The great thing about AP, in my experience, is if you have an issue they will send you as many replacements as necessary to make it right. I haven’t had any problems with normal records from QRP lately. Now excuse me while I go knock on wood.
You know who else would have ordered it if it was announced as a preorder for the repress? Everyone and their mother, and especially folks looking to make a quick buck (or several hundred). With the limited quantity they have available, they would have sold out in minutes and then this thread would be filled with folks complaining about how they rolled it out, how they didn’t press enough (even though it’s not their call), and how the flippers ruin vinyl releases (bonus points for blaming “bots”). I don’t know about others, but I’d much prefer to preorder and not know when it’s coming, than having to deal with crashing websites, queues, and just missing it because it sold out before I could enter my CC info. I will say, the world is changing fast, but one thing remains the same - the nonstop moaning on SHTV. This is supposed to be hobby, which should be fun and enjoyable. If you don’t like the way they handle it, count your loss and move on. There are plenty of records to buy and all of these albums can be had in very solid sound quality for much cheaper than even the $600 box.
I just ordered this... Although a price hike is a bummer, the prices will only rise considerably. Soon enough, $900 will sound like a great price.
If the few albums I have from this set are any indication, I doubt you will be disappointed. If you love this music (as I’m sure you do), I think this is something you will cherish for life.
I have the 45rpm "How my heart sings". Awesome sounding record. This was before AP upped their jacket game though - just the light single sleeve style for 2 records. Were the ones from the box any better?
I'm okay with the preordering from them for single records so it's maybe $40-$60 at most. But with how long the backorders take to fulfill (if they ever get fulfilled), I can't say that I'd be down for a random $600 expense in a few years from now. I had toyed with backordering this for awhile but couldn't bring myself to do it for that price. It'll be a hard pass for me if they bring it back for $900 too.
If Craft owns the Riverside rights, then I do hope they’ll do new issues all analog from the master tapes with a minimum of EQ. From what I’ve read, the mastering/EQ choices done for the AP release were to make Bill’s piano sound as good as possible and the difference between AP’s Village Vanguard and the Mofi One Step were noticeable. Both are worth owning and are different enough presentation wise to justify having both (inflated market prices aside). So doing them all in 33rpm format with minimal EQ at standard pricing and in nice jackets would be a great option and I’d personally rebuy virtually all of them even though I have the AP set. While in an ideal world, I’d love them to use a one step process to get the absolute best sound, the downsides of the whole small batch, limited qty, $100 price point and glacial release pace would outweigh the benefits for me. Unfortunately no, same glossy single sleeve made a bit thicker to accommodate two records.
When I went through my set, they told me they would only send replacements twice before stopping and letting me decide whether to live with what I had at that point or return it all for a refund. I had 9/22 bad initially, and then out of the 9 replacements, I needed 4-5 additional replacements. This was not being really picky either - the defective ones had embedded fibers/grit, feelable scratches, or warps that affected play. In the end, I ended up with 1-2 that had minor issues I was okay living with. They may have changed their policy since then to allow for more cycles - it was late 2018 when I went through my return cycle.
This return obsession is just one reason the prices are so high. Everyone is paying for those who keep returning.
No, I don't. I have read countless posts in various threads through recent years where purchasers of so-called audiophile LPs have been upset over flaws in their purchases. Whether these flaws are minor or serious, they are enough to convince me that much of the audiophile market is one big scam. I myself have purchased upwards of twenty audiophile pressings, and I have found flaws. But I did not return them. Now, when I see the audiophile companies raising prices to exhorbitant levels, I will not participate in their game. Earlier vinyl editions and CDs sound fine.
These days, there really isn’t a great correlation between how “audiophile” a release is positioned to be vs the quality you end up getting. Companies positioning their releases as expensive, audiophile versions naturally raise customer expectations that for the premium $ paid, it should not have serious flaws - that seems fair. Yet many do, coming from traditionally well regarded pressing plants like QRP, Pallas, Optimal. And on the flip side, I purchased a dozen common issue albums (pressed at lesser regarded pressing plants like GZ, MPO, etc) that were on sale for $15 each at Walmart and they were all perfect.
Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. I have never had that sort of experience with AS, but only once have I needed something replaced more than twice. It may have just been bad CS - I did get into it once or twice with a returns manager there around that same time - I believe his name was Evan (not 100% sure). He really rubbed me the wrong way once or twice, as if my issues were overly picky and a burden on him. He is long gone though and I have never gotten that treatment since. Unfortunately customer service is a very person-dependent thing. Some times people will treat you different based on the mood they are in, or how much money you spend, or whether they like you personally. That is ridiculous IMO. When paying the sort of prices that AP charges for a record, you should stand by your customer with little questions asked. There is also of course the fact that some folks are super unreasonable in their requests, and it ruins it for the rest of us. These folks demand a replacement or refund for non audible marks on an LP, off center labels (not disc), the most minor of corner bumps, completely inaudible 1mm warps, etc. So part of me gets the returns manager being skeptical, short, etc. But in the end that is just bad customer service and these labels should do better. AP has done better of late, IME, I hope that continues for me and is the same for everyone else.
I had the same experience in late 2017 with Acoustic Sounds and ended up getting barred from ever ordering LPs from them again. That experience ultimately led to me going 100% digital - no scratches, embedded dust/grit, no-fill, or distortion on digital.
Sorry, but unfettered capitalism creates great divides between the haves and have-nots. It creates companies outsourcing work to countries who pay pennies to their workers, furthering the pressure to pay workers less here in the U.S. I was around in the '80s during the "condo boom". People were buying apartment buildings and reselling the individual apartments as homes, most with renters inside. This made the value of the individual condos greater than if one person owned the entire building as apartments. Those who bought had mortgages, and much greater expenses and required greatly raising the rents of the tenants, forcing many out. Some rents were doubled, and if there was no rent protection by the city or state, tenants were SOL. Then the higher established costs of the condos pushed the value of nearby homes up (Hey, if that 750 sq ft unit is worth $500,000, what does that make the nearby 1500 sq ft standalone home worth?). Taxes went up for those homeowners, and the cost to buy those went way up. So you can say "Whatever the market will bear", but those who do nothing but speculate make money, provide little to no benefit for others, and only end up making their money at the expense of others. I have said this before. Offer a service, or manufacture a product, or open a legitimate store (and if you do, there are strict rules for selling and pricing in many states and countries). Do something positive to society to earn your money.
I had a similar experience a couple of years back. Two attempted replacements and that's it. At that point, it would be accept it or return for a refund.
Anyway, the box set sounds superb. I got it during the first run and listen to it quite a bit. However, I would not pay $900 for it. Thats crazy IMO. If someone wants to, thats their decision. But that is a ripoff.
Yup, it was Evan for me. We had a disagreement on a replacement issue a year or so prior to that, but when this box set issue arose, we were both past that and he was responsive and professional. It does sound like others had a similar “exchange only twice experience” in that same timeframe, so who knows if that was “Evan’s policy” or AS’s. It’s true that some people are (at least to my way of thinking) unreasonable in their expectations where only perfection in all aspects will do. If it’s not audible, it’s okay with me and some minor bumps/dings in packaging don’t really bother me personally. That’s just one reason I personally wouldn’t want to open a record store or run a premium label.
It should be a requirement for everyone to work one whole year in customer service. Most people are utterly clueless as to the amount of aggressive and entitled behavior workers in that position have to face on a daily basis. Enough to make most lose faith in humanity.
I had a taste of that 46 years ago. I think overall people were more civil then, I don't know. It was still brutal. I go home a pour a scotch or two. I didn't last long.
Real great customer relations there! These companies try to foster and magnify obsession with perfection, and boast about their perfection, and don't want to hear anything but praise. Yes some customers can be difficult. But if a company does not want to deal with all types of customers, get another gig.
My experience, as one who had to help people who were freaked out about being poisoned by the environment, is that a calm head can calm most people in distress.
