ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Moved to here

 kurtster wrote:
 
I know it was a chronic problem with standard LPs back when I was buying them, but I'm a little surprised that modern vinyl QC—especially in a box set—lets anything but perfect specimens leave the plant.

So I have ripped and played the entire set. All albums are acceptable except for the 3rd, Stronger Than Pride where there is a major visible pressing problem and the last half of Side 1 has way too much snap, crackle and pop.  This seems to be a wide spread problem reading the reviews at Discogs.  I've determined that I can fix the noise in the recording itself, so rather than order a second set and try and build a good one, I'll return it and get my money back.  The risk of having to return two sets is too great.  Evidently, the old vinyl is hard to get and very expensive so this box set is a very nice alternative to trying to get nice original copies in good condition. $225 per set is too much to gamble with getting two bad sets to return.

A shame as this is otherwise an excellent job and I've found that the music is rather interesting for what it is.  The wife loves it.  I figure that a set that has all six LP's in the proper condition will be worth over $400 in a couple of years when this goes out of print.  But since I rip vinyl and can repair the sound issues, I'll have the sound going forward.  In the end, that is all that matters, to me.

Now for the hard part, returning this.  Music Today is not noted for being cooperative in this department.  PayPal will be my friend should this become a problem.

Sigh ...

Discussion below motivated me to listen to Diamond Life.
Great album all around. 

 ufamsm wrote: 
So it arrived this afternoon and I found it on the porch in the freezing cold about 3 hours ago.  With your experience in mind after it had thawed out I decided to pull out Diamond Life, give it a thorough cleaning and see what happens.

No problems with Side 1 other than it was normally dirty / gritty for a pressing these days when put in paper sleeves.  Only ever heard Smooth Operator before so all of this is going to be new.  I know the band gets played here, but I'm not gonna remember who or what it is just hearing it go through the playlist.

Very interesting.  I do like her voice and her phrasing.  The music is working well.  Hard to do this style without it turning into monotonous and they avoided that nicely on this side.  Near the end of the second pass of Side 1 and I'm not bored with this at all.  3rd pass and still liking it.  When this was new it would not have interested me very much.  Tastes do change and appreciating quality music is music appreciation.  I'll just go through this chronologically, find out how this band evolved and hope that the quality of the rest of the set is as good as this side. 

Sound quality is excellent, but I don't have anything to compare it to.  A worthy mastering by Miles out of Abbey Road for sure.  I have other recent albums mastered by him and they are all excellent.  Pressed at Optimal Media GmbH in Germany.  Consistently one of the top two EU plants imho.  Pallas would be the other one.

That's it for now.  Time to get flat.  We'll see how the wife likes this in a couple of days.

 ufamsm wrote: 
Do report back on this.  The good reviews of the quality of this pressing seem evenly split with the bad ones.  I'm hoping that my set is in proper condition.  This is one of the problems with box sets.  You have to play the whole thing immediately and find out what you have so that in case you get one or more defective side, you can request a return or replacement within the 30 day return window.

I'll post my findings in here when I get it.

OK there was some pretty massive skipping on the first side and tracks of the first two albums. Which is, I mean, "Smooth Operator" being completely stuttering all over, as well as "Is It a Crime" on the album 'Promise'. For the first album, the pressing issues went on for about three songs.

I need to give my needle a good cleaning and see if there is any cleanup on the brand new records they may have skipped before shipping, but I have some major problems right now.

 kurtster wrote:
 

Ooo. Congrats on the thoughtful spouse points you just earned.

When I had time after dinner and some weed and got around to having a proper listen to 'Pearls' and a song that's damn near my theme song, 'Bullet Proof Soul'... Man. They did a very, very, very proper job remastering this.

'Pearls' full on brought me to tears:

There is a woman in Somalia
Scraping for pearls on the roadside
There's a force stronger than nature
Keeps her will alive
This is how she's dying
She's dying to survive
Don't know what she's made of
I would like to be that brave

She cries to the heaven above
There is a storm in my heart
She lives a life she didn't choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
Hurts like brand-new shoes



 kurtster wrote:
 

 ufamsm wrote: 
While she is not really my cuppa tea, I asked the wife what she knew about her and lo and behold, she know's a lot and simply loves her.

Order placed !  Thanks for the link !

 ufamsm wrote: 
Thanks for the little review.  Might have to grab this as an investment if nothing else.

Edit:  While she is not really my cuppa tea, I asked the wife what she knew about her and lo and behold, she know's a lot and simply loves her.

Order placed !  Thanks for the link !

Also i think music today is just the bulk importer of the album. It was supposed to be here in early December but covid + global vinyl supply chain disorder had it slide a month and change.

I think I ordered it from Sony technically so I'm guessing that location is just a colocation spot for music today, UMG, etc.

 kurtster wrote:
 

Honestly it's going to probably be a couple days before I play anything other than "love deluxe" on repeat, but it sounds amazing. I've been wanting to hear this on vinyl for years now. There is a very nice rich tone going on, balance seems to be perfect in my little living room surround sound setup. A million times better than the insanely bad hatchet job they did with that one greatest hits album of hers you can find easily. That one straight up cuts off parts of the songs to fit on one record.

Edit/Note: I just did "Feel No Pain" on the super fancy headphones. Figured best test song since there are some pauses and silent beats in there. It's freakin' perfect recording. You can hear the notes hang in the air and the space of the room they recorded it in.


 kurtster wrote:
 

 ufamsm wrote: 
I see it is for sale at Music Today.  They have a bad history as a seller.  I'm having a problem with a Universal Music Group purchase that is in the same building, yet they deny any relationship to each other.  PayPal would be my friend.

How long did it take to get and how does it sound ?

So does that mean they'll send you the new record to replace the foam? 

Pretty cool either way. I prefer digital these days but miss the fun packaging.

Well that's just silly. It JUST came out but the US price is $179. But of course I'll take perfect care of it. Sade/Lovers Rock was one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen (and India Arie opened just to push it entirely into sublime territory).

Here is purchase link to get it directly and skip the people trying to price gouge.


 kurtster wrote:
 

 ufamsm wrote: 
Take good care of this, especially if you bought it when the price was much lower.  Now $350 on Amazon and more on discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/16026908?ev=rb

After an insanely long delay, the Sade box set (fully remastered 180g vinyl of her six studio albums) finally arrived today. Except there are seven things in it!

I figured people here would care more than anyone else I talk to, but the seventh item is a solid black piece of foam that if you pull out has a massive "?" printed on it, clearly intended to be replaced by the long-rumored new project from the band.

So I guess we can all safely start the massive anticipation for her first new album in over a decade.