Definitive Audiophile pressings

HuddieLedbetter said:
There's really no emoji for wow that's really interesting, slightly horrifying, thanks for sharing... So I've resorted to these awkward letter things
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A lot of artists used to just entirely scrap sessions from amazing musicians. That thought didn’t even really cross my mind until recently. I have been listening to some of those Classic Albums documentaries while I work and the Steely Dan one for Aja talked about that. They would record with an amazing band of session musicians and at the end of the day just decide they hated it and bring an entirely new band in the next day to play the same songs. They would record tons of different guys playing solos and hate all of them. They seemed miserable to work with to be honest haha. The type of creative people who don’t know what they like until they hear it so everyone is just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I work with people like that sometimes and it sucks haha
 
Oh Ok , I’m a bit confused, but I think you just need the 1 33 rpm version. That means you have enough left over for some Talk Talk.
Andy said:
I don't know, but the AP versions come in other 33 single disc or 45 double disc versions. I think £50 for the 33 is definitely overpriced.
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Joe Mac said:
Yep, if you enter the twilight zone it’s £37.99. Albeit on back order currently. That said getting records out of there is proving damn frustrating right now!
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.........I have like 10 albums on my want list at AS and they've all been on back order forever.
 
MikeH said:
A lot of artists used to just entirely scrap sessions from amazing musicians. That thought didn’t even really cross my mind until recently. I have been listening to some of those Classic Albums documentaries while I work and the Steely Dan one for Aja talked about that. They would record with an amazing band of session musicians and at the end of the day just decide they hated it and bring an entirely new band in the next day to play the same songs. They would record tons of different guys playing solos and hate all of them. They seemed miserable to work with to be honest haha. The type of creative people who don’t know what they like until they hear it so everyone is just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I work with people like that sometimes and it sucks haha
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They were a pain in the ass, lol. But I recall an engineer, it might even be in that same documentary, that their arrangements were a nightmare for "lesser" musicians.
 
MikeH said:
I’m pretty surprised AP doesn’t have a European distribution center. Surely the demand is there.
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It is but I imagine they don’t think it’s worth the hassle sadly. I suppose for any business expanding they have to balance the potential revenue boost against their ability to cover the initial outlay. I’d like to see more labels doing similar things over here too if I’m honest, might encourage better curation and would hopefully be more Eurocentric in their picks.
 
Joe Mac said:
It is but I imagine they don’t think it’s worth the hassle sadly. I suppose for any business expanding they have to balance the potential revenue boost against their ability to cover the initial outlay. I’d like to see more labels doing similar things over here too if I’m honest, might encourage better curation and would hopefully be more Eurocentric in their picks.
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True. And I suppose places like Craft/Concord have a much bigger pocket to set up that initial investment. I can't imagine how big the revenue stream would be though for them to put a distribution center in Europe and have easier access to the European and Asian markets. It just seems crazy to me that in 2021, you cant easily find AP pressings for a decent price overseas.
 
MikeH said:
True. And I suppose places like Craft/Concord have a much bigger pocket to set up that initial investment. I can't imagine how big the revenue stream would be though for them to put a distribution center in Europe and have easier access to the European and Asian markets. It just seems crazy to me that in 2021, you cant easily find AP pressings for a decent price overseas.
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Yeah I agree. It’s actually crazier if you think about MoFi! If you consider the Music Direct umbrella company there has to be more capital there to make taking that risk worth the pay off?

Anyway I’d still love a little more European ingenuity in setting up a similar label, or a European label doing similar on a larger scale than SC or PP. Maybe such a label would enable a focus shift away from mostly American classic rock and jazz.
 
Andy said:
I don't know, but the AP versions come in other 33 single disc or 45 double disc versions. I think £50 for the 33 is definitely overpriced.
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Just insane how much these go for in the UK.

We have Rough Trade UK selling the 1lp Pet Sounds for £50 plus £4.02 postage - £54.02
Scott Nagle selling the 2lp 45rpm Pet Sounds for £57.95 plus £4.50 postage - £62.45
VMP 2lp 45rpm Pet Sounds £43 inc free international postage - £43

It really is crazy.
 
Selaws said:
Just insane how much these go for in the UK.

We have Rough Trade UK selling the 1lp Pet Sounds for £50 plus £4.02 postage - £54.02
Scott Nagle selling the 2lp 45rpm Pet Sounds for £57.95 plus £4.50 postage - £62.45
VMP 2lp 45rpm Pet Sounds £43 inc free international postage - £43

It really is crazy.
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It’s the rough trade prices that are really shocking. Did you see they’re charging £90 for the 2 disc 45RPM AP pressings they have?

VMP isn’t a fair comparison at free postage as that’s a member benefit, unless you’re benefiting from a system glitch, and god knows you’re paying over the odds for the initial subscription there!
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s the rough trade prices that are really shocking. Did you see they’re charging £90 for the 2 disc 45RPM. VMP isn’t a fair comparison at free postage as that’s a member benefit, unless you’re benefiting from a system glitch, and god knows you’re paying over the odds for the initial subscription there!
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It almost seems like RT is just straight up buying them at MSRP from Acoustic Sounds, having them shipped internationally and then marking them up to sell haha. The 1 disc is $35 USD here. The 2x45 is $55 shipped £90 is absolutely mental.
 
MikeH said:
It almost seems like RT is just straight up buying them at MSRP from Acoustic Sounds, having them shipped internationally and then marking them up to sell haha. The 1 disc is $35 USD here. The 2x45 is $55 shipped £90 is absolutely mental.
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Yep I bought the 2LP at the price quoted above from SN. I don’t think that’s terrible considering they’ve imported it. That said getting them to actually post it and Oh Mercy is wrecking my head right now, when it goes right with them they just post it, when it goes wrong it’s entering the twilight zone and weeks of bizarre emails. Sadly they’re pretty much the only place to get Mofi and AP in Europe at a somewhat sane price and they’re also the only place I can find to buy the most recent grado cartridges from so I guess we are kinda stuck lol.
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s the rough trade prices that are really shocking. Did you see they’re charging £90 for the 2 disc 45RPM AP pressings they have?

VMP isn’t a fair comparison at free postage as that’s a member benefit, unless you’re benefiting from a system glitch, and god knows you’re paying over the odds for the initial subscription there!
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Damn, I didn't see that £90 one. Just insane. I bet people buy it as well!!

I wouldn't say that the initial subscription is high at all if you took the bridge offer. It works out that I'm paying £25.25 each month, for a decent pressing (usually swap for a typically AAA Classics release) and international shipping. When it reverts to the standard price it bumps up for £30.33 a month (for the 12-month sub) which is certainly going to be a big jump that im not sure about yet.
 
Selaws said:
Damn, I didn't see that £90 one. Just insane. I bet people buy it as well!!

I wouldn't say that the initial subscription is high at all if you took the bridge offer. It works out that I'm paying £25.25 each month, for a decent pressing (usually swap for a typically AAA Classics release) and international shipping. When it reverts to the standard price it bumps up for £30.33 a month (for the 12-month sub) which is certainly going to be a big jump that im not sure about yet.
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Ah come on the bridge offer is a limited time thing, it’s gone soon unless you paid for a year and that’s not a risk I’d be willing to pay for their bang average curation. I mean look at the first 3 months of this year, all 9 are underwhelming in their own individual way. Except Prine actually, that one I get.

Plus you’re soon going to be looking the actual list price of $52/$49.67/$41.60 per month. The first two of those are cloud cuckoo land. The third would be fine if they were hitting it out of the park every month with no pressing errors, hand on heart can anyone say that?
 
Joe Mac said:
Ah come on the bridge offer is a limited time thing, it’s gone soon unless you paid for a year and that’s not a risk I’d be willing to pay for their bang average curation. I mean look at the first 3 months of this year, all 9 are underwhelming in their own individual way. Except Prine actually, that one I get.

Plus you’re soon going to be looking the actual list price of $52/$49.67/$41.60 per month. The first two of those are cloud cuckoo land. The third would be fine if they were hitting it out of the park every month with no pressing errors, hand on heart can anyone say that?
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Yeah thats exactly what I said though, that im paying the bridge offer at the moment which makes it more than affordable when considering the free postage (regardless of it being international). My point is that in my current situation (and for the next 6-7 months) it makes more sense for me to buy an AP pressing from VMP compared with places in the UK, unless of course a distibuter here makes them available at a lower cost during that time.

The selection is all personal preference, im personally not interested in the Prine for example. I have found there to be at least 1LP each month which is worth swapping for and certainly something that I found worth the £25.25, the Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Donny Hathaway and Killer Mike have all been superb selections based on my tastes. When it bumps up after 6-7 months I will have to re-evaluate but will likely call it a day.
 
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