In General
The music of Vangelis is deep immersion. If you are a headphone lover, he will be definitively on your top 5 musicians to listen to. That's how I started my journey with Vangelis, and how most of us Vangelis-lovers are and were.
If you have omnidirectional speakers, then you will truly appreciate it, as all of his music creates an ambience, and a feeling of immersion. In short, if your setup does well on ambient music, it will do well with Vangelis.
Most, or basically all, of his music has extreme dynamics range. From very soft, minute sounds to the largest scale. If you are tired of over-compressed present day material, his music will be a whirlwind of fresh air.
Spiral
Released in 1977, on RCA. Has unusual deadwax information. I have the reissue Cat# AFL1-2627. It is +12dB too hot!!!! Yes, the high need to be knocked down by 12 dB, and even then the bass does not have enough authority and the highs are still hot. Sigh. This is a problem with RCA, their masters and stampers wear out too fast. Recalling the CD, it was also mixed on the very hot side, but not nearly this hot. (CD was also RCA issue - probably mixed by same guy who remixed this issue.)
So, I suspect that most of you will find these super hot copies. Just be prepared to EQ it. And, not for those nights when you want bass heavy material - it is for those nights when you are ready for something light, something uplifting. If you have hearing problems and have forgotten / crave the HF world, then this album will bring you back the joy of sound.
Other than the HF imbalance, the RCA pressing is clean, and noise floor is super quiet for RCA. The record is very clear, sounds very precise and defined and alive.
See You Later
Polydor, 1980. Polydor Deluxe 2302 101. Correct tonal balance (vs RCA / Spiral), even though we are already hitting the 1980s. This is not for superficial listening, and you will not get it for the first time. The material jumps from barely audible to super loud, so listen only when your environment permits both. (Or, use headphones!) The noise floor of my album is a little high, competes with music content at the softest level. Does not bother me (as my system resolves noise and music as two completely separate entities: a perfectly clear instruments in the space, and a spatially distant fireplace. Yet, if it bothers you, (or your system is unable to deal with noise floors) then fair warning. Although you might have better luck with your copy ---- or worse luck....
Jon and Vangelis - Private Collection
RTB Records, Yugoslavian pressing. Stereo 813174-1Y. Huhh.
First things first: EQ is NOT RIAA!! It's very early stereo era EQ (EQ4 on Vilin - NAB EQ, like the master tapes!), possibly an end-of-life Decca FFRR cutter, as the very high frequency instability suggests. Played with Benz MC3/SUT: holy mother of FF!! Crapton of ultarsonic content, just like Decca FFRRs. makes ears bleed. Cutting high frequency by 4dB and highs still hurt. Swithcing to ATF7 that has much less 19+kHz extension (with Violins internal MC step up): most of the UH/UHF instability/content is gone, like a white blanket removed from the music. Also, body appears, record sounds balanced with level EQ. Thus, the listening recommendation: avoid a cartridge / source that resolves 18kHz+ with full accuracy. You want It rolled off by 17kHz.
Yet, some things are still strange. Vocal is in correct phase, but instruments are out of phase! With correct polarity Jon's singing is intelligible, but instruments are a 2D wall of sound. Reverse polarity gives us a barely intelligible Jon Anderson, like a faded ghost, but instruments pop in: they appear in space, truly wonderful! Alas, the two can never be enjoyed together on this issue. Not recommended. Sadly, flipping an instrument or vocal out of phase is a spiffy mastering practice to emphasize one or the other, but when the gear resolves phase clearly (has no phase incoherence issues, such as a driver out of phase or heavy feedback), it's gimmickyness renders it unlistenable.
Overall, the cutting team in Yugoslavia did a good job with the available tools. Most likely an outstanding job given the circumstances. The high frequency issue is most likely due to the cutterhead used, and will not present a problem with 95+% of the audio systems (few can reproduce very high frequencies with fidelity, regardless the fancy 30+kHz claims we often hear nowdays). This is one of Nellis favorite album, and she thinks it sounds very good. (I concur, and need to add that my description above seems less-than stellar because I was comparing it to even better releases. Provided the 17+kHz band is not reproduced, and you do not mind the artistic trickery of flipping phase of the vocal, then it's quite nice overall.)