Better 180g vinyl question

Tony

Simply Vnyl's pressings aren't always "audiophile" - you have to be careful - just coz it's on better vinyl don't mean it's been cut properly.

But I can assure you that the Classic Records pressings offered by places like Diverse and Vivante are worth evey single penny. I have all the ones so far issued and they have been a revelation, far outstripping my Atlantic/Swan Song Japanese pressings. Buy buy buy!

The Capitol 180g Pet Sounds is pretty good. Also, the EMI 100th anniversary pressings issued by EMI in 1997/98 are well worth searching out. Rykodisc Analogue's early 90s reissues of Bowie stuff on clear (ie transparent, which makes 'em a nightmare to cue) virgin 180g vinyl are also excellent.

Other top quality reissues can be found on Speakers Corner, Mobile Fidelity and DCC (the latter two are now sadly bust).

Does that help?

Kevin

quote:

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Originally posted by Tony Smith:

I'm just starting to rebuild my record collection from scratch
Tony

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Tony

records from scratch? I must be such a pedant to spot that.....

Mike

Just out of interest, as my [probably now priceless - Bowie dress cover, low number White Album etc etc Let's not go into it] vinyl collection went about 12 yrs ago - is the quality of all these new pressings substantially and consistently better than the original stuff?

WARNING: Old Man Reminiscing Alert -

In the 70's & 80's [main buying period] it was not unusual to take back one in four purchases because of pressing quality [bits of old label visible poking through, a result of recycling, or off centre pressings - and coloured vinyl usually had a very short lifespan]. Stuff from the late 60's was usually OK, and anything from the Pye group of companies was pressed on vinyl so thick that it almost didn't bend [Pye, sadly didn't have may artists you'd want to collect, but my Donovan collection was handy to keep behind the front door in case of burglars]. Is stuff now generally consistently good, given the prices charges and the niche nature of the market, or do you still have to take stuff back?

throb

Richard

yes I have bought a couple of goodies from that stall outside MVC and also some baddies.

Thanks for the tip about the Lions shop. In return it's only fair to tell you that St Catherine's Hospice on East Street has some fantastic classical bargains. I got a mint box set of St Mathew's Passion (Richter ) on Archiv for £2.

I noticed while researching Nitty Gritty's that (at least I think it was you) your wife bought you a cleaner for a birthday I wonder how you get on with it because my missus is just about to do the same for me.


Kevin-W

thanks very much for a very direct answer to my question - that really does help. My first toe in the water with Simply Vinyl is Santana Abraxas for £5.99 on 125g. I've only been able to find Nice Price versions second hand, tho I did see one nutter had an original 70s pressing on ebay for £20. If that vendor is reading this sorry to call you a nutter but £20 seems a bit steep.


Mike

obviously that is because most of my second-hand buys are sacratched!

Some 180g vinyl releases are a scandal. I recently bought an expensive "Kind of Blue", and it sounded worse than CD. Anybody suggest a current vinyl label that can be relied upon?

malcolm

Richard

thanks once again for the tip off. My old man lives in Worthing so I might just combine my next visit to him with a quick look at Phase 3's neighbours.

I'm really looking forward to getting the Nitty Gritty - I'm hoping it can sort out a few of the MVC man's deals for me. I blew £10 on Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here and Led Zep IV from the bloke who has about 30 LPs outside the town hall on Saturdays. They both sound awful - there is so much surface noise on them. My missus - who incidently works in Southwater @the RSPCA - cannot be persuaded that my LP12 sounds better than the CDX. With second-hand records like that it's difficult to argue with her. All my best sounding records seem to be classical for some reason. Hopefully the Abraxas I ordered will sound pretty good when it eventually arrives. How long should I expect to wait for simply vinyl to deliver??

I have often looked longingly at the Gaggia ice cream maker in S&S - is that the one you got?

Do you go boozin in Horsham?

Has ANYONE heard those Led Zeps on Diverse?

Cheers

Tony

'Zeps on Diverse'? Do you mean the Classic Records versions?

I have most of them. Very impressive all round. I still think the original UK pressings are better, but there's almost nothing in it and they're almost impossible to find in mint condition.

The remastered Peter Gabriel titles are a revelation (well, the one I've heard is!)

Don't like Simply Vinyl at all. Most appear to be mastered direct from CD.

Simply vinyl's version of steely Dans 'The royal Scam' is not a patch on a mid 80's uk pressing I bought it to replace. It's a real shame that simply vinyl are not actually doing what they imply with the hype.

What I cannot understand is why a band like steely dan does not authorise a vinyl re-pressing on 180g direct from the original analogue masters. If they did they would be sure to make a mint. I would be happy to pay 25 pounds plus for this quality - maybe each album as two 45rpm 12 inches (2 tracks a side)- yum yum.

At present the mainstream players have, by and large, ignored this opportunity. I'm looking forward to the day when CBS,Warners,MCA,Atlantic etc gets get to grips with satisfying this market. I'm not saying this would be commercially viable for their entire catalogue but there must be dozens of artists who would be commercially viable with this treatment.

like the EMI 100th anniversary re-issues. I only managed to grab Bowie and Bush before they disappeared. I now use these excellent pressings (much better than my originals) to show off my system.

malcolm

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Has ANYONE heard those Led Zeps on Diverse?

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Yes, they are a bit uneven. Led Zep II in particular is bit trebley. The rest are pretty fine, and certainly look the part. I, IV,Physical Graffiti and Presence are fine IMO.

As to Simply Vinyl, they are again uneven. They use the source material they can get hold of. Its unlikely that they can get hold of the analogue Steely Dan tapes for example. So I'd use common sense to guess the quality of the reissue i.e if its American it is made from a digital copy tape (which isn;t necessarily a bad thing).

FWIW their Clash, Nick Drake, John Martyn and Fairport Convention LPs sound fine to me.

quote:

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What I cannot understand is why a band like steely dan does not authorise a vinyl re-pressing on 180g direct from the original analogue masters.

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Because they think LP is crap, and they don't believe there is much money to be made in it. For example, they personally stepped in it to delete the Two Against Nature LP. Take a look a Roger Nichol's web-site for info.

[This message was edited by Martin M on TUESDAY 05 November 2002 at 18:06.]

At the time walter Becker poo poo'd the 2 V nature pressing as it was made from digital masters outside of their quality control thereby creating a pressing with both 'the inherent weaknesses of vinyl as well as digital present' (his words if I remember correctly).

He commented at the time that they had made a set of high quality analogue masters of the album for potential vinyl use at a later date.

Even though the 2Vnature Lp came about from a digital master it still out performs the CD on my system.

As to John Martyn, once again my mid 80's pressing
convincingly outperforms the simply vinyl version. I have effectively given up on the quality control of this company, especially with relevance to the money they charge

On a trip to the West End yesterday I managed to pop into HMV on Oxford Street and picked up Portishead Dummy on Simply Vinyl - coz it was reduced to £11.99 - as well as The Coral and Lambchop.

From a quick listening Dummy seems pretty good but the Lambchop is sensational.

My neighbour just pooped round with Abraxas which turned up while I was out yesterday and I have to say - after a quick comparison but the CDX has more focus and detail.

Richard

Thanks I will take you up on your kind offer - email to follow shortly.

Tim and Martin M

Yes I did mean the Classic Records versions. I bought a UK pressing of Zep IV for a fiver and it sounds awful. I'm hoping a bit of a clean might perk things up considerably. If it doesn't then I'll have to stick the CR versions on my Christmas list.

One of the Nick Drake LPs on SV was also reduced in HMV yesterday - can't remember which one but they are all great albums so I suppose it doesn't matter. I'd already spent nearly £40 and my wife was starting to frown so I thought I'd get out while the going was good.

Cheers

Tony

Anyone heard Diverse Vinyl's copy of Alison Krauss & Union Station's "New Favourite"? I've got it on CD and it's great but I'd like a top-notch LP version.

Cheers

Dave

"Anyone heard Diverse Vinyl's copy of Alison Krauss & Union Station's "New Favourite"? I've got it on CD and it's great but I'd like a top-notch LP version."

I have it and would like to find more of her albums on vinyl. Funny thing is that the songs I like the best on the album are the one's she's not singing lead.




Anyone have this soundtrack? I'd like to find this one on vinyl as well.



[This message was edited by John Gilleran on THURSDAY 07 November 2002 at 12:27.]

John,

What's the quality like? Do you know if its from the master tapes or a CD copy?

Diverse Vinyl have copies of "Forget About It" in stock but I'm not aware of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" being available on vinyl.

Dave

"What's the quality like?"
Superb! Very nice gatefold cover as well.

Do you know if its from the master tapes or a CD copy?

If CD sounded as good as this album I'd think about buying a CD player;-)

I'll look out for her other releases, thanks for the heads up.

Sorry for the late report but I haven't been near a computer since my trip to Richard's place until today.

I really enjoyed meeting Richard - it was nice to finally come face to face with one of the voices on this site and talk about music with a fellow Naimiac.

The Rolling Stones was a 1966 copy of Aftermath. It had sounded good on my LP12 - admittedly with a few crackles - but after Richard gave it the once over it really was awesome. I was really impressed. I can't wait to get my Nitty Gritty the wife has promised me. Hearing Mick and the boys back at home revealed what a good job Richard's Moth made of getting all the gunge out.

The Billy Ocean album (hides his head in shame) was Suddenly - it's an 80s record that just happens to hold some pleasant memories. I thought Richard's speakers held up pretty well actually. His higher spec system could not conceal that a proper cleaning can make a big difference.
Getting Billy back on my own system I noticed detail and bass were certainly a lot smoother than they had been before.

As Richard has mentioned the Led Zep and Pink Floyd were not quite as successful but I put that down to dodgy second-hand deals. If you trade in used records you've got to expect to buy a few pups. Wish You Were Here has a constant crackle though it did quieten down after a clean. I think I need to buy another copy of this.

The Led Zep I will hold judgment on for a while. Richard's copy was better than mine but I don't think either were great. Richard is right about my Christmas list - I'd like to hear one of those Classic Records versions to see what I could realistically expect from Led Zep IV.

One thing Richard mentioned about cleaning records was they tend not to attract so much dust once they have been cleaned. He wasn't joking. Aftermath has been on my Sondek several times since and I haven't noticed any build up of dust or static.

Thanks once again Richard. I'll have to inflict my somewhat lesser system on you one day.

Cheers

Tony

Please, no more talk of Horsham. Having grown up there, I've spent the last decade trying to erase all memory of places like East Street.

I guess it can't be all bad. Most of my vinyl was purchased at Heartbeat, near the Iron Bridge. Is it still going?

I'm sure you are aware, but Brighton is awash with the stuff, with Virgin and HMV stocking new releases on vinyl last time I checked.