were distributed by A&M Canada, vs. being distributed by their US counterparts.

The KC-600 releases (pictured above) were standard mastering, although since Bernie Grundman did many (most?) of them, they all sounded really good. And even if it wasn't the KC-600, it was a different virgin vinyl that may have had a greyish or brownish hue to it, like one of my copies of Joe Jackson's Will Power.
 
In 1983 A&M switched to "high quality vinyl" which (if you held it up to a light) showed as a clear deep violet color. This (to many) meant there was no need for "audiophile versions" as this was a superior "super-quiet" vinyl...

--Mr Bill
Those were truly superior quality pressings indeed at least to my ears regardless of the color those were audiophile unto to themselves
 
Back
Top Bottom