No--not sure why anyone would do that. To me, a flaw on the record itself only counts as a flaw if it affects play. There are more than enough scratches and other flaws that DO affect play to worry at all about those that don't, IMHO. I've never used a spin-clean, but I suspect a lot of the scratches that don't affect play are from the inner sleeves--especially the stiff cardboard kind. It definitely isn't from using a carbon fiber brush. I usually replace all non-poly-lined inner sleeves with MOFI sleeves.
Thank you for that information, I am thinking it is from the inner sleeves records come with, I also use mofi sleeves.
To me, it depends on the visible severity of the scratch and the speculated future value of the item. If you think a mint copy of that title could be worth a lot, I wouldn’t keep a record with a scratch even if it did not affect play.
I bought, Don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player. The first opening track had some issues and Caribou had some distortion on a few songs. I wound up buying a cheap original with some surface noise but it sounded so much better then the reissue.
A few years ago I bought the yellow vinyl reissue of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The pressings were flat, silent, flawless and sounded like crap. I recovered my senses and got an original UK DJM.
Yup... I have plenty of records with physical flaws that play perfect. This isn’t a hobby for the OCD type, it is for the pleasure of listening. If it sounds good imo they did their job. I don’t look at my records while I play them. People have the right to expect whatever they wish, but a quest for perfect records physically would be quite frustrating.
My experience with that pressing as well. I settled on an MFSL but your’s is highly regarded as well, and a lot cheaper!
Good luck if you are in the US and buying original MCAs. If you got a good copy brand new it was sheer luck...they almost didn’t exist. Can’t imagine how hard that would be today. Most of the reissues have been beautiful, it was the second run that have had some issies but some here are reporting good copies. I think considering they are generally returnable it would be easier than hunting for used, at least in the US.
I'm not Stateside but I have plenty of varied conditions of us pressings. With your population size I guess some companies just churned them out lacking finer control checking procedures.
During the recent years GZ has improved their QC considerably. GZ is now one of the top pressing plants in Europe on par with competitors like Pallas.
MCA is considered about the worst US record company as far as putting out horrible quality vinyl in the 70’s. I don’t understand how artists put up with having their music disrespected like that! If you were a fan of Elton, Olivia Newton John, Neil Diamond or many of their other artists it is very frustrating trying to find their recordings on a good pressing. These reissues are a godsend! Folks in the UK were far luckier!
Happy to report third times the Charm for Honky Chateau. Played beautifully. I collapsed on the floor in relief.
Talisman - thank you for this post as I have also recently experienced this...and it seems to be happening more and more. I recently bought the following from Amazon: - Stranger Things soundtrack (songs not score) - Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell 2 The Stranger Things is slightly warped. Side 4 of the Meat Loaf is slightly off-center. in either case, the sound quality isn't effected, but $20-$25 for something less than quality sucks. I don't think it's Amazon's fault as much as it just bad pressings. I also recently picked up the root beer colored vinyl pressing of Lifehouse's first album "No Name Face". It's heavyweight but on my Technics 1200 the pitch is very slow and it has some crackles in it. I bought it brand new. I know a lot of the users here are tired of talking about it...and I don't blame them. Unfortunately, because of the demand now for new vinyl, pressing plants are over-loaded and the quality has suffered dramatically. Can't say I would "boycott" the format altogether, but it gives me pause whether to buy it or not now. in a lot of cases, it's literally the digital files pressed onto vinyl. and there's no way to tell the quality if it's sealed.
That's a bit of an over optimistic statement to make, yes GZ have got a bit better but a long way to go, it's more like the other plants quality has slipped down closet to that of GZ, they still. Make records with stupidly undersized jackets & gatefolds making it impossible to carefully remove the vinyl, to be fair to them the last poor vinyl from them I had was Elton John's new greatest hits, it was the the poorest excuse for a Vinyl pressing I have ever owned, I went running back to my 1990 EMI Haynes pressing with its 30 minute sides and begged for forgiveness. But since then have had 4 or 5 GZ vinyls without issues. Public service broadcasting - Race for Space - tight sleeves and some surface marks but plays almost perfect, so important if you are aware of some of the tracks Elbow - Greatest Hits - good sound despite some long side lengths, nice sleeve design for once.. R.E.M - live at the BBC - think this is GZ but not 100% sure, sounds nice though, but tight sleeves! Sleaford Mods - Eton Alive - Good pressing again, few pops but clean, bright and nice sound (though not exactly music for the audiofile of you know the band) One thing I've noticed, GZ pressings which are made from lacquer generally sound better then any using there DMM system, its purely just my opinion but there DMM pressings always sound like they're trying to be too Digital, and have pushed the limits too far. Dry edge to the audio, IGD or other distortion are often present. Though if my 2 Christine and the Queens - Chris Vinyls are a suitable examples, GZ are now much better then MPO, quality there seems to have sunk close to GZ levels of 3-5 years ago. In fact my yellow vinyl US vinyl me pressing of Chris which has pressed by GZ's sister company in North America knocks spots of the MPO pressings. Optimal & Record industry still seem too me.
