Vinyl Junkies …

I guess they'll only go in one direction.

Down like a lead zeppelin? :)

It seems like a good policy. It's certainly been working for me in terms of value. I do prefer the gatefold versions for ease of handling.

Have you tried emailing the label. Some will be able to send a spare disk, I've had some sent recently.

It does seem like my collection is worth more than I've paid for it which is great.

For me, vinyl is such a tactile media. I want the 'most tactile' experience if I'm going to shell out money. That might be interesting coloured vinyl or more things that come with it. Just makes the effort of playing vinyl more worthwhile.

Otherwise, I'll just use Tidal or buy FLAC versions of albums.

just to be that guy, were you not tempted to spend nintey quid on minty swan song originals that sound better. I know the records on atlantic would cost a lot more and it's hard / expensive to complete LZ first pressings but it seems for some of the swan song lps the originals sound better and are cheaper than these.

What makes you think I don't have a few kicking about ;)

I have an early, single fold, version of Physical Graffiti and a copy of II at my parents house.

I like the additional bumpf that these come with. The quality of the vinyl is surprisingly good for these.

I think we've had the discussion in this thread before about the coloured versions being risky in terms of sound quality.

My buying focus for vinyl is on Analogue Productions & Speakers Corner releases, some limited versions of contemporary releases, 12" Techno, Jungle, D&B, Breakbeat, 7" Funk/Soul edits & Hip Hop + a few compilations of soul, African jazz, world music. Everything else I stick with streaming or CD/SACD.

I've got the late 60's to 90's rock covered for my own taste with some originals and some reissues. What I've found hard is picking contemporary winners from pre-release material, it's much easier to judge the market for a reissue than a new release.

There's definitely a risk. I've got the ultra limited edition, numbered, release of Amen Dunes - Freedom. Probably my favourite release of the last 5 years. The sound quality is complete trash. Unlistenable. Still had to have that version though.

Most seem to be okay though. The orange / black marbled ltd edition of King Krule - The Ooz is excellent quality.

Yeah, just when you think it's safe one will come along and sink your boat. Just got a trash coloured version of Anna B Savage - Common Tern. Took me two weeks to stop being angry about it. Mint green Lianne La Havas is a peach though.

Missed this, I haven't actually, I'll give it a try

@Chak

Chak

Also Skream -Skream!

I have it on CD

Free the Gallery is organising a little vinyl fair this week-end on both days. Just off the Triangle (Hayes Lane) in Crystal Palace.

Picked up some singles of some 12's I already have. Sometimes, shorter versions of 7 plus minute tracks are needed.

1 Attachment

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try to get down there.

Has anyone bought any vinyl from Europe since Brexit? There are a few I want but I can only find them for sale in Italy and would be interested to know what extra charges may be added on at customs.

I bought a large vinyl box set from Germany. Delivered via parcel force with no fees. It cost me around £120 including postage.

Went and saw my mates (Suicide Country Hour) play last weekend, finally got hold of a copy of their last album as well which was a bonus. Been listening to it in the car on Spotify for almost a year!

However, I was so disappointed with the pressing, boxy sounding, crackly, really bad... Big let down, not sure I'm gonna bother with new vinyl anymore...

1 Attachment

Nice cover though. I'm getting a large percentage of duds at the moment. Mostly spoiled by scratches or no-fill rather than overall poor quality.

It has made me cut down on the orders from a lot of labels.

There are still some factories keeping the pressing quality up but the majority are terrible right now.

On the subject of pressings to avoid. I would suggest that anyone buying the new series of Blue Note 80yr classics makes sure they are not covered in scratches or featuring no-fill. I'm returning 3 of 4 that I received.

Universal only had one job to do and they screwed the pooch. They take the acknowledged best albums ever released on Blue Note have them all analog mastered by the hottest analog for vinyl mastering name in the business at the moment. Charge Speakers Corner prices and deliver shitty quality.

Worth avoiding anything from Universal on vinyl, they just don't care.

Shame to hear that the re-increasing demand for LPs currently causes such poor quality. I hope that as capacity re-expands and skills are re-increased, that may change for the better?

Good to hear they're doing analogue mastering, of course.

Well this is kind of old news at the moment. Vinyl production has been lurching from one crisis to another for some years. Any time they try to speed up the process it results in faults. Lack of capacity meant the big factories were overstretched and the quality control in some of them was very poor, changed to be not so bad and then lapsed again due to changes brought about by the pandemic.

Analog mastering has been a fully confirmed part of the 'vinyl revolution' plenty of collectors insist on it and there are a few ways to go about it. Another approach is half speed mastering which is a largely digital cutting process. Abbey Road are consistently f**king that up on behalf of the British.

The few names in the world for mastering right now are all well known working out of well established studios. Kevin Gray came under a lot of scrutiny when people started hearing pitchy pianos in the Blue Note Tone Poet series.

The mastering on the 80th series is very good but they've let it all down with the pressing and handling of the records in the factory. So now the mastering barely matters because so many sides are damaged from the off. I suppose in percentage terms only a tiny part of the musical content is affected but it's really annoying!

Not old news to me, as I don't follow it. I do think the increase in demand is a good thing, and there's every chance that those difficulties will be overcome sometime.

I'm sorry to say I don't believe that the big labels will change their mode of operation. There are very few factories capable of pressing big numbers and none of them have a reputation worth a light dating back many years.

There are a few good pressing plants but the majors don't use them. It's just a massive opportunity missed because they've licensed these albums to independents like Music Matters or Analogue Productions, Mofi etc in the past for limited release and those records are selling for multiples of their original price.

I am into more people getting into vinyl, I mean I sell it too and it's great to have customers for records I don't play anymore. That's the problem though, I can't sell a poorly pressed or damaged record in good faith and keep my reputation.

I'm sure you're right on all counts, but hasn't it always been thus? The big labels produce inferior quality, while there are occasional bright spots of people/small labels who give a shit?