Thank you. They are different, compared to the Holland Polydor pressing...but maybe they used the same mastertape ??? It's possible.
Voulez-Vous shootout: (This is really interesting) 1st: French Vogue (close) 2nd: Canadian Atlantic 3rd: Japanese Discomate 4th: UK Orange Epic A2/B4 5th: UK Orange Epic A4/B3 6th: Portuguese Polydor Tracks compared were As Good As New, Voulez-Vous, Angel Eyes, Does Your Mother Know, If It Wasn't For The Nights and Lovers Live a Little Longer. I don't own a german copy of this album (or a swedish polar) but I can tell you, I put on the original WG Polydor CD and that was beaten by the first three, in other words, the Japanese, Canadian and French vinyl all have a better sound than the German 80s CD. It's an outcome even I wasn't expecting!
I've done a brief shootout between all of my pressings of The Visitors, but to be honest they are all good and incredibly similar. This is because most of them have 'CUTTING ROOM SWEDEN' in the dead wax. My three UK (light blue) Epics either have that or 'TOWNHOUSE' in the dead wax, and to be honest, there's only a whisker between them, even my Japanese Discomate copy has 'CUTTING ROOM SWEDEN' in the dead wax. The least good sounding copy (but still good) is the Holland Polydor - it sounds a generation down. Here is my attempt to rank my 7 copies, bear in mind that some copies share the same side 2, and they are all very close: 1st: Holland Epic (for UK?) A7/B7 (cutting room sweden) 2nd Japanese Discomate DSP 8006 a 112 / b 112 (cutting room sweden) 3rd: UK Epic A2/B7 (cutting room sweden) 4th: UK Epic A12/B12 (Townhouse) 5th: UK Epic A6/B7 (cutting room sweden) 6th: Holland (for UK?) Side 1 01-10032-15A-1 (townhouse) / Side 2 B6 (cutting room sweden) 7th: Holland Polydor 2311 122 1Y4 / 2Y4 The test was done with 'When All is Said and Done' from Side 1 and 'Two For The Price of One' from Side 2. The test is mainly based on side one as three of the LPs share the same cut on side 2. So in conclusion, if it has 'cutting room sweden' or even 'townhouse' in the deadwax, you can't really go wrong!
No, I only have a US copy of 'The Album' - what is very interesting about the Canadian Voulez-Vous is it has a 'shrunken' label and looks like a UK Decca contract pressing - is that possible? The dead wax is: XSD 16000 A-1Y and B-1Y There are also some hand-written matrix numbers which are half covered by the labels in other words, underneath them, so I can't read them.
Haha.... the two copies I have - Swedish and German - are the ones you don't own...but to be honest I have never compared them.
I think there is nothing wrong with the swedish Polar of "Voulez-Vous". Same for the german or durch pressings. Today I received a danish pressing of the 1975 ABBA album to compare. First, it is lower in volume, compared to the way too loud (and partially distorted) swedish A-3 / B-2 pressing...BUT...it has serious azimuth issues and sounds like taken from a cassette tape (same issue as the B-Side of the danish first pressing of the "Waterloo" album)...mhm...is there any original Polar pressing available without too much distortion on "Bang-A-Boomerang" ? Would be so nice...
You already are giving me doubts about that release. It looks like the better and cheaper option is to get the new 180gr boxset and buy a mint copy of ABBA The First Ten Years. I am mainly interested in getting a good vinyl copy of the albums and the non-album singles that are on side A of the 9th vinyl in the 2010 box.
Yes. Very slightly was my perception. I bought it when released and that was my impression. Not even sure I made it past the first side which had 7 songs on it. I haven't played it again since because my original LPs sounded better. YMMV.
For "Voulez-Vous" I prefer the swedish Polar over the US Atlantic pressing, but it always depends on personal preferences. I think I will receive the french Vogue LP tomorrow, I have to check it. Next questions(s): Does anybody own the new vinyl box set and checked the files, included in the download codes ? Would be very interesting to know if the mp3 files contain transfers from the original cutting tapes (as used for the two vinyl box sets) or if they used regular CD masterings instead. Any information would be very useful, cause I don't own the new set (but the 2010 one and it doesn't have any download codes). About "ABBA" (1975): What is the definitive pressing for that album ??? The swedish Polar suffers from some distortion on "Bang-A-Boomerang" and "So Long", the danish Polar LP sounds like taken from a cassette tape...the german sounds nice...but is there a much better version available ?
I don't have the box sets but I did get all of the individual LP reissues on the Back To Black series that came out after the box set (2010) and all of them came with download cards and the mp3 files were rips of the 2005-2008 remasters, I'm afraid to report... (they sounded like rips from The Albums CD box set which are basically the 2005 remasters slightly tweaked -fixed drop outs, click removal, that kind of stuff...)
The German pressing doesn't have distortion on "Boomerang"? Ha! Next time I see one, I might bag it What's so great about ABBA is that you can find domestic pressings for 5€. But that's also the reason why - after buying a full set of Polar albums at the end of 2014 for 15(!!!)€ - I'm keeping two copies of their albums. I just can't bring myself to kick out my NM German original of "Waterloo" for a few Euros just because I'm prefering the Polar pressing. Condition is another thing though. As plentiful as ABBA vinyl is... a lot of it is in less than desireable shape...
Which pressings of the 1975 ABBA album do you own ? Does it also suffer from the horrible distortion ? Well, when I say that the german version sounds nice, i mean that is has much less distortion, compared to the Polar pressing.
As I said above, an orange UK Epic that is in great shape but sounds "bleached" and thin and a Swedish Polar original that has great sonics apart from "Boomerang" that has distortion. Before reading your posts I was pretty certain that was down to mishandling by a previous owner but apparently it was like that when it was bought.
In the past I had three copies of the 1975 album on Polar. All three looked unplayed, but sounded the same... But there must be a norway pressing out there...would be great to listen to that...
This thread prompted me to order the latest 180 g 8 studio album box set. I found it on eBay uk for £ 55 from a good seller (Speedyhen) including free postage. That's about £ 7 or €/$ 10 per LP, which seems very decent value.
I've just bagged a mint Japan issue off ebay, so will report how it sounds when it arrives... Blimey, at that price it's cheap enough to feed my curiosity and get a set myself...
It's gone back up in price! Same seller 'Speedyhen' is now selling it for £106 :-( I can get it for about £70, but there's the risk of import tax as it will come from the states. I will just have to keep my eyes peeled for the price to go down again...
