Richard & Linda Thompson-Hard Luck Stories:Playing/Ripping Problems or Not?

None of the above. My discs skip badly, but I don't rip.

Voted for no. 4 as it is the closest.

 

Having read the above posts I started with Disc Four on my Sony Blu Ray player. No problems until 3.09 into It'll Be Me when it just stopped dead. Going back to Disc One now to play carefully.....

 

The label should post lossless 16/44 copies of the set for free download for purchasers of the set, until they can get replacement physical media pressed.

That would go a long way to making people happy, I think.

 

Just realised that I can't vote because I am trying to listen and not rip!!!

 

I don't think we need to be too literal about this. We just need to know if there are faults or not so if you have playback errors, tick the second box. Or the third if you prefer.

 

Playing and compiling fault list as I type, although it will probably be easier for them to replace full sets.

 

I'll be asking for all 8 CDs to be replaced - five play fine but ripping was another matter. They're clearly faulty and I have little confidence in their lasting many years.

 

Has anyone had any kind of response from Universal yet? Have they even acknowledged that a problem exists?

 

I'm just starting to play my set so I'll report back on any issues and what my OPPO 205 makes of it.

So far Discs 1 and 2 played through without issue or noise. I'm currently trying Disc 4 and (touching wood) it's playing okay so far. Just got to the end of the album proper.

 

I don't understand this. If you purchased from Amazon they will replace the set at no charge to you so irrespective of whether you paid £55 or £205 for it, you'll get another one free upon return of the original copy, even if the price they now charge is a lot higher than you paid.

 

Play-wise, I am currently a little sceptical about my Sony universal player which has recently occasionally paused and skipped playing CDs generally. Rip-wise, my discs 1,2 3 and 8 were fine with EAC in the end. Discs 4,5,6 all failed on the final track. Disc 7 failed on tracks 14-17.

 

So starting playback from disc 1 on my Marantz CD6000OSE which is without a doubt my most unforgiving CD player ever ..if there’s a slight smudge it won’t play ball..

Done a visual check on all discs ...all look perfect to me..no scratches or smudges ..amazon U.K. mastering on disc A0103216334-0304 14 ADO

So CD 1 ... so it loaded ok.. and that’s it for good news

Playback Errors on tracks 2, then 3, and then 4 ..so that’s as far as I need to go ,.what a shame ...not even gonna bother ripping it

Back it will go

 

So should I send back to Amazon for a refund (got this for £56) or wait and see if a disc replacement offer comes up ?

 

Re the problem with I Wish I Was A Mole. I checked the new box version and my 2004 cd. Absolutely the same from what I hear. Linda does seem to sing fly with an extension on the y but it sounds the same on both cds to me. I shall now try my Oppo 103 but sorry folks although it is great to hear Linda the song is a bit of not so good one in my view. The accompaniment on the piano is nice but it always sounds like the sort of track that might jump!

No problems with the Mole on the Oppo 103.

 

I think I saw people from Universal hiding in my hedge earlier. Here are some lyrics from the great Sir Ray Davies (for anyone without Muswell Hillbillies well worth getting - download, cd, vinyl, 8 track even the dreaded mp3).

They're watching my house and they're tapping my telephone,
I don't trust nobody, but I'm much too scared to be on my own
And the income tax collector's got his beady eye on me,
No there ain't no cure for acute schizophrenia disease.

Oh here is the link to the great Kinks unofficial site. Lyrics for "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues"

 

When I wrote this, the item was unavailable on Amazon. Usually that means long-term unavailable (as opposed to "Back in stock on xx date). Also there's literally no point getting a replacement at the moment, given >70% are faulty (from this poll).

There was also talk of recalls from other sellers, meaning it's likely I'd have to wait until I'm outwith the refund window to get a replacement.

All of the above means if I return to Amazon, I'd get a refund for £56 and then need to pay £70 to replace it.

Hope you understand now.

 

Actually it's better than that. You get the replacement before you have returned the original. So you can keep the good discs from your original, and replace the faulty discs with those from the new set. Of course the new discs may be faulty too, in which case you go round again (with a new one-month return window, as I remember.)

This is why I buy boxed sets from Amazon, especially vinyl where you often seem to receive warped/eccentric/scratched discs these days.

If you repeatedly return the same product Amazon eventually suspend sale of it "because customers have reported problems" - I have encountered this with a (new) book where all copies seemed to be slightly damaged, eventually I gave up and accepted the least bad copy of four or five.

 

You might as well hold on at least a week or so and see what the response is. Given a few people "in the know" are escalating this, I imagine (or I hope...) we'll find out the plan fairly quickly.

 

The flaw is also on the 7digital FLAC files, so this is very interesting.

 

I would not take my view as absolute truth. I thought the sound of Linda singing fly was the same on both the 2004 and the new cd. If there is a fault it might not therefore be the manufacture of the discs for that Mole "fly" issue. I will dig out my older vinyl copies and have a listen.

 

I'll see if I can somehow amplify the flaw or describe it better too! It appears the same on my CD set to the 7digital FLAC and I didn't remember it from the 2004 remaster. Another forum member sent me that track and it's totally clean as you describe. Shall update!

 

I'm just curious. Does anyone know if quality control for such a project entails randomly selecting a few from production and playing in different players? Or are they just looking at technical data? or just not caring?

 

As requested, the mastering numbers on my set are as follows [all 8 had ripping errors]: Not sure which is the exact number being asked for [sorry on that point!], so including both found in the matrix area... and presuming the IFPL stamp is the factory inspector, but that is a total guess [having spent some time working in a factory, decades and decades ago].

Disc 1 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577689987 & A0103216332-0204 22 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 946T twice]
Disc 2 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690020 & A0103216333-0204 15 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 945T twice]
Disc 3 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690037 & A0103216334-0304 14 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 947P twice]
Disc 4 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690044 & A0103216335-0404 13 A00 + [NO IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring]
Disc 5 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690051 & A0103216362-0104 12 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 941R twice]
Disc 6 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690068 & A0103216363-0204 18 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 942R twice]
Disc 7 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690075 & A0103216364-0304 17 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 948P twice]
Disc 8 = UNIVERSAL # 00602577690082 & A0103216365-0404 12 A00 + [IFPL secondary stamp on the inner ring = 943R twice very faintly]

 

Yes, as an Amazon customer of 23 years I've had my fair share of returns. In my opinion it's a great organisation for sorting faulty goods (or at least getting the customer happy anyway).

I had to return all copies of the Velvet Underground 45th Anniversary box sets due to dents, scratches and marks on every copy of each book I received. In the end I ended up with the least worst copies as Amazon ran out of stock. I did receive a polite notice from them afterward saying they couldn't supply me further copies as I'd already had six copies of each!

 

That's only true to a point; you have rights as a consumer. They are obliged to supply a non faulty set. Therefore you are entitled to return your copy and await the replacement copies from the manufacturer. They don't have to refund this transaction if you specifically request that you want to wait for a corrected set.