Definitive Audiophile pressings

TenderLovingKiller® said:
Am I remembering correctly? Prior to Furnace being set up, weren’t all Pallas USA pressing done at RTI?

Maybe The Pallas USA plates got passed along to Optimal and they didn’t bother to scratch out the etching?
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So according to discogs, PUSA pressings are still pressed at Pallas in Germany in many cases. They are just pressed on dedicated presses for USA export. So wouldn’t be a stretch for Pallas to be unable to take on the job and send it over to Optimal in Germany.

Not sure Furnace plates anything. I seem to remember having something with RTI runouts that was pressed at Furnace.
 
MikeH said:
So according to discogs, PUSA pressings are still pressed at Pallas in Germany in many cases. They are just pressed on dedicated presses for USA export. So wouldn’t be a stretch for Pallas to be unable to take on the job and send it over to Optimal in Germany.

Not sure Furnace plates anything. I seem to remember having something with RTI runouts that was pressed at Furnace.
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Yeah, I wanna say prior to the establishing their own press, they still existed put were using RTI kinda like how Pabst Beer is brews their beer at Miller Coors breweries. If that makes sense.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, I wanna say prior to the establishing their own press, they still existed put were using RTI kinda like how Pabst Beer is brews their beer at Miller Coors breweries. If that makes sense.
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Makes sense. This is what Cogs has as the Furnace bio:


“Furnace Record Pressing is a manufacturing company based in Alexandria, VA, USA. Originally founded as a CD and DVD manufacturing broker in 1996, Furnace began offering vinyl manufacturing in 2008, also as a broker. They usually worked with Record Industry and Schallplattenfabrik Pallas GmbH. In 2018, Furnace began pressing their own vinyl at a newly-built factory in Alexandria.”
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, I wanna say prior to the establishing their own press, they still existed put were using RTI kinda like how Pabst Beer is brews their beer at Miller Coors breweries. If that makes sense.
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In fact, I'm pretty sure the recently released Chris Isaak Heart Shaped World reissue from 2022 is exactly that situation. Plates from RTI, pressed at Furnace.
 
I guess If I were to put things being discussed together, Furnace is a pressing plant only. Plates are done elsewhere.

They are not exclusive to Pallas but do have a deal with them to press some of their P-USA stuff, but not all P-USA stuff. Some P-USA stuff actually does come right out of Pallas in Germany itself.

How Optimal would figure into the P-USA stuff remains the mystery to me. It's not hard to imagine that they would press Pallas plates. They're both in Germany so why not. But then how does anyone know for sure it comes from Optimal if there are no Optimal numbers and markings in the run-out?
 
Turbo said:
I guess If I were to put things being discussed together, Furnace is a pressing plant only. Plates are done elsewhere.

They are not exclusive to Pallas but do have a deal with them to press some of their P-USA stuff, but not all P-USA stuff. Some P-USA stuff actually does come right out of Pallas in Germany itself.

How Optimal would figure into the P-USA stuff remains the mystery to me. It's not hard to imagine that they would press Pallas plates. They're both in Germany so why not. But then how does anyone know for sure it comes from Optimal if there are no Optimal numbers and markings in the run-out?
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Yea--this all seems right.

I wanna say that Optimal has a different ring size pressed in on the label?
 
Okay I bought the damn Sea Change pressing despite having no idea where it's pressed I hope you're all happy.

The jacket is definitely the EU jacket from 2016. I'll check the rings and runout when I get home to see if it's got the dipped centre ring like most Pallas pressings and also whether it's got the xxxed out runouts like the Optimal from 2016 has.

EDIT- Alright, so it's got Pallas rings, not XxxD out PUSA runouts like the 2016 Optimal but has EU jacket, so it appears to be pressed at Pallas (or maybe Furnace but Made in Germany sticker would seem to indicate Pallas since they aren't going to ship the discs to Germany from Furnace. So it looks like the original US pressing but with EU jacket. Doesn't appear to be Optimal.
 
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Mather said:
Okay I bought the damn Sea Change pressing despite having no idea where it's pressed I hope you're all happy.

The jacket is definitely the EU jacket from 2016. I'll check the rings and runout when I get home to see if it's got the dipped centre ring like most Pallas pressings and also whether it's got the xxxed out runouts like the Optimal from 2016 has.

EDIT- Alright, so it's got Pallas rings, not XxxD out PUSA runouts like the 2016 Optimal but has EU jacket, so it appears to be pressed at Pallas (or maybe Furnace but Made in Germany sticker would seem to indicate Pallas since they aren't going to ship the discs to Germany from Furnace. So it looks like the original US pressing but with EU jacket. Doesn't appear to be Optimal.
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The saga finally ends...
 
Mather said:
Okay I bought the damn Sea Change pressing despite having no idea where it's pressed I hope you're all happy.

The jacket is definitely the EU jacket from 2016. I'll check the rings and runout when I get home to see if it's got the dipped centre ring like most Pallas pressings and also whether it's got the xxxed out runouts like the Optimal from 2016 has.

EDIT- Alright, so it's got Pallas rings, not XxxD out PUSA runouts like the 2016 Optimal but has EU jacket, so it appears to be pressed at Pallas (or maybe Furnace but Made in Germany sticker would seem to indicate Pallas since they aren't going to ship the discs to Germany from Furnace. So it looks like the original US pressing but with EU jacket. Doesn't appear to be Optimal.
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The one I got seems like an EU pressing, but it doesn't completely match the runouts of the 2016 version completely (no crossed-out text and some of the other stuff missing as well). Everything else is a perfect match ('Made in Germany' sticker, 5 lines of copyright text on the back of the jacket, label catalog number, and all of the runout that is present).

But what the hell are Pallas rings?

Side A: B0025355-01-LP01-A GOLDEN P. USA - 41121-II
(that's an upper-case Roman Numeral 2 at the end of the runout)
 
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Russ I said:
The one I got seems like an EU pressing, but it doesn't completely match the runouts of the 2016 version completely (no crossed-out text and some of the other stuff missing as well). Everything else is a perfect match ('Made in Germany' sticker, 5 lines of copyright text on the back of the jacket, label catalog number, and all of the runout that is present).

But what the hell are Pallas rings?

Side A: B0025355-01-LP01-A GOLDEN P. USA - 41121-II
(that's an upper-case Roman Numeral 2 at the end of the runout)
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The centre label, Pallas has a dip on the edge of the circumference of the label where it drops down a little. Optimal (I think) is generally flat across the label.
 
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