What was the last vinyl you bought?

Richard Dane posted:

I managed to find a mint copy of the half speed mastered issue of Dire Straits first album.  How could I resist a comparison against a mint early original, and the fairly recent US Warners Bernie Grundman cut "from the original analogue tape".  

The result was surprising; Overall I'd rate the US Warners reissue slightly ahead of the early original.  It keeps all that's good of the original but is slightly less dry and there's greater inner detail.  The Half speed was rather disappointing.  It wasn't night and day - in isolation you'd be happy with any of them, but the half speed sounded even drier than the original and slightly rolled off too. Most interesting...

Richard, I eventually went for this ‘back to black’ one from Amazon, but wondering if it’s the same one you mention or not. It credits Bernie Grundman, but confusingly says it’s remastered from both the original analog AND digital sources. Not sure how that works.. Do I have the wrong one?

Kevin, I'd imagine it's because the albums from Brothers in Arms onwards were recorded digitally.  Hopefully you have got the Pallas pressed set...

Richard Dane posted:

Kevin, I'd imagine it's because the albums from Brothers in Arms onwards were recorded digitally.  Hopefully you have got the Pallas pressed set...

Ag, yes, that makes sense - I guess it’s a generic sticker for all the Dire Straits Albums. Thanks again Richard. Any way to check whether or not it’s Pallas pressed?

Super successful and satisfying shop in a used record store in Bath. £65 the lot not especially cheap, but I think all are originals and condition varies from good to excellent. Very happy ???? 

Nice haul Kevin.

This one was especially and pleasantly surprising on vinyl. I’ve always liked this album and preferred it on CD to Brothers in Arms and all their albums after the first 2, but despite being a digital recording it’s shocking how good it sounds on Vinyl. Track 1, Calling Elvis in particular is a revelation. I always thought it boogied nicely, but the vocals end less than half way through the track and I felt that the following run out was just indulgent, much  in the mould of the overlong run out of ‘Love over Gold’ , but hear this on Vinyl and it’s value is obvious - Manu Katche’s drum work is epic, simply on another planet and makes it a real highlight of the whole album. Amazing. 

Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign - 180gm Speakers Corner. Wow.

kevin J Carden posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Kevin, I'd imagine it's because the albums from Brothers in Arms onwards were recorded digitally.  Hopefully you have got the Pallas pressed set...

Ag, yes, that makes sense - I guess it’s a generic sticker for all the Dire Straits Albums. Thanks again Richard. Any way to check whether or not it’s Pallas pressed?

Only way is to open it up and check the vinyl.  See Discogs for details of tell-tale indicators..

Richard Dane posted:

kevin J Carden posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Kevin, I'd imagine it's because the albums from Brothers in Arms onwards were recorded digitally.  Hopefully you have got the Pallas pressed set...

Ag, yes, that makes sense - I guess it’s a generic sticker for all the Dire Straits Albums. Thanks again Richard. Any way to check whether or not it’s Pallas pressed?

Only way is to open it up and check the vinyl.  See Discogs for details of tell-tale indicators..

Thanks for that steer Richard. The Discogs listings are a great resource I wasn’t aware of. I will check out the provenance of  a few of my other albums using this.

248 versions of the DS album ! Sadly, mine doesn’t seem to be pressed at Pallas, just ‘in the EU’  Sound is OK, but nothing special. 

Kevin, its worth exploring Discogs in detail. 

Discogs is proving quite the valuable resource for me. As my vinyl revival gathered pace, I set up an account and created a ‘Collection’, then used this to catalogue my old records as I went through them all. Its proved a very helpful archiving / valuation online database, especially as to the potential value of some of the old / rare discs (jaw dropping in some instances - worth how much!). Vinyl done, and bout half way through the CD’s at the moment.

There's also the iPhone App. Link this to a collection and can call up the database when on a shopping spree to check whether an album is already in the collection. That alone is a very useful asset.

And then of course, there’s the wallet damaging ‘Wish List’ facility. Once set up and populated with albums being sought, it provides a list of registered Discogs retailers (private & commercial, with full feedback details similar to ebay) selling examples of these albums. Regular emails are sent out when new albums on the wish list become available - this really tests restraint! 

Fellowship Of The Ring boxset. I've no idea how I missed this boxset, as it's been out since April. The vinyl has more background surface rumble than I'd like, but it's free of any crackle/pops. It's also needs the volume cranked up, so the background noise is magnified. Other than that, it sound great and the music is sublime.

1½ x LP - Reprise 2018 reissue 

Arrived this morning from Amazon uk : )

Musically fabulous but...

one of those 3 sided double vinyl albums with a blank side 4 which always leaves me feeling cheated after playing side 3 and i flip the record over to side 4 on the turntable to look at an etching  : /

There is one up-side (down-side???) of a blank LP - can be used to set up anti-skating 

Be careful just relying on a blank unmodulated LP.  It can be useful for establishing a ballpark, but the drag of a modulated groove means that bias set up accurately on a stylus tracing a blank LP will not be quite exact when applied to the same stylus/cart/arm tracing a modulated grooved one.  Usually a small extra adjustment must be made - preferably by sight and by ear.

Ltd signed double LP from his website. ????

£6 bargain. Complete with £7.99 Woolworths sticker price.

Hi everyone. First of all as a little disclaimer I work at Naim so I will be popping in from time to time but I thought I'd come along to this thread for my first post here. I recently bought Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen on vinyl, a beautiful listen. 

Matt Park posted:

Hi everyone. First of all as a little disclaimer I work at Naim so I will be popping in from time to time but I thought I'd come along to this thread for my first post here. I recently bought Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen on vinyl, a beautiful listen. 

Welcome MATT, good choice.

Welcome Matt! Echoing Gazza too, that's a superb Bruce album - the Japanese vinyl pressing is also very good.

The Beethoven Treasury. A 1981 Readers Digest release made up from earlier, Analogue recordings. £9.50 from a local charity shop. 10 LP’s with RPO performances of all 9 symphonies, Violin Concerto, Emperor Piano, Moonlight Sonata and a few other bits. My copy seems almost unplayed and the cleaning machine has come up trumps with quiet surfaces and highly dynamic performances. Minor quibble on Symphony 4 and 5 which have each been squeezed onto a single side I feel mainly by speeding up the tempos to breakneck levels. Exciting, but maybe just a bit too quick. The Violin Concerto sounds lovely and is worth the price of entry on its own IMO. 

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel 2 (Scratch)

Comes with a code for HD download.

Edward

Have the CD but just had to order it on vinyl.

Dougie Danger posted:

Have the CD but just had to order it on vinyl.

Me too

A present from a friend.  The Pheon reissue of Amancio d'Silva's 1969 debut album, Integration.  Nicely done, with great sound, and very quiet vinyl.  Only a very slight warp to the vinyl, but then that seems to be ever so common these days.  And the music is sublime - one of the great pieces of British Jazz.