Columbia House vs original pressings

I picked up a Columbia House LP copy of XTC's Skylarking this weekend (2nd press with "Dear God") that has the same deadwax inscriptions as the standard release.

 

I think once I get a new ADC I'm going to needledrop a couple of my CRCs for comparison against the retail versions.

 

The above is true, and when the CD era started, they began using other label's CDs as the sources and paying them a fraction of the fees due the label calling it 'licensing'. I got most of the vinyl I had from them at that time and it is easy to tell. For instance, an original pressing of Van Halen's 1984 has the title track fading into Jump. The CH version has a hard cut, silence, then the next track. There is also very little bottom end and a brittle high end to these albums. David Lee Roth's Skyscraper is another example. It isn't worth taking a chance, IMO.

Except you generally can't listen to it until after it has been bought. I went through this with two reissue labels putting out the same catalog release last year, and each of them told a story that made the other's a lie. So I do have to say: knowing the source, and having it documented, matters.

 

I have a few CRCs (Canada) from the 80s early 90s that sound like mud. No life/depth at all compare to other standard pressings of the same LP. If I see crc on the label or jacket I tend to pass on it.


sean

 

I always thought they sounded the same.

 

I just bought a beautiful near mint copy of Humble Pie's "Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore." Sterling stamps, Robert Ludwig etched, and it's a Columbia Terre Haute pressing. I haven't played it yet. Any comments on what I can expect?

 

Argh! Just typed out a long message and it disappeared! Oh well... As for CRC pressings I have a couple of the same album. Styx "Kilroy Was Here" one CRC (it says it on the back cover) and one store bought. The store bought version has a different opening on the gatefold. You open the gatefold and the opening to take the album out is on the INSIDE (I guess to keep the album from falling out?). The CRC version has a regular gatefold with the opening on the outside. The store bought version is thin vinyl and when held up to the light has a purplish color showing thru. The CRC version is thicker and you cannot see thru it when holding it up to the light. As for the records, they sound the same to me only one is thicker than the other. As someone said, maybe A&M had records pressed by CRC. The other is the follow up, "Caught In The Act". One is the store bought version, the other is the RCA/BMG version. Now that one is quite a bit different at least visually. The cover doesn't have the silver raised "STYX" logo on the front cover. It has a flat cover and the logo is gray, not silver. The inner sleeves are dull paper with the pictures from the original pressing (that one has the high gloss slick paper inner sleeves). Have never played the RCA version, it was given to me.

Another CRC record I have is "Shout At The Devil". It plays find but has a lot of surface noise between songs, even after cleaning. It had a CRC sticker on the back cover.

From RCA Club I have Billy Squier "Don't Say No" and it is incredibly thin but it plays just fine. I even made a digital rip to play in my truck and it sounds pretty good.

By the time I started buying from BMG it was a CD club, no issues there at all.

I ordered tons of stuff from Columbia House and never had any issues. The one thing I hated was their cassettes because of the crappy looking covers:


This one looks much better: