@mammothguy54 I’m a little disappointed with the sound quality of this record. If it has a lot of surface noise and was supposed to be NM-. My first purchase from Rare Records, probably my last.
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@big_greg Man, am I jealous of that Japan pressing of Led Zeppelin II. I tried a reissue of Houses of the Holy and it sucked. My original copy is much better, much more pleasant and analogue sounding, but has too much surface/vinyl noise. Maybe a good ultra sonic cleaning will do the trick for me. I plan on getting one of those machines in the next few months, or less. My answer to your question about the Gaucho album is rather long. For that reason I will send it to you via a PM. However, it's late so I'll get on it in the morning. Have a pleasant evening. |
@spiritofradio "Caldera, that’s with Alex Acuña of Weather Report fame, right? Great stuff." Close! He was guest drummer on Time and Chance. I only have 2 of their albums, the other being eponymous, and he isn’t on that one. I haven’t yet played it because it was a bin purchase and the previous owner seems to have subscribed to the "clean records with 80 grit sandpaper" theory. T+C however I’m on my second copy - I LOVE that album! |
BTW, another lp I got in is Calexico "Hot Rail". I changed my cleaning procedure to preclude presteaming on every lp to just those that looked to need it. After it's US clean, one side had what looked like plasticizer had leached onto the vinyl. I've seen this before. I steamed that side and that cured it. Will be on later. |
A little follow up on my post about the Steely Dan Gaucho record I mentioned in a previous post. I wrote to Rare Records to express my disappointment and the owner, Charlie Essmeier, wrote back to me. He confirmed that his records are visually graded and offered a full refund, which I will take advantage of. He was very nice about the whole thing and offered some helpful information. He also offered to play grade any records I was interested in. I will give him another chance. It was good customer service on his part. |
Well "Outlandos d' Amour" is a treat! The Police 1st lp sounding mighty fine. Looking back through my records, I don't own this one. From my memory, none of The Police sound this good. There's no edginess to Sting's voice. The midrange is perfectly suited for this music and transitions very well into the punchy lower mids to the low bass. Transients are tight and clean. Up now "Reggatta De Blanc" |
Half way through "GITM" SQ has been consistent throughout, so far. Thinking about that..... With other bands, especially through the 60 _70s’, there was a noticeable SQ difference on songs, even on a single lp. Why? They wandered off throughout the world, I assume, seeking some kind of influence or an additional source of inspiration. The Police seemingly were immune to this. Knowing they did not do drugs and had fewer albums than most BIG groups. |
@slaw Steve, I don't think he's on Discogs. Here's his website: http://rarerecords.net/ Recently I've been shopping mostly in Japan and Europe on Discogs, picking up some white label promos and Japan pressings with the cool OBI strips. Those OBI strips really enhance SQ! Shipping is expensive, but from Japan it's very fast. |
Steve, I think there are the same kinds of differences in sound quality that we see with domestically pressed records. I'm not sure that you can generalize, but it seems like the sellers in Japan are more meticulous in terms of taking care of their records and more accurate in their grading. I haven't been disappointed with any of my purchases so far. |
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I'm very fortunate to have all of The Police albums having bought them as each came to market, back in the day. All are in perfect condition. My guess is this box set probably does sound better, but what I have sounds quite good. In particular, Ghost In The Machine is superb! That album is often times one of my "go too" LPs on the later side of Saturday night, after I have had a few. Man, it sounds really good... |