Universal Back To Black 180 gram vinyl *

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3247421&postcount=32

 

It's a bit confusing the way it's laid out but these are one and the same - Polydor is owned by Universal Music and the Polydor releases are part of the Universal reissue campaign.

 

Surely there's just one reissue campaign by Universal Music which is taking place internationally. I don't know where this talk of Universal Europe crept in but I'm pretty sure there's not going to be one pressing in the US and then a completely separate pressing of exactly the same titles for the European market. The release dates may be slightly different for Europe but I would be very surprised indeed if the LPs weren't exactly the same.

Or does someone know better?

 

Well, the ones I saw in the new releases had "Made in the EU" on the back covers. These also had a promotional sticker on the front reading: "Back to Black Vinyl Reissue" or something close to that.

 

Hi, I just want to be clear about which vinyl reissues are getting bad reviews in this thread. It seems like the thread is as much about Acoustic Sounds' phono stages as vinyl reissues. . . . (judging from the title)

Are you saying the vinyl reissues in the Universal "Back to Black" series are not good quality reissues? (I searched for a stand-alone thread devoted to the new Universal "Back to Black" series but couldn't find one.)

http://backtoblackvinyl.com/index.html

I saw some of them in the new vinyl LP racks at Fred Meyer (Northwest USA regional department store chain) this afternoon. They were priced around $18 each.

Craig(VC).

P.S. - I also saw the Hoffman-mastered Icky Thump in the racks. . . . In general, what a trip it was to see vinyl in a department store! Something I haven't seen since growing up in the 70s and checking out the LP racks at Woolworth's.

 

The Supertramp Breakfast In America that I referred to earlier is from the Back to black series.

 

Anyone hear the KISS-'Alive!' release?

 

OK, that clarifies things a bit. It looks like the Back To Black vinyl campaign is indeed coming out of Universal Music Europe and that the records are being pressed in the EU, but the campaign is aimed at the global market. The oddity is that the records are being released in the US slightly before coming out in the EU but perhaps the different geographical arms of Universal Music made their own decisions about exact release dates.

 

They don't list their titles as mastered from the original analog tapes, which could be a lie anyway.

 

As was mentioned previously, we look at this from an audiophile point of view, but I'm sure to many of the decision-makers in the industry, it's purely economic. CD sales have tanked, vinyl and downloads sales are trending upward, so the priority is to get products out there that will sell. Plus, there's a prevalent mentality that CDs are "perfect sound" so obviously mastering from them should be as good as if not better than from original master tapes. Yes, we know better, but we're not the decision-makers nor are we a majority.

Reality sucks sometimes.

What bugs me about this even more is that digital sources do not have to sound bad. There ARE good sounding LPs out there that are digitally sourced. It's mainly in the mastering. Imagine an LP mastered from one of Steve's DCC CDs. It might not sound as good as a DCC LP, but it will most probably sound better than an LP mastered from a CD or digital recording with mediocre mastering. So if they're going to rush LPs out to market, the least they could do is get some competent people in to do the mastering. At least Warner seems to be focusing on the source and sound quality issues with their "sound matters" campaign. It's certainly more convincing than "back to vinyl" (which could be extended to "back to vinyl no matter how crappy the source or the mastering").

 

It's not out yet.

 

I did an extremely quick sampling of the Aerosmith Pump LP I bought. It sound like they are just using the digital CD masters and putting them on LP. Doesn’t sound much better than my CD versions. The only thing I noticed was deeper bass which LP’s tend to be able to display more of. Other than that I’m all set buying any more Universal reissues. As they are not advertising that they are doing these form the analog masters, etc like the Rhino/WB reissues I think they are probably just trying to make a quick buck on the LP movement. I ordered it before this thread started so I probably would’ve avoided it all together if I known ahead of time.

 

oh man. i just dropped 60 bucks on three of these. can't return new vinyl unless it's damaged at my local indi. poop

 

I was considering getting Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman in this new Universal series, even though I already have the outstanding MFSL cd. I'm glad I didn't - I bought an original A&M pressing in VG condition last week, and today won an MFSL lp on Ebay. I think I made the right decision.

 

Found Tupelo Honey today in this series.

 

Indeed. I'm hoping that the ones that are mastered properly from an analog source are promoted as such and hence anything not promoted as such we can be aprehensive about buying.

But as others have mentioned we have this forum to help us out.

Eddie

 

I'd be more concerned with the actual mastering than whether the source is digital or analog. Obviously, I'd prefer analog when available so as to avoid the "generation losses" introduced by ADC and DAC, but I've heard beautifully mastered vinyl from digital sources and badly mastered vinyl from analog sources. What's alarming about this Back to Black series is that the initial reports I'm reading here sound like the mastering is not so great. For the average blokes just looking for music on vinyl, that's fine, but for those of us who want the best sound possible, it really sucks. Unfortunately, there are too many of those others and not enough of us!

 

Ok, thanks.

 

"We master all our vinyl reissues from the original master tapes,
which are bounced thru 16/44 resolution cds at the intermediate stage"

 

That's what it sounds like to me!

 

That is probably what they did...

 

Universal 180 gram Reissues

On the basis of information that I have received, it appears that these reissues may have been done by GZ Vinyl a pressing facility in the Czech Republic in Europe. At any rate, ABBA 'The Album' was done at that facility and I understand that this appears on the runout groove. Naievely, I had hoped that sense would prevail and that RTI would be used and maybe Acoustech but alas no .. thanks to a number of posts I saw tonight I will not be going near these LPs. The only one that I was keen on was the Van Morrison 'Tupelo Honey' but I have since bought a NM US 1980s copy. It's simply a case of people jumping on the vinyl bandwagon to turn a quick buck without properly researching the facts of why the format has remained so strong.

 

I can give a quick review of two of these new Universal titles:
Supertramp- Breakfast In America
and
Van Morrison- Tupelo Honey

The Supertramp LP isn't bad. It sounds to me like the remaster, transferred to vinyl. It has that sound- boosted highs with the drums sounding unnatural. But it doesn't sound bad either. It's not too loud or harsh. Overall, it has detail and clarity and it was a good listen. Side 1's label on my copy is off center, making my needle go back and forth, but it's not audible.

The Van Morrison on the other hand is awful. My copy has really bad surface noise, especially on the last song on each side, very distracting. The sound is harsh and just isn't musical, and the loud surface noise really kills the quieter parts.
Wayyyy disappointed.

James

 

Have you listened to it yet? If so, what are your impressions? Thanks.

 

From what everyone has said here I'm bypassing the Universal reissues and going with the WB (SH/KG or KG masterings). The Fairport reissues on 4 Men with Beards label sounds promising as well.