Time for a top-up. I’m
only publishing this due to a sense of elation at nabbing a bargain.;^)
My wife pointed out the bargain in our local “Walmart”
(Asda) when she spotted Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” in 180g for only £4-99! It
only took me all of a millisecond to grab a copy. It’s part of a series called “Jazz
On 33 & 1/3” which features a magazine plus LP. The next in the series will be one of
Miles’s stablemates John Coltrane offered at the still bargain price of £9-99.
I don’t own brand new vinyl issues of any of these classics
so for me it was something of a no-brainer. Even if the album turned out to be a dud and it had to be replaced or refunded
at least I’d have the comfort of knowing the LP wouldn’t be re-shrink wrapped
and put on display again as they are in some dedicated music shops. (Which
might account for some of the claims of dirt & fingerprints so often
lamented…?)
So what did I get for my 4-99 loss-leader and how does it
add to the tally of non-problematic discs?
Well it featured a fairly thin single cardboard sleeve but
the inner sleeve was superior : thick paper, poly lined. There were no dents or
scarring of the external packaging because it was pretty well packed in a
bumper “envelope” but I inspected the disc for them just in case. The LP itself
was examined under a filament lamp and revealed no dirt, dust, fingerprints, dents
or scratches at all. Pristine(!), contrary to the common complaint of poor
handling.
The only comment I would make is that there was what I would
call an “MRA stain” covering about 20% of the playing surface. In practice this
proved to be completely inaudible. One of the helpful things about jazz albums
like this is that the high frequency percussives are a constant and clearly audible
at all times. I detected no change in their behaviour throughout the stained
portion.
As with the other successes SQ was beyond reproach for new
vinyl. Silent backgrounds accompanied by clear transients & peak-level
tracking from beginning to end. The instruments on this recording have
considerable peak-level “bite” and often fast rise-times so if there is going
to be a problem it will eventually be revealed. What surprised me was that
given a store’s lack of consideration for storage and display, the LP was
commendably ruler flat. I won’t mention the spindle hole drilling concentricity
because that showed the same problem as every other LP in existence but the
drill hole and LP edges were perfectly clean and burr-free. It was a quality
product.
The Miles inner sleeve quality was starkly contrasted by a
Lana Del Rey double album my daughter speculatively bought me for Christmas. Considering
that she paid top-dollar for it, the manufacturer supplied only drilled paper
sleeves which tend to cause scuffing of the disc. Not that this necessarily has
an adverse effect on noise levels but it’s possible it could aggravate certain
styli. (BTW, Lana was played during the same session and the LPs were as
perfect those described above).
I’m afraid Lana is perhaps too “pop-music” oriented for my
tastes but her music coming from a turntable was still too good to ignore. Fact
is I’ll listen to anything apart from Opera and Reggae but a turntable can even
make these genres attractive ;^)
As someone who, like many of my contemporaries on A’gon, has
been buying LPs for over 45 years, one can’t help feeling that vinyl replay is
as complicated as we want it to be, especially given the unproblematic nature
of the previous reviews.
When it comes to playing new LPs, due diligence is as much
as they’re going to get from me, although I accept that “due diligence” may
take a more severe form for other people…. ;^)
