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Speakers Corner QC?

We just finished opening and playing nine new Speakers Corner records.

- all nine came out of the sleeve covered with more dust than any record should see in its whole lifetime

- three or four were covered with loose vinyl shavings, one sliver is over 1" long

- three have chunks of unmelted vinyl(?) stuck to the grooves, two sound loudly and the third actually skips!

- one has a 4mm long scratch, very audible

The dealer is replacing the bad ones but it's a pain in the neck and I have to pay to mail them back. We've bought nearly a hundred Classic Records reissues and none of them had these problems. Is this normal for Speakers Corner?
dougdeacon

Showing 5 responses by dougdeacon

dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Thanks guys. I love the sonics of their Decca reissues and I'm looking forward to the Mercury series too. Guess I'll keep faith a bit longer.
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Spencer,

Hmmm... I got them all from Music Direct. Tell us what you know, please! I'm game for conspiracy theories, being ripped off, anything that will let me believe SC records really can be as good OOTB as they should be.

Does SC really sell "seconds"? The only USA distributor listed on their website is Acoustic Sounds. Would they be more likely to receive only "firsts"?
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Jfrech,

I agree about MD's customer service. They've been good, it's just a pain. Of the nine I bought they're replacing the four that need to be:
- Decca 6113/Mahler #1/Solti/LSO
- Decca 325-2/Mahler#2/Solti/LSO
- Decca 385-2/Mahler #3/Solti/LSO
- Decca 6026/Bartok/Divertimento for Strings, Vivaldi/two cto's

Must be an anti-Mahler conspiracy. These recordings and pressings are excellent BTW, and Solti does Mahler really well. His #1 is definitive, IMO of course, and it's great to have such a fine recording available. We only listened to #3 last night. I'm still getting my head around it, but during the final movement I all but had a vision of Dante's Beatrice. Sublime music, sublimely played.

I strongly recommend any of these records, but play/check them carefully for flaws.
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Rats! I dragged my cloak and dagger down from the attic last night, just hoping for some excitement.

The Speakers Corner/Decca reissues are indeed magnificent. (Can't say the same about their DGG reissue of Verdi's 'Requiem', lousy recording I think.) Don't be shy about trying them.
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Rcprince, the DG was indeed poorly recorded, even for DG. Of course that's not SC's fault, though I wonder why they bothered to reissue this one.

From your experience and that of others it seems we just had terrible luck. I'll be very happy with clean copies of all the Deccas, and I'm certainly going to pick up some of the new Mercuries. Glad to know so many people have good experiences. It would be a shame if such fine remasterings and pressings couldn't be played cleanly.
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