UMG Repressings - Any News

Would be good if we could get an idea of how many many members have requested repressings and got replacements. Doesn’t seem to be many who have maybe four or five members?.
 
Okay so have now listened to "A Song For You" and "Singles" and both suffer from too many clicks, crackles and pops. Certainly not a good listening experience via headphones. Deadwax info exactly the same as previous ones from us so I am not convinced these were pressed in UK or Europe.
 
Surely Universal shouldn’t mind telling the customer where these records are manufactured, most labels like to let the customer know this MFSL and others at RTI, Acoustic Sounds at QRP etc. I don’t get why these records don’t state were they originate from in the old days all records had this information which I find baffling?. Some folks will only buy pressings from certain countries. This is all very puzzling?.
 
Okay so have now listened to "A Song For You" and "Singles" and both suffer from too many clicks, crackles and pops. Certainly not a good listening experience via headphones. Deadwax info exactly the same as previous ones from us so I am not convinced these were pressed in UK or Europe.

Can I ask what you intend to do as these can’t be up to what you were hoping?. I don’t think this is going to go very well.
 
Can I ask what you intend to do as these can’t be up to what you were hoping?. I don’t think this is going to go very well.
Once I have listened to all of them, I’ll email them with my findings. At the moment, and at a push, only one out of six is acceptable. If the remaing six play like the other five, I’ll be looking for another complete replacement.
 
Why can’t we just send them back!, we were promised repressings which is why this thread was started?, they haven’t come through on their promise to us and basically attempted to send us something which wasn’t promised. I am absolutely dreading listening to all these albums again to have to go through all this process again!.
I may well just cut my loses and forget it and concentrate on my originals which although old play well.
Originally I was given two weeks to listen to the first batch only to have to ask for replacements, I honestly cannot see these being any different to be honest if they are from the same batch.
Listening to songs I absolutely adore and mean a lot to me in so many ways to have pops clicks and distortion really spoils it.
It’s now 4 months since these saw the light of day and it really is a shame.
 
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I have just had another email from a lady at Universal which says this

My earlier emails never stated that the orders were going to be repressed in the U.K. Originally, we were going to send you the repressed selections from the U.S. The label decided to ship the customers in the U.K. their product that was manufactured in Europe and did not have the same pressing defects as the product manufactured in the U. S. These albums have not been repurposed from the batch of sets that were manufactured poorly. If you are still having problems with what was sent, the label is aware of the issue with the replacements in the U.S. and will be remanufacturing more units in the U.S. With an expected date of completion within 8 weeks.

Confused?, I know I am?. Reading the email I conclude that what we in the UK have received are not repressings?, they are original stock made in Europe for the EU market. This isn’t what I was expecting at all I was promised completely new re pressed albums which isn’t what was sent?. No doubt this is why there are reports of pops and ticks on the newly sent product!.


this sounds to me like the box-sets were made in the U.S and the individual albums were pressed in Europe, so because Universal think the issue is only with the box-set, they are replacing bad albums from the Europe pressings, HOWEVER, as I`ve pointed out, although visually they are perfect, the play-back sounds like they are covered in scratches, but they aren't. it`s not that bad that it spoils the play-back and listening pleasure, but they are there and you can hear them in the quieter parts. now whilst that may not be an issue for some, it was an issue for me, mainly because of the cost of some of these albums, because one or two are around the £20 mark, but some are upwards of £40 and for that price, I expect them to be right!
a few on here have mentioned they have received their replacements and although they are better, there are still issues, which in my book, dos`nt scream `re-pressed` to me, but even if it did, to not check these before sending them out to make sure they have cured the issue, is `sloppy` at best. to expect people to wait ANOTHER 8 weeks again is disgraceful I think and I`m actually surprised more haven't given up and just asked for their money back. As nice as this set is and as much as people may want it, it can`t be worth this aggravation surely :)
 
Have just listened to "A Kind Of Hush" and whilst it is marginally better than a couple of the others in as much as fewer songs are plagued with "clicks/pops", but it still has unacceptable pops/clicks especially on Side 2 Track 2 One More Time which has a little batch of them about a minute or so into the song. On to the next album.
 
One More Time is a tough song to get without any vinyl noise...when I got out my AKOH original LP to rip I couldn't remember how it sounded at this song and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a really clean and a quiet pressing even during the quieter spots. This is one song that really benefits from the CD era. I believe even Richard said this in one of the liner notes as well.
 
So it appears that Amazon shipped my order of the 2017 Lovelines individual LP earlier than they indicated because I received it today. The one thing I've noticed is that on the individual LP's you get the logo sticker on the cellophane wrap. When I had the full box set it did not come with the sticker on each LP like this one. I carefully cut open the side to open the LP and there's enough cushion that I'm going to leave the wrap on the LP and just slide it into a outer sleeve for protection. The rice paper inner sleeve is the same.

The run out #'s in the dead wax area are the exact same #'s from the album in my box set that I returned which are:
B0026350-01-RE-1-A G-1 RM (side 1)
B0026350-01-RE-1-B G-1 RM (side 2)

I have good news to report, this particular album is pretty flawless, the center hole has just a very slight tear near the hole on one side but nothing bad, clean labels and center hole fits perfectly, no issues. These pictures were taken right after I opened it, no cleaning yet. The LP looks excellent, no marks or scratches, no pitting and no rough edges, no issues with hold punch on turntable or cleaning machine.

If you remember one of my earlier posts in the other thread...I mentioned how my Lovelines LP from the Box set felt very light and I questioned whether it was 180 gram...well this one I got today definitely feels like 180 gram, very nice weight.

I then cleaned it up twice with my record doctor machine with fluid. The next test was playing....I listened through 1 time tonight both sides and I literally counted 2 or 3 ticks/pops which can easily be corrected in Audacity when I go to needle drop this over the weekend. I am very impressed with the quality of this one...leaps and bounds from what I had before. There are some really quiet spots on different tracks on this LP and I'm most impressed that the vinyl is very quiet, even the space between tracks, dead quiet.

I'll leave my comparing between the original to this 2017 for the Audiophile thread on a later date after I've had more time on this one.

I got a bit choked up holding this, something about a brand new Carpenters LP in your hands...brings back memories...

VEwHr5X.jpg

6jHexPZ.jpg

riVO6VF.jpg

rQfU7SC.jpg
 
So it appears that Amazon shipped my order of the 2017 Lovelines individual LP earlier than they indicated because I received it today. The one thing I've noticed is that on the individual LP's you get the logo sticker on the cellophane wrap. When I had the full box set it did not come with the sticker on each LP like this one. I carefully cut open the side to open the LP and there's enough cushion that I'm going to leave the wrap on the LP and just slide it into a outer sleeve for protection. The rice paper inner sleeve is the same.

The run out #'s in the dead wax area are the exact same #'s from the album in my box set that I returned which are:
B0026350-01-RE-1-A G-1 RM (side 1)
B0026350-01-RE-1-B G-1 RM (side 2)

I have good news to report, this particular album is pretty flawless, the center hole has just a very slight tear near the hole on one side but nothing bad, clean labels and center hole fits perfectly, no issues. These pictures were taken right after I opened it, no cleaning yet. The LP looks excellent, no marks or scratches, no pitting and no rough edges, no issues with hold punch on turntable or cleaning machine.

If you remember one of my earlier posts in the other thread...I mentioned how my Lovelines LP from the Box set felt very light and I questioned whether it was 180 gram...well this one I got today definitely feels like 180 gram, very nice weight.

I then cleaned it up twice with my record doctor machine with fluid. The next test was playing....I listened through 1 time tonight both sides and I literally counted 2 or 3 ticks/pops which can easily be corrected in Audacity when I go to needle drop this over the weekend. I am very impressed with the quality of this one...leaps and bounds from what I had before. There are some really quiet spots on different tracks on this LP and I'm most impressed that the vinyl is very quiet, even the space between tracks, dead quiet.

I'll leave my comparing between the original to this 2017 for the Audiophile thread on a later date after I've had more time on this one.

I got a bit choked up holding this, something about a brand new Carpenters LP in your hands...brings back memories...

VEwHr5X.jpg

6jHexPZ.jpg

riVO6VF.jpg

rQfU7SC.jpg
That's one Beautifully Clean L.p. you have there that's how New Vinyl is supposed to be in the grand Old School Tradition.
 
Congrats on getting such a good copy of Lovelines Rick! You must feel like you've won the lottery! :D
 
So it appears that Amazon shipped my order of the 2017 Lovelines individual LP earlier than they indicated because I received it today. The one thing I've noticed is that on the individual LP's you get the logo sticker on the cellophane wrap. When I had the full box set it did not come with the sticker on each LP like this one. I carefully cut open the side to open the LP and there's enough cushion that I'm going to leave the wrap on the LP and just slide it into a outer sleeve for protection. The rice paper inner sleeve is the same.

The run out #'s in the dead wax area are the exact same #'s from the album in my box set that I returned which are:
B0026350-01-RE-1-A G-1 RM (side 1)
B0026350-01-RE-1-B G-1 RM (side 2)

I have good news to report, this particular album is pretty flawless, the center hole has just a very slight tear near the hole on one side but nothing bad, clean labels and center hole fits perfectly, no issues. These pictures were taken right after I opened it, no cleaning yet. The LP looks excellent, no marks or scratches, no pitting and no rough edges, no issues with hold punch on turntable or cleaning machine.

If you remember one of my earlier posts in the other thread...I mentioned how my Lovelines LP from the Box set felt very light and I questioned whether it was 180 gram...well this one I got today definitely feels like 180 gram, very nice weight.

I then cleaned it up twice with my record doctor machine with fluid. The next test was playing....I listened through 1 time tonight both sides and I literally counted 2 or 3 ticks/pops which can easily be corrected in Audacity when I go to needle drop this over the weekend. I am very impressed with the quality of this one...leaps and bounds from what I had before. There are some really quiet spots on different tracks on this LP and I'm most impressed that the vinyl is very quiet, even the space between tracks, dead quiet.

I'll leave my comparing between the original to this 2017 for the Audiophile thread on a later date after I've had more time on this one.

I got a bit choked up holding this, something about a brand new Carpenters LP in your hands...brings back memories...

VEwHr5X.jpg

6jHexPZ.jpg

riVO6VF.jpg

rQfU7SC.jpg

Based on your report, I decided to bypass the next few on the list and have a listen to this album. And wow. best album in the box that does not have any glitches. Super quiet between tracks. So why couldn't the others mirror this quality. Perhaps the only frustrating thing for me about this album is that apart from a couple of the songs, the album as a whole does not work for me, yet. I say yet as I have only listened to it twice, but whilst there is the obvious quality in Karen's voice, I find the album is too slow - I want a couple of upbeat songs on it, but not with the disco feel. Maybe it will grow on me.
 
A quick note about the reviews of this set on Amazon. It seems they’ve wiped the original masses of negative reviews by reposting the set anew. At least that’s how it looks on the UK site, which only has 3 reviews. Even the .com site now only has 26 reviews. It was a lot more than that a couple of months ago.
 
A quick note about the reviews of this set on Amazon. It seems they’ve wiped the original masses of negative reviews by reposting the set anew. At least that’s how it looks on the UK site, which only has 3 reviews. Even the .com site now only has 26 reviews. It was a lot more than that a couple of months ago.


crafty so and so`s :rolleyes:
don`t know about you though, but I think it makes no difference now, as the damage is already done!
 
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