BARB Vinyl - Very poor quality :-(

I buy vinyl because of its superiour sound quality to CD. TSSK was amazing! One of the best sounding records that I own. Sadly the same can not be said about BARB.

The record's surface looks like it's got dusty finger prints underneath the lacquer and the sound quality of the vinyl itself is very poor. Such a shame when Universal have gone to the trouble to produce it on 45rpm heavyweight vinyl which should sound amazing!

I received an e-mail on release week stating that the vinyl was delayed due to pressing problems and they wanted to make sure that the records were of the highest quality before sending them. I'm now wondering if I've been sent one of the original faulty records in error?
As an appology for the delay I was issued with a code for me to download a MP3 of the album. Why would I want an inferior sounding MP3 when I've ordered vinyl for its superior sound quality??? Fair enough if they'd offered a 24 bit high resolution download in a format like Flac or WAV, but an MP3 is useless to me as I don't listen to them on my hifi system!

One final thing. The inclusion of that stupid Q magazine sticker on the front cover. It's a nightmare to get off and leaves a sticky residue on the record sleeve. I have no interest in what Q magazine think. I pre-ordered the vinyl before their review was even published because of my love of Elbow's music, not because of what a journo at Q thinks. If Q magazine said it was dark outside I'd go to the window to check I was being told the truth!

Sorry to moan, but after the effort that was put into making TSSK sound so amazing, this is a real disappointment.

Sorry to hear that CS. I recently got rid of my tuntable for a usb one for the pc which was a big error on my part. So next month I may treat myself to a Project 2.

Have you contacted the company regarding the quality? Just think you may have the 1st pressing that could be worth money.

I've contacted Universal. They are sending a replacement. I spoke to someone yesterday who said he'd had his replaced only to receive a replacement that was just as bad as the original. I'll let you know what mine's like when it arrives.

On the subject of Turntables. The Project 2 is good but have you considered a Rega? British designed and built. IMO a better sounding deck than the Project.

Just checked prices online. For an extra £30 I'm probably better off getting a Rega RP1. Thanks for that CS. I'll let you know what I decide.

My dual CS-505 from about 1985 is the business. I've just handed it over to my son who is buying a lot more vinyl than me these days. Told him to look after it though.

This was my first serious hi-fi. Before that I had an all in one Amstrad "Music Centre" which managed to produce the hum on "The Night Will Always Win" long before Craig ever managed it. Trouble was it was on everything.

bt_remix wrote:

Just checked prices online. For an extra £30 I'm probably better off getting a Rega RP1. Thanks for that CS. I'll let you know what I decide.

Do the Rega, you won't regret it! They've recently announced an upgrade kit for it so if you get an urge to upgrade the deck in the future it's easily done & cheaper than having to buy a whole new turntable.

Rega offer fantastic after sales support. I'm still servicing Rega decks that are over 30 years old. Yep, all the parts are still available! Not many companies that can offer that level of support!

still waiting for mine

can you be more specific about whats wrong with the sound of it?
surface noise?
pops/clicls?
dull sounding?

could itjust be the mastering of the record?
i was suspicious when they said the vinyl was delayed but mine ended up getting shipped later that week, seems like it would take longer than a week to correct a pressing problem

citizen wrote:

still waiting for mine

can you be more specific about whats wrong with the sound of it?
surface noise?
pops/clicls?
dull sounding?

could itjust be the mastering of the record?
i was suspicious when they said the vinyl was delayed but mine ended up getting shipped later that week, seems like it would take longer than a week to correct a pressing problem

Hi

Yes sure. It's a very noisy pressing with loads of surface noise, not so much pops and clicks, just very hissy. It does sound flat. If you compare it to TSSK it's miles away from it in terms of quality. Such a shame as a heavyweight 45rpm vinyl should sound amazing. Sadly this doesn't.

I'd love to know the truth with what's gone on. I would have thought that a repressing due to a fault would have taken longer than a week to resolve too.
When your vinyl arrives just look at the playing surface in a good light. Its full of surface scratches and whiteish grey marks that seem to be almost imbedded into the pressing. I've now seen 6 of these records and every one is the same. Universal just send a replacement that is no better. :-(

sadly it seems there are very few plants that have a reputation of a good vinyl product these days

Oh, that is a shame. :/ So much waiting --- still holding myself not to listen to the album in mp3. Does the band know about this?

citizen wrote:

sadly it seems there are very few plants that have a reputation of a good vinyl product these days

You'd think with so few plants they'd be aiming for quality, not steering away from it.

just got mine, i can see what you mean about the fingerprints and smudges, all over the place

no shrink wrap around it, i have heard that some plants arent doing this because it can warp the record, doesnt seem like the case here, the shipping packing is pretty poor in general

i'll try cleaning this tonight and then play and then report

I'm just about to return my second vinyl copy - it really is the worst-sounding vinyl record that I've ever bought, and I'm including 30-year old records that I've bought from car boot sales and charity shops for 50p.

It sounds a bit quiet and lifeless, but that's not its main problem. The first copy was pretty noisy, but also frequently distorted. Not in a way that suggested mistracking, though - the distortion started and stopped at random, even on quiet tracks, and, at times, it sounded like Guy Garvey was singing through a comb and paper. As other's have commented, the surface was covered with bits of cardboard and looked like it had been handled by someone with greasy fingers.

My replacement copy turned up today. It looks a bit cleaner, but still not new. The sound quality, though, is, if anything, worse than the first copy. One of the the songs even has a section that has a very rapid cracking/fizzing sound, a bit like a sparkler.

The "bonus" MP3s are 160kbps and sound pretty ropey, but don't seem as distorted, so it seems to me that it's a pressing problem.

Glad I'm not the only one who is experiencing problems with this. I received my third copy today. No better than the previous two. They're all duds and Universal don't care. They just keep sending copies that are all the same.

Very sad. :-(

so what are you going to do?

just finished all the way thru and the quality wasn't half as bad as i was prepared for, maybe my copy is just better, but i'm fine with how most of it sounds

the worst quality is on lippy kids, after a wipe down with a microfiber cloth it was much better though

citizen wrote:

just finished all the way thru and the quality wasn't half as bad as i was prepared for, maybe my copy is just better, but i'm fine with how most of it sounds

the worst quality is on lippy kids, after a wipe down with a microfiber cloth it was much better though

My double LP arrived yesterday in Paris.
This 2lp set looks gorgeous. Sound quality is as good as the Seldom Seen kid 2lp set was.
Still missing asleep in the back on vinyl to have them all.

Regards!

UPDATE!

Here's a thing... I thought I'd better give my second copy another listen, so that I could include details of its shortcomings in my e-mail to Universal. On the second listen, it didn't seem half as bad, and after three or four plays, the distortion that was overwhelming on the first listen had disappeared. That didn't happen with my first copy, which I played several times with different tracking weights and bias settings to see if that made any difference.

That's not a phenomenon I've encountered before. I use an AT OC9, which has a small stylus that sits in the bottom of the groove and is famously intolerant of dirt. Maybe there some sort of contamination that wore off after a few plays (although there was no residue on the stylus), and maybe those people who were happy with the sound quality use a stylus that sits higher in the groove. Just guessing, mind.

It still sounds mediocre for heavy-weight vinyl, and is still rather crackly, but at least I can listen to it now and it sounds marginally better than the download. I've also tried cleaning it with my "wet" record cleaner - something I normally only need to do with records from charity shops and car boot sales - but the surface marks that look like finger smears haven't come off (as they would have done if they were fingerprints) - they're obviously pressed into the surface.