I guess they must send several of them everywhere. It looks like he did the UK copy of ELO ll it doesn't indicate where it was pressed.
You're more than welcome to guinea pig em for us Simon I'm good with the old 80's compact disc mastering's for these two titles
PLG/Warner are upgrading their archives ( WMG at least) are to see what they have, so we might actually get a 'Mew free' remaster for those first two albums. The NO Noise remasters used it. If they go back to the original master tapes, they can create a new remaster of a higher standard.
My ears aren't the best thermometer of sound. The PLG/Warner Vinyl 2016 isn't bad, it sounds a bit harsh yo me, but it does seem to have ironed out the problem with 'Old England Town' where it had some problem with all that was going on at the same time. The CD sounds best to my ears and after 48 years it's as good as it is going to give. I think a lot of the quality issues are because the source isn't calibrated or tweaked correctly, then it's a rushed process. An audiophile pressing on MOV could really make it better than it is. The industry tends to roll out CD & Vinyl, like a cheap Coffee shop, rather than taking time and using the best of everything. If it doesn't then the industry will dieagain.
I've bought some very nice sounding vinyl recently, ELO/JL deserve better. I remember my first record player it was mono and a box lid opened and I played OOTB all year plus, a few more. I have noticed the more you add technology, the less enjoyment there is. I had them all on vinyl by the Time Xanadu arrived, then the others as they were released on vinyl. I must get my FOON vinyl out, soon.... with a new neighbour, I can't crank it up too loud!
I’m going to chime in here I have two uk pressings of discovery one with the Stan ricker cut with Uk next to the info meaning it was lacquers he cut specifically for the uk market and the other copy has ty cbs vms80 meaning it was cut by Tim young at cbs on a vms80 lathe. My opinion is the Stan ricker half speed is overall a great cut controlled base great trebble overall a conservative cut not two loud done to sound good the tim young is identical only difference is more base in the reverb sounds. As for out of the blue I just have a Uk cut by Stan ricker again good copy as for vinyl quality any Uk press will best Uk for surface noise so even if you want us mastering get the Uk ricker and vinyl will be non recycled non noisy
Update I recently found a Uk Allen cut out of the blue for for £1 not the best shape and tbh it’s not for be better than the ricker thier pretty close I couldn’t call but preferred the ricker as it’s a balanced sound also I picked up a Uk copy of time today which has mastered by Allen zent la cal if in the deadwax along with Brian Gardners signature with is a flower on both sides and that sounds fantastic as do all my Brian Gardner cut lps
I don't remember reading anything positive about them over the years. Probably why I haven't tracked any of them down.
The US version of that box ("A Box of the Best", green cover) is decent enough. That said, the EU Three Light Years box (which preceded Four Light Years) was pretty horrible. Nice pressings, but sonically flat as a pancake.
Just received a UK 1st Out of the Blue cut by Allen (A1, B1, C1, D1). Sounds wonderful. More open and less congested than what I recall for the Stan Ricker US pressings. There was something that always bugged me about the US version. There is so much going on in the music that it always sounded kinda dense and muddy. But the UK didn't leave me with that feeling after a first listen. I'll do a little back to back comparison with these and the two different Japanese pressings I have (the King Records with the big wide black and gold obi and the CBS/Sony version with the blue-purple-orange obi) and report back at some point...
Funny enough, same experience here. Everyone lauds the Ricker cut. It sounds good but I also found the Allen cut to be superior. Don’t get me wrong, Ricker did some nice cuts but I didn’t always like his mastering choices. I find the Ricker cut has boosted treble but the Allen cut sounds like it has more depth and even mastering choices. Just my opinion though on my system…
I finally got around to sending my 2016 Re-Issue of Discovery #1151 on clear vinyl to Steve @ PVF. It sounds amazing!! Not compressed, but spacious, nice bottom end and immersive details. I have to disagree that “all” the re-issues sound terrible. My experience has been different. So far my favorite copy of Time is the Mastersound Half Speed but the Re-Issue holds its own. P.S. I have discussed the colored vinyl thing with Steve and have proved true what was discussed. You need to throughly clean them before you grade them. Both my UHQR, and Mo-Fi One Steps improved, just saying.