Status of vinyl reissues?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Funk

My huge response did not take, so here it is again in brief form:

1) I bought I Am Not Afraid of You... and Spencer Dickinson's LP at the same time; YLT was visibly scratchy and audibly clicky. Thinking perhaps my standards were far above expectations for what vinyl should sound like, I left it as is. I then played the S-D LP, and that sounded like pure silk. I then ran into the same problems with the Jicks LP. Did I just happen to get 7 sides of not so stellar vinyl?

2) Don't know what you're talking about. Has F.A.B. pressed anything since the Shake days of the early-1990s? I thought they did distribution-only, not production.

3) I bought a Lilith release and and Earmark (Sanctuary & Get Back's vinyl label) release at the same time a few years back. Both had the same first 6 digits on their bar code, same info in the run-out groove (Czech plant web address), and both were housed in jackets that had an orange tint on the inside that I have never seen on any other label's pressings, so if you want to know who's behind them....

I'm glad that was on across the board Lilith increase. I thought it was just us here in Canada getting shafted, which pissed me off because it took forever to get that Faust LP, and the Marianne Faithfull and first Cluster LPs got priced out of my range after the store sold the lower priced ones.

Word on the street is that Ian from Shake/F.A.B. has bought a pressing plant and will soon be in the record pressing business. I've got high hopes for it.

If you'd like send us back those LPs and we'll get you new copies.

[Funk]

Originally Posted by Dave

Word on the street is that Ian from Shake/F.A.B. has bought a pressing plant and will soon be in the record pressing business. I've got high hopes for it.

If you'd like send us back those LPs and we'll get you new copies.

That would be good if it is indeed happening. I know some people who have had their records done at the Czech plant with no complaints, but I would imagine they'd much prefer some place that they could go drive to. I'd also like to take that as a sign that F.A.B. is doing okay, because yr old distributor filed for bankruptcy a few months back, and I was afraid that was going to be the start of a domino effect of distributors in this country.

Nah, I doubt that I would play 'em all that often, anyway. Thanks though.

[Benjamin]

I know that the vinyl manufacturing problem is not Matador's, but I just have to share that I recently had such an ecstatic moment listening to a CD of YLT's Painful that I resolved "fuck it, I'll pay $30 to some schlemiel on ebay for a vinyl copy." So I bid, and I hesitate to admit I went over $30 on my bid. The record went to someone else for $46!

It's cool when the records I own are worth that much, but it's not cool when the records I want to buy are going for that much!

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by stevethehouse

120 is fine. I still attest that the thickness of the vinyl has nothing to do with the quality of the pressing. If you store your records properly, you shouldn't worry about warping, and that's pretty much the only argument that can be made in favor of 180 grams.

Sorry... late response. I totally agree with you, but with this caveat: you can store your own records fine, but the worry is what's happened to them before they got to you. Shipped from plant to distributor, stored at distributor; shipped from distributor to store (and sometimes back), stored at store; then bought. 180-gram pressings survive this process better.

That said, I actually think lighter pressings sound better.

[edit] it may not be that lighter pressings automatically sound better, but there must be something going on in the manufacturing process. It's definitely true that super-thick pancake pressings from the '50s can sound amazing.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

I know that the vinyl manufacturing problem is not Matador's, but I just have to share that I recently had such an ecstatic moment listening to a CD of YLT's Painful that I resolved "fuck it, I'll pay $30 to some schlemiel on ebay for a vinyl copy." So I bid, and I hesitate to admit I went over $30 on my bid. The record went to someone else for $46!

It's cool when the records I own are worth that much, but it's not cool when the records I want to buy are going for that much!

"Painful" is in the works, it is one of the titles that we basically have to start from scratch on as all of the parts were lost when our old pressing plant went bankrupt. It will happen though.

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Patrick

...but the worry is what's happened to them before they got to you. Shipped from plant to distributor, stored at distributor; shipped from distributor to store (and sometimes back), stored at store; then bought. 180-gram pressings survive this process better.

An increasingly large proportion of the vinyl I buy is very obviously warped. I've tried weighting affected discs down for days at a time but with only limited success. It's very frustrating.

[Patrick]

Huge discussion of this topic on the audiophile discussion forums - you can lose your mind.

- A really good system will track even the most grossly warped LP

- Not if it's an "edge warp" though - those are death

- A disc clamp will flatten out many warps (but may deaden the sound) - these fit many turntables and are generally available from audio retail sites

- It is possible to take a record, sandwich it between two pieces of glass, and put it in an electric oven for a certain period time at a certain temperature (I won't quote either - go to Audiogon and do a search) to flatten it

Since I know there's been a lot of discussion amongst MBBers about what to get me for my upcoming birthday, I want one of these:

Furutech Vinyl Album Flattener

Airtight Disc Flattener

Discussion of both of them:

Audiogon goes insane over disc flatteners

My favorite moment: The DF-02's, please吹KI込N love life again聴盤memories.

[stevethehouse]

Methinks that if one were to make a Venn diagram with the personality traits of Audiophiles and Wine connoisseurs there would be an insane amount of overlap.

[Fiona]

Patrick, do you have a disc cleaner? A friend of mine is massively into crate digging and invested in a device that washes his vinyl using distilled water.

[Patrick]

The most important thing is the brushes and the fluid, and I highly, highly recommend the Disc Doctor:

http://www.discdoc.com/

The Miracle Cleaner plus distilled water rinse is the way to go (I also own the QuickWash cleaner).

You can also buy a vacuum machine to speed things up... but it is not necessary. A dishrack will do just as well. I do, however, use a vacuum machine, the VPI 16.5:

http://www.vpiindustries.com/products_165.htm

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Patrick

- It is possible to take a record, sandwich it between two pieces of glass, and put it in an electric oven for a certain period time at a certain temperature (I won't quote either - go to Audiogon and do a search) to flatten it

I've heard of the glass sandwich method, and a non-stick metal sandwich plus iron method. Neither sound like enterprises I should be entrusted with.

None of them are audibly affected (that I can pick up on anyway) and hopefully it'll stay that way.

Anyone ever bored a second hole for an off-centre pressing?

[Funk]

Originally Posted by Patrick

[edit] it may not be that lighter pressings automatically sound better, but there must be something going on in the manufacturing process. It's definitely true that super-thick pancake pressings from the '50s can sound amazing.

One time at work, for curiosity's sake, I took a Matador 150 gm LP out of the jacket and placed it on the scale in the office mail room, and it weighed 170 gm. I then took an RCA "dynaflex" LP that I bought, and it came to 160 gms, which kinda surprised me because its selling point was that it used less vinyl for better sound (or whatever the justification was in the 1960s), yet it was actually heavier than many regular pressings now.

[kdart91]

Just picked up the RTI pressed copies of Electric Version and Alien Lanes at my local record store. Both look and sound great! Looking forward to picking up the rest of the re-ishes.

Thanks!

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Anyone ever bored a second hole for an off-centre pressing?

Oh God, off-center pressings are the ultimate curse. Yes, I have filed out the hole and played around with different placements... it has never worked for me.

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Oh God, off-center pressings are the ultimate curse. Yes, I have filed out the hole and played around with different placements... it has never worked for me.

I've been wondering if it's worthwhile attempting to do anything with the one record I have that's affected (and it's just one side of the record). It occurred to me to get some gaff tape and a power drill to it and just burst right through quickly. It's about as far off as it could possibly be with all the grooves still intact so a completely new hole is necessary - probably more straightforward than if the new centre were to overlap with the old.

I'll probably never do this though it sounds like fun.