Just did a few quick needle drops on PE and Wu and my replacement ATLiens.
My replacement ATLiens is much better, but I can still hear the distortion in the right channel on the beginning of side D. Doesn't really bother me much on this copy and it's much shorter than my original one.
When I listen for it, there's the same distortion in the right channel on side A of Wu, but super faint. If I wasn't looking for it, I probably wouldn't have noticed. I have a bigger issue which is the bass seems to be distorted at times on the kick. I gotta check my setup though as I've had similar issues on a couple of records in the past that I've been able to rectify. I also need to compare it to my OG vinyl copy and the CD version.
PE is quiet as everyone has noted, but the mix seems to be the same mix that I've always known this album have. I have an early 90s CD copy (
this one) and did an A/B and the VMP copy is fairly similar but very slightly improved. It sounds like a lot of late-80s-very-early-90s rap albums (Bum Rush, Nation, ATCQ's first album, Jungle Brothers' albums, BDP). I just did a quick check on Spotify, and it does seem to sound different so maybe there are better masters out there than what I'm used to - will have to do a longer comparison. Don't know what the mastering details for the VMP was, but maybe they just used an existing print?