Then there's the other end of the stick - vinyl pressings that wear out after 2 dozen, or fewer, plays. I'm referring to records I bought back in the late 60s/early 70s of unissued Bob Dylan pulled from the Columbia files. Untitled, and in a plain white sleeve, one of these bootlegs appeared on the Har-Kub label. I have never seen lousier quality vinyl. Ever. Still have the record because it is pretty rare, and the material was the first release of the material thereon. Later, of course, it was all "officially" released on various "bootleg" compilations produced by... Columbia, naturally! Mal Rockwell
I collect "white label promos" and I agree with Bob that the Columbia WLP or DJ copies are superior. The vinyl seems to be the same thickness, but more durable (IE, same number of grams, but different vinyl formulation). I think that's the thing, not that they had a different stamper, or that the stamper was brand new, though that helps. People discount what a different formulation of vinyl can do. I've only laid my hands on a few test pressings, not to be confused with promo copies, and they were stunning. One is a test pressing of "Shotgun Willie" and it blows away the regular copy (pun intended, but it did indeed blow away the regular pressing). The only labels that I think had consistently good pressings were the guys who had their stuff pressed in Japan, like Mobile Fidelity, and the audiophile classical labels, like Telarc (sent to Teldec, IIRC). The JVC vinyl is my favorite vinyl formulation. They tore down the pressing plant and converted to CD. Supposedly, and this may be audiophile nonsense, nobody outside of JVC knows what that vinyl formula was, other than it was translucent virgin vinyl (it's translucent because it has less "carbon black" than normal vinyl, I think). But that JVC vinyl wore longer, took more abuse and started off quieter than anything else I've seen.
Phillip
Bob Olhsson wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Fine "...Bob, do you think the same "for demonstration only" pressings sent to DJ's were also what was sold at a
discount to NARAS members?..."
Not at all, they were just first run "street" copies.
I only knew about the white-label DJ copies from RCA and Columbia because I
was the music director of a college station for a few months. They were
amazing, better than any "audiophile" pressings I've ever encountered. I'm
sure the idea was that they wouldn't get chewed up and need to be replaced
as often.
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined! 615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com