"Don Pearce" wrote in message
news:Y5GdnbBqJYm6cK_VnZ2dnUVZ8vSdnZ2d@plusnet...
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Serge Auckland
wrote:
Our dear departed friend Keith has posted this on his web site, so he
still has an interest in audio...........

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/show.htm

I got a link for a multi-MB download. Since I'm still using a POTS/modem
connection I decided I could live without that. Indeed, that I might not
live long enough to discover the contents weren't worth the wait. :-)

Anyone care to comment on what the download tells us?

Essentially it was a company that has taken over the original EMI pressing
machinery, and is turning out vinyl. Since they started the numbers
initially climbed, but have now plateaued at (I think) about a million a
year. The chap in charge had nothing to say about sound quality - his
thrust was that it was all about owning the "thing" and what fun it was.

Mechanically it all looked very hit and miss, but the chap did say they
used a "process" to make it happen.

I would imagine that the pressing quality is rather better now than it
was in the '70s. If nothing else, having guards round the presses
should help to keep dust down. Health and Safety sometimes is of more
use than just the obvious.

Hard for me to tell. I've only acquired 8 LPs in the last 5+ years. These
are a box set of fancy-produced Henrix re-issues I got for comparison
purposes with a 4 CD set. One LP side is audibly off-center, and others
have clicks in various places. Came shrink-wrapped, so it looks like even
fancy LP issues still show manufacturing/factory problems. Alas, a guard
around the machine won't ensure they will bother to put the hole in the
center... :-)


It looks like SOTA equipment is rather confined to the playing side of
things. :-(

**It always has been. Back in 1986 or so, I purchased two different LPs,
from two different locations on the same day. Both sported different labels.
I put the first on my turntable and listened with a growing sense of dread.
The tell-tale sounds of a chipped diamond greeted my ears. Curiously,
though, it was worse on one side and clearly worse towards the centre. I
stuck the stylus under my loupe, carefully examined the suspension - no
problems. Then I carefully checked the set-up of the arm - again, no
problems. I then stuck a crap recording on. No problems. So I then played
one of my favourite recordings. Superb. I grabbed the second LP I purchased
and noted exactly the same faults. I carefully noted that the LPs were
pressed by the same plant, here in Sydney. EMI. I called the company and
they, of course, suggested that I have my playback equipment checked. I said
that it was fine, so they requested I send the LPs back and they would
replace them. The new LPs arrived and I checked them out immediately. The
identical faults were evident. I 'phoned the company and was told that the
fault must be with my equipment (despite the fact that none of my other LPs
exhibited the faults), because they had tested the LPs and found them to be
perfect. I gave up and requested that the LPs be replaced with CDs. I've not
purchased any mass market, Australian pressed LPs since that day. Record
companies never cared much about quality and what cares they did have, went
out the window with the arrival of CDs.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

In article , Trevor Wilson
wrote:



**It always has been.

[big snip]

Record companies never cared much about quality and what cares they did
have, went out the window with the arrival of CDs.

I've been enjoying reading my way though a large number of back-issues of
HFN that I've acquired recently. Various things have struck me when I have
jumped back and forth between decades.

1) The regular articles which humourously warn of the 'addictions' of
audiophilia and how normal people are baffled by the weird behaviour.
(Although I suspect some of these were written by John Crabbe under various
house pen-names. ;- )

2) Regular articles bemoaning the lousy state of many LPs due to pressing
or handling faults at the factory.

3) The music reviews which remind me of just how many excellent recordings
have been made that I haven't yet caught up with. :-)

WRT (2) I've just been reading an article by Adrian Hope (Barry Fox) about
the way he - and the rest of us - were unpaid conscript 'quality checkers'
for the LP companies. Main point of the article was to discuss the use of
'factory sealed' LPs to stop shops allowing people to play the discs on
their in-store spiral lathe players and then sell them to some other
unsuspecting buyer as if 'new'. Question was if the Sale of Goods Act made
this illegal. However one comment from a retailer was that 'factory sealed'
discs would mean *more* returns from buyers. The comment was along the
lines, "If you think the LPs you buy are bad, you should try the ones we
sent back because we checked them visually before putting them up for
sale!"

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
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