I picked this up today for just £2.50. The mastering is nice, and the heavy card cover/print quality is too. I'd have liked a quieter, cleaner pressing though.
What's wrong with your record ? I bought an unplayed copy some time ago and it sounds still perfect !!!
Nothing especially, just that extra bit of noise due to it being recycled vinyl. It says XSD-16023A TLC-T JC in the deadwax: perhaps I have a later, inferior pressing? I guess also that I am spoiled by the quality of the German, Japanese, and (some) UK records I have.
Just buy the Uni/Polar Back To Black reissues if you want clean vinyl. IMO as good as original UK. They cut from the master tapes. Saves a lot of hassle with used vinyl.
Apart from The Visitors of course - they used a crappy analogue dub of the digital master - this is a rare example where AAA wasn't the best option. I think you can still get the complete set of albums for £34.99 in the UK (Great Offer Store or Sound Of Vinyl site) - Visitors aside, I was very pleased with the overall quality of the pressings and sound compared to my UK originals, ok, some of the original pressings from say France, US or Sweden might be livelier in some case, the fact alone that these are AAA and from the masters makes this set quite an exceptional bargain.
It doesn't sound worse than the UK original from memory. Some audiophile cutting facilities are transferring digital to analogue tape before cutting vinyl to 'improve' the sound but it obviously depends on the quality of the playback chain.
I have several original UK copies of 'The Visitors' and compared to the one in the box they are like night and day! 'cutting room sweden' is in the deadwax of almost all of them and the difference is vast actually.
Nothing wrong using such a method to create warm sounding mastertapes...but the "Visitors" tapes has its flaws here and there...that is the most annoying thing I think.
Lucky guy... Most of the Atlantic vinyl was poorly pressed, but then you can get lucky and get a beautiful pressing. I assume it depended on the plant used. I find the Japanese pressings use better mastering and much better vinyl, but that too is a crapshoot if you buy one on line that is beat up.
Glad to hear the Back to Black series sounds good. I have had very mixed results with that series so far, but I don't have any ABBA from that series since I have the silver box set.
Better mastering for the Japanese? I agree the vinyl used is superb but the mastering often sounds bright and synthetic to me.
A lot of folks agree with you, and that is also a complaint many make about MFSL. For some reason, I like a very slightly boosted high end, so for me it is a plus. I don't know if in ABBA's case they are, but I love the two disc Japanese compilation I got last year, containing all their better somgs through The Album. I noticed some detail I never heard before, and am very familar with all their work. And, a lot of ABBA's material could use a slight high end boost (imo of course), especially the Arrival album. They really pushed every track, so no doubt a bit of high end suffered if they did any bouncing in the earlier pre 24 track days.
24-ABBA's Greatest Hits. Sounds wonderful. No doubt lower generation tapes were used than any of the American pressings I am used to listening to, except I have now replaced them with the silver vinyl box set, which effectively gave me Polar pressings of their entire studio catalog. I still don't have a copy of Arrival I am happy with and am wondering if one exists. I believe I read it was a 16 track recording. If so, I would assume they had to bounce tracks which would explain why it doesn't seem to have the fidelity most of their other albums have.
That's the one I have too. Great track selection. Bought it in London 30 years ago. Liked the sound of it then but as my gear has improved over the years I stopped listening to it because i found it hard and synthetic sounding. YMMV.
Carl Magnus Palm will hopefully shed light on all those things in his upcoming book about the recordings.
