Beatles Remasters on Vinyl (part 12)

I doubt it..I have purchased about 4 of these separately and like many others ...I am still on a quest to find a decent pressing of Sgt Pepper. The latest one I received from Amazon as an exchange sound like the Atlantic Ocean is shooshing around at times... AHDN and Revolver are out for delivery as I write and I pray for the best.

 

Tomorrow Never Knows is the best I've ever heard it. I'm going to order Sgt Pepper and hope for the best. Good luck with your search.

 

My sister in law has a Costco card and is looking this week for a stereo vinyl box for me (since I heard here that they have a good price on it). If I have any rotters in the set, I'm contacting Capitol, not Costco. It looks like Capitol is on top of the problem.

 

Rotters.

 

Yes, they seem to be handling replacements quickly and--or so they told me--are inspecting the replacement LP's before they ship to ensure they are defect free.

 

That remains to be seen, I haven't heard a word since I sent my info in on Dec 8th for three LPs (not boxed).

 

Apparently. Enjoy your records!

 

I got my six requested replacements from Rainbo at the end of last week. No request to return the bad ones. Today I finally got time to start listening. The worst for me was Abbey Road. I had gone through two. This one seems good. Very very sight surface noise on a bit of side two but no worse that almost any album I've ever had from back in the day. Actually the Lp sounds wonderful. Am my Turntable is still old school Dual cs5000. Next year I will finally upgrade.

 

Try following up with them.

 

No, that ism not entirely correct. I've bought numerous single LPs that had problems, including 4 Abbey Road's that all had distortion for 90% of side 1.

 

So, my local retailer has NO chance of getting the Optimal EU pressings, Huh? Well listen to this.....

Earlier today, I took a trip to my local record store in Daytona, to pick up a special order for the 180g EU Import vinyl of Let It Be...Naked. While there, I also decided to get a replacement copy of Beatles For Sale, since my okay (but relatively inferior) U.S. RainBLO pressing met its end in an unfortunate accident which involved spilling a full cup of tea on it (while it was sitting on my bed, out of its sleeve). I tried to clean it with some Discwasher fluid and a Bags Unlimited cloth (my only means of record cleaning at hand), but with no luck. The U.S. BFS was DONE FOR.

Meanwhile, No sooner do I get it home and take a quick glance at the promo sticker, then I see the fine print that says "packaged and printed in the EU". My eyes about popped out of my FREEKIN' HEAD! The next step was a No-brainer: tear off the shrink, and inspect the Jacket, inner sleeve and record, just to be SURE this an EU (and not some sneaky move on Crapitol's part in slapping an EU sticker on a U.S. pressing or something). And sure as HELL, wouldn't you just KNOW that this was in fact a BONAFIDE Optimal EU pressing! I damn near dropped the record while jumping up and down for joy (I had to wonder why the prices of the individuals went up from $19.99 to $22.99)!

Thus, my only conclusion must be that-due to the MASSIVE number of defective U.S. pressings in existence-some indie record store distributors must've been able to insist on obtaining at least a certain number EU pressings while Crapitol sorts out their issues with whether to keep their contract with RainBLOW, hire a better plant to do re-presses or-more wisely-keep Optimal under contract for ALL future re-pressings of the Stereo 180g's, for WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION!!!! Let's just say that after hearing the EU BFS, I'm TRULY hoping that's the route they take. If my plan to replace all or most of the U.S. pressings in my box set with their obviously better EU counterparts is as simple as ambling down to my local record store in Daytona Beach and laying down cold, hard cash....ALL THE BETTER for me!

 

An alternate explanation is that, with all of the pain, so documented on these pages, EMI quietly terminated its agreement with Rainbo and, after the remaining stock is gone, is transitioning to EU pressings.

 

NICE! Knowing THAT has just made my WEEK!!!!! I cannot WAIT to get my grubbies on the rest of them EU pressings! YEAH, BABY!

 

Whether that's a confirmed fact or not, who knows? But even the POSSIBILITY of that is enough to make me smile

 

Cool and great story. But in reality it seems that there have not been massive defects with the American pressings. A least in terms of returns and so on. We here are not a truce sampling of the buyers at large. Even if there are many bad discs, most of the buyers apparently have not yet returned them or complained. And that's the way it will most likely turn out.

 

what is the email for Capitol?

 

[email protected]

 

I finally got my US pressed Abbey Road and "The Beatles" replacement albums from Acoustic Sounds after returning the defective ones. I got sealed US pressed individual copies (with the sticker on them). I played them both and although much better than the ones I sent, they still have some noise especially on the opening tracks of the LPs. As it would cost me a lot of money to keep sending them back, I decided to keep them. I own an EU pressed box set too which is excellent overall.

To those who have not ordered a set yet, go for the EU one.

 

Now, surely you've delved deep enough into this and the other threads concerning the topic of Remastered Beatles vinyl? The horror stories of those who ended up with defective U.S. pressings vs. defective EU's is ASTOUNDING! Either way, contrary to another user's claim that local retailers had no chance in getting ahold of the EU pressings from Optimal Media in Germany, I discovered otherwise earlier today! Plain and simple. The EU's are BETTER than the U.S. pressings all the way around, so my advice to anyone who have not yet invested in the Beatles Vinyl remasters, go for the jugular and GET THE EU'S!

 

I'm scared or is that scarred? When the daggers are out here it's the same thing!

 

I'm gonna throw in my story with the Beatles box set too. I went for the US box first a day before release. While it was on the road, I read the comments here and was more or less prepared to what I've seen. The first one I opened was Abbey Road cause it was getting most of all complaints at the moment. It wasn't perfect and had some distortion in places, but it all cleared up on the second spin. The overall impression was really mixed, as the problems were not huge, but were all over the place. Then I opened Sgt. Pepper and there it was. Completely ruined side 1, non-fill throughout, no fidelity to speak of. Even more evident when playing side 2 of that same record, which was great. Going through other records, I found visible and occasional audible non-fill in spots on each. With 5 records remaining sealed, I decided I had enough, and contacted Amazon for a return.
Here I must take note of Amazon's customer service. I'm scared to even think what would I end up with, had I bought it from local record store or some eBay retailer. When I reported a defective boxset, I was promised a full refund and a reimbursement of return shipping costs. Which were $82! I even contacted them again when I got the quote to make sure that it's ok. The return shipping was refunded immediately when I reported that I sent it back. Then, 3 weeks later the USPS tracking was showing it as inbound into customs. I contacted Amazon again providing a tracking number and they refunded without even having received the return (it arrived a few days later).
Then, I ordered an EU box from Amazon UK. Because it costs more, it is a subject to import tax here, so I got a call from UPS telling me that I have to visit customs office and do the procedures, or pay UPS additional $80 to do that for me (premium delivery, my a**). I told them not to bother and went to do it myself. Now, it took me about $12 and couple of hours, but the result was that the parcel was cleared. Then the next working day, which was Monday so I had to wait for weekend, it was delivered. The overall impression with EU box is much better. The only thing to complain about is that not all records are perfectly flat (mentioned here many times earlier), and two of them I can call warped. But all of them are absolutely playable, with no sounding defects. I will think on replacing these later, but as long as they play good I still need to think if that's really necessary.
What I have to say about the records themselves is that I think they are great. They definitely differ from UK 70's reissues and Japanese releases that I have, but they have the right to exist for what they are, even the remixed albums (though I admit that they don't quite measure up to the rest). For it's price the EU box is well worth getting, and I'm glad that I did. Remastering team did a great work, and I actually
like their approach with not trying to imitate the originals, so my respect to them, and personally Sean Magee since he visits this thread, for the result. Also great work on the book, it really adds well to the box's value.
Sorry for the long-winded post, and hope it will be useful for someone who's not quite sure about getting the box set

 

Nice post, Goldy. Welcome!