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

I am NOT a fan of the large record labels. What you're kind of suggesting wouldn't surprise me a bit.

I remember once buying a Sarah McLachlan set; & due to anti pc copyguards (Very easy to defeat with software) having to rip & burn it to be able to play it on my pc. Freakin' ridiculous. There are a number of people here in one of the hi-res threads that believe it is still standard practice to add noisy watermarks to files so if they end up on the internet, the file can be traced to the retailer & potentially to the purchaser.

Problem is, it makes the music sound like poo. Not many industries treat their best customers so poorly.

 

I do try to give the benefit of the doubt, but past behavior makes that... difficult.

Honestly, the part that makes this recent example and all past examples of this issue so difficult to take is that I'm about positive it's always been UMG releases which have given me this kind of grief. Without fail.

I'd like to believe this isn't just some company policy coming home to roost, but these "issues" are pretty opaque, so it's impossible to know if we're dealing with an honest mistake on the trail end of a series of coincidences or what.

Same deal with the premature blu-ray rot in the Pink Floyd Early Years set. Happened for some people, not for others... and then blamed on a shipping problem? Disbelief only extends so far.

 

OK, this again.
There seems to be two kinds of flaws with these discs; cosmetic and pressing errors. Someone involved with production of the set can correct me on this, but my impression is that "Made in the Czech Republic", not "Pressed in the Czech Republic"means that, the same as with the Cream boxes from 2017 and again in 2020, the components of the set, the discs, the book, the printed material were assembled and packaged and sealed in the boxes, in the Czech Republic. Stuff like finger prints and yes, possibly scratches could have occurred during the packaging in the Czech Republic.
I think it's worth investigating why these discs were Pressed the way they are as well as how they were assembled in the boxes. In #1879 in the main thread (I can't seem to post quotes between threads) Limopard posted that "Matrix and IFPI Code look like DADC Austria."
There is information on the possible Pressing Plant here: DADC Austria
and here: CD matrix barcodes | Wiki | Discogs Reference Wiki
So much of this discussion resembles the release of the faulty discs in the Woodstock box, a year and a month ago. https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thre...ox-set-cd-box-digital-download.837999/page-64
There was a separate thread involving the shipping and Disc Replacement program from Warners. Rhino Woodstock box set - Shipping thread
Over the course of the next six months, Warners sent out boxes with Replacement Discs in white paper sleeves with plastic liners to resolve the issue.

 

It's automatic. If there are sync errors, a window pops up at the end of the rip listing the times where the errors occurred. You can select a time and hit play, then it plays back the music from just before until just after the time of the error.

Tim

 

I've never seen the pop up; but my best drive is on an xp box; so it may be a Win 10 only feature?

 

More likely the version of EAC?



Tim

 

Czechoslovakia split into two independent countries in the early 90s. The Czech Republic and Slovakia. In fact the Czech Republic is now commonly known as Czechia, though it has retained its full name for official purposes.

 

Be interesting if they play fine in any other players you may have. I have a friend who did manage to play one of the discs in his box via an Oppo 83 and no other more expensive players he had would play it.
Oh I would love the Oppo 205 or the 203 but gosh even second hand they are expensive - way more than original price! There is an Oppo thread I keep check on but there really is no other player that I can see that does what the 205 does. ie play just about any digital thing you can find with a nice 2 channel analogue output.

 

Still #1 in amazon UK's folk rock chart despite all four customer reviews being one star because of the faulty discs.

 

Amazon U.K. agreed a return and a replacement copy so will try again ..fingers crossed

 

This seems like shooting yourself in the foot for fun.

The replacement is, more likely than not, going to contain the same errors as approximately 70% of the releases. So, that would make it a waste of time, effort and money on everyone's part. However, if the replacement does play and rip OK, thenthe discs will likely be scratched up from the packaging.

Meanwhile, people involved in the project have informed the powers-that-be at UMe about the issues and reported back that there will be something done. Likely, that something will be that we purchasers send in prrof-of-purchase and get replacement discs, which have been meticulously re-manufactured and checked for errors so UMe won't get "burned" again, individually packaged in CD sleeves, mailed to our homes in a nice bubble-wrap package... free of scratches and dings from the boxset packaging.

So, if you get bad discs again... waste of time. But, if you get good discs, you won't be getting nice, new, probably tested to be accurate, scrath-free discs.

My set is still in the mail, coming from Germany. I expect it will be bad, like most others. I am happy to waiton UMe's solution as it seems the easiest, best way to get guaranteed corrected discs in pristine, new condition.

 

I would hold on to your next copy for when they repress and send out replacement discs. Any copy out there now will most likely have the same issues unless you have a high end CD player that seems to play these. But burning seems to be an issue for almost everyone.

 

I’ve got til the 16/10 to return the 1st set , so I’ll test two sets of CDs , see if I can get a full working set before sending back , if in the meantime Universal offer a disc replacement set I’m sorted either way . didn’t want to run the risk of amazon selling out whilst I can get a free replacement..literally just print a returns label and send back for free. Won’t send anything back til 2nd Set arrives and tested ..as some people are getting ones that play fine it’s worth the effort

 

As previously reported, I had problems with a few of the discs. I have now listened to those same tracks on iTunes on my MacBook Pro. They play beautifully with no problems.

 

My discs load and play without problems. No idea whether they rip or not but that's not an issue for me.

 

I'm totally screwed. I have a Bose Soundwave unit. It skips if the wind blows a little bit outside. For me, there is little to no chance of this playing properly. I want to dump my Bose but I need something small and basically a self contained unit. I posted over on the audio hardware segment and I got recommendations for the Denon D-M41 unit. The problem is, I won't be getting that anytime soon, certainly not in time for the Hard Luck Stories box. I'll to have the wait for the replacement discs, no other way around it. Or maybe the music Gods will smile on me and it'll play perfectly. If that happens, I'll start going to church again.

 

The power of positive thinking.
If the discs are faulty and the company does not come good on replacements then we are screwed. I bet this will not happen.

 

Universal thought this box set was worthy enough to produce in the first place. And pre-orders apparently exceeded their expectations, having initially "sold out" before Universal committed to making more sets. So I presume they met the goals they established to justify producing this set.

Making and mailing replacement discs will be much cheaper than having people return hundreds (if not thousands) of these boxes for refunds. Besides, depending on how the contract is set up with the disc manufacturing plant, the majority of the costs for the replacement discs may be covered by the manufacturing plant, not the record label... unless, of course, Universal owns the manufacturing plant.

I would just stop making physical media if I wanted to kill it off.

It seems a bit complicated to make thousands of copies of a box set for a relatively obscure artist, send them out with intentional flaws, field hundreds of complaints, and then issue lots of refunds when those sets are returned. That's a good recipe for losing money.

 

That's usually the case with conspiracy theories, as soon as you start to look at them through the lens of reality, everything about them crumble to ridiculousness.

 

Damn, forgot to and it has now shipped.....

 

All discs play like a charm on my trusted CD player, which was specifically designed by the good people at Onkyo for playing CDs.
Terrific remastering job, sound is sublime.
A few typos in the text but hey, what do you want, nobody reads anymore, let alone write.

 

Mine came in today.

They're bad.

I will be watching for the solution offered by UMe.

 

Preordered mine from Amazon UK and received yesterday. Nice package in what appears to be the new UMC format, similar to the recent excellent Gong and Bobbie Gentry sets. I've played the first 4 cds so far on both my trusty old Technics player (rarely troubled by even the worst second hand cd) and my much more temperamental Cambridge Audio One. No glitches or playback problems at all on either and the sound quality is a real improvement on my older versions. No fingerprints, scratches or any other marks noticed on the discs, and I've rarely looked more closely given the comments I've been reading. Can't comment on ripping as I don't do that but it's such a shame that so many dodgy copies seem to have been released and really poor quality control from UMC. Touch wood re the rest of the discs which I'll be trying later, but at this point it looks like some decent copies have made it out.

 

Hi this is my first post on the forum but have been lurking for quite a while and have gained some useful information thanks.
My CDs have the same problems as everyone else, they do however play on my Roksan Kandy K2 but have problems on other players and all my rip options.
Just a thought and not to rain on anyone's parade, as mentioned by another poster even if they play on your current Cd player they may not on your next, also the fact that they do play probably means that the error correction circuits are working overtime and this is not the best route to absolute audio fidelity.
Does anyone have a clue to what would cause a fault such as this during Cd production? I have only ever seen a fault like this a good few years ago, with a Beatles 62-66 set in literally 1000s of other CDs.
Mine are going back, to be honest having to listen to all the discs for faults and then finding them, rather than enjoying at leasure the music of Richard and Linda,along with the initial hassle hassle of getting the set has really taken the shine of the music which is the main pleasure of ownership of this set, maybe get a set next year if any error free copies available, if not ce la vie I have loads of other music that's hassle free to listen to, sorry for the long first post but guess I'm a bit bummed by all this and need to get it down thanks.

 

Is there a pattern emerging here that the later batches of boxes sent ou by Amazon have less problems than the initial tranche?