____twoism

So, I want to order the vinyl LP Bundle tonight. Is this a good idea? This topic has a shitload of different complaints about the albums. Have people gotten their replacements yet? I just don't want to pay 58 euros and get fucked up vinyls, have to mail bleep etc, not worth the hassle. I figured, if people have gotten their replacements already, chances are bigger I'd get proper vinyl as well?

Maybe hold out til others get replacements and test quality? Save you having to go through all the hassle. I can't imagine they will run out.

To be fair the only ones which seem to be consistently defected are Twoism, Trans Canada and Campfire. Mostly due to the Vinyl Factory plant being awful. The others are really nice, bar a few unlucky Geogaddi pressings.

I would hold out though man.

Hi all,

I have just joined to share my experience of these reissues so any potential buyers out there can get an idea of the situation.

As a bit of background vinyl has been my chosen format for listening for ten years and during this period I have invested a reasonable amount of time and money in my search for a playback system that suits my needs. I think that as a result of this I have fairly high standards regarding what is acceptable when buying new vinyl and also that any audible artefacts are probably a result of poor pressings rather than inadequate equipment.

I bought all albums and ep's excluding Twoism so I can't comment on that reissue, but here are my thoughts on the others

MHTRTC sounded very good. There were a few pops and crackles so not the quietest pressing but this didn't detract from the listening experience.

Geogaddi was a mixed bag. In general the sonics are great and the pressing was very clean. However the 2nd LP was pressed off centre and there is distortion on Corsair that a few people have mentioned. The replacement 2nd LP was fine but the replacement 3rd LP which contained Corsair still has the same problem. Bleep don't seem to be aware of this as a larger issue unlike The Campfire Headphase which they have admitted had a problem and is being repressed. I have in fact contacted Noel Summerville who kindly replied and says he was unaware of any problems with this particular pressing but is looking into it. Hopefullly if enough fuss is made something will be done.

The Campfire Headphase as many people have said was terrible. Mine had a repeating click once per revolution near the ends of all sides although there was no visible damage. This is being repressed and should be with us in December according to Bleep.

IABPOITC sounds excellent. No complaints here.

The Trans Canada Highway EP was exactly the same as The Campfire Headphase. Looked perfect but again an annoying and loud crack once per revolution for the last half of both sides. No word from Bleep yet as to what they will do about this.

So in short I would definitely hold back on buying Geogaddi or The Trans Canada Highway at the moment.

I can't be the ONLY person who doesn't have any issues with their vinyl at all right? I mean granted I only have purchased Geo and MHTRTC so far, but even these are being torn down as not-so-great pressings. I have no distortion during corsair, and nothing is pressed off center. Did anyone else actually get non-defective copies of these reissues?

Well it's good to know someone has had a good experience. Maybe there was just a selection of the pressings of Geogaddi that are faulty. Out of interest would you mind saying what turntable/cartridge you are using?

Nothing fancy, just a Technics SL-DD33 with an audio technica AT-311EP cart. P-mount.

You can't expect the same discerning qualities of a good 2000€ hi-fi system on a 250€ hi-fi system.

Hmmm could it be that the pressing floor is deeper in the groove than many styli track? I use an Audio Technica AT150mlx which is micro line and tracks deeper than elliptical and conical styli.

This has happened to me once before when a previously fine record suddenly exhibited terrible surface noise after I upgraded to a micro line stylus. I switched back to an elliptical styli and the noise floor was gone. Bizarre.

jm031689 wrote:Hmmm could it be that the pressing floor is deeper in the groove than many styli track? I use an Audio Technica AT150mlx which is micro line and tracks deeper than elliptical and conical styli.

This has happened to me once before when a previously fine record suddenly exhibited terrible surface noise after I upgraded to a micro line stylus. I switched back to an elliptical styli and the noise floor was gone. Bizarre.

The more competent the stylus is the more issues will surface.
I think I probably pointed this out before, but i've a fairly medium system, a Pro-Ject Debut III Esprit that has an Ortofon Alpha cartridge, a rebranded Ortofon 510 MK II, so a pretty humble one, but even os this system I can pick up a lot more 'defects' than on a 'low budget Technics cheap copy for DJ whataver'.
When we're talking about pressing quality of quiet albums I can set three levels, the almost perfect ones, like Eleh's 3 LP Homage, the decent one, Humble Bee's Henrietta, thas was released this month and even though some clicks are audible the experience is still very enjoyable and the ruined one, TCH for example, that has some parts that are almost unlistenable.

Very annoying clicking on the left speaker running right through Sherbet Head on my TCH copy.

Anyone else? Will try upload a clip.

My emailed reply to Bleep's first response email last night + their somewhat shorter reply today:

Hi there

In terms of a photo, there's not much to see to be honest? I looked closely, but this seems to be a flaw, rather than 'damage' per se. Incidentally, there are a string of people with the exact same problem and you can find out more by visiting the Twoism forum. Link below.
(link to this thread, natch)

If it would help, I'm happy for you to retrieve mine (at your expense however) but I suspect you can find several other examples in your warehouse. Let me know if you'd like this one back.

Can you also give me a timescale on how long this will take please? I'm quite prepared to wait for a proper, genuine Mint copy without the problem, but it would be great to know what sort of leadtime I'm looking at please. There are several of us quite upset about the whole thing - I'm sure you're not best pleased either to be fair! - so some sort of announcement regarding what exactly is being done, would probably go a long way to calming some people down. ie. are you getting a new pressing via another supplier (The Vinyl Factory hasn't exactly covered themselves in glory!) or are you taking another approach?

Sorry for the long email, but thanks for your attention.

And their 'reply'?

Hi

Yes we understand, and we will still be able to replace your record.

As stated previously we will be in touch again very soon with details about replacements.

Bleep Support

I have twoism and trans coming, is it safe to say these will be effed up? Should I even bother opening them?

I still don't have my vinyl rig up and running again, it's not like I can test them immediately. So I can't even know for sure.

Mexicola wrote:My emailed reply to Bleep's first response email last night + their somewhat shorter reply today:

Hi there

In terms of a photo, there's not much to see to be honest? I looked closely, but this seems to be a flaw, rather than 'damage' per se. Incidentally, there are a string of people with the exact same problem and you can find out more by visiting the Twoism forum. Link below.
(link to this thread, natch)

If it would help, I'm happy for you to retrieve mine (at your expense however) but I suspect you can find several other examples in your warehouse. Let me know if you'd like this one back.

Can you also give me a timescale on how long this will take please? I'm quite prepared to wait for a proper, genuine Mint copy without the problem, but it would be great to know what sort of leadtime I'm looking at please. There are several of us quite upset about the whole thing - I'm sure you're not best pleased either to be fair! - so some sort of announcement regarding what exactly is being done, would probably go a long way to calming some people down. ie. are you getting a new pressing via another supplier (The Vinyl Factory hasn't exactly covered themselves in glory!) or are you taking another approach?

Sorry for the long email, but thanks for your attention.

And their 'reply'?

Hi

Yes we understand, and we will still be able to replace your record.

As stated previously we will be in touch again very soon with details about replacements.

Bleep Support

It sounds like they still have no idea what exactly they're going to be doing about this. Since I didn't pre-order from Bleep they can't replace my copies and the record store won't take them back. I sincerely hope they do a re-re-pressing.

noilednad wrote:I have twoism and trans coming, is it safe to say these will be effed up? Should I even bother opening them?

I still don't have my vinyl rig up and running again, it's not like I can test them immediately. So I can't even know for sure.

I'm in the same boat, ordered twoism with a plan of getting a turntable in the near future. I have a friend who would let me test it though. I was mainly seizing the preorder opportunity more for making a collection, with the stickers/print and all. That's not saying I won't be disappointed if there are problems with the vinyl.

Seem to recall one or two went and sold their originals on ebay and ordered 'new' copies via the re-press. Can only wonder how they feel about all this

I got all six and they all sound great!

Got mine yesterday and today brought them home. I'm listening to IABPOITC which sounds fine, but upon visually inspecting all three of them it's clear that this one was pressed at a different plant from the others. The vinyl is clean and it was properly washed, I can tell this because it's not grabbing all the dust in a 2km radius like the TCH EP. Also it didn't have a single smudge, both Twoism and TCH EP had some marks. Oh well, at least now I know what to expect.

Of the EP reissues my copy of IABPOITC is best - though it's still rather warped and causes some audible disturbance.

In the ideal situation it'd be nice to have these all pressed at Optimal (in Germany) or at Record Industry (Holland). Never had problems with pressings from those two plants.

Mine is slightly warped but I didn't notice any distortion caused by this warping.

crashWound wrote:

noilednad wrote:I have twoism and trans coming, is it safe to say these will be effed up? Should I even bother opening them?

I still don't have my vinyl rig up and running again, it's not like I can test them immediately. So I can't even know for sure.

I'm in the same boat, ordered twoism with a plan of getting a turntable in the near future. I have a friend who would let me test it though. I was mainly seizing the preorder opportunity more for making a collection, with the stickers/print and all. That's not saying I won't be disappointed if there are problems with the vinyl.

Mine is suspended in limbo (pieces) by a "to-do" list of mods. It's too much to deal with, I'm should get a more "plug-n-play" rega or pro-ject.

So yeah, this might be the situation? If I understand correctly:

MHTRTC - Strong likelihood of being fine.
Geogaddi - Same.
IABPOITC - Probably fine, pressed by same people?
Twoism, Trans CH - Slightly effed up? Possible recalls?
TCH - Complete rubbish? I didn't order this one so...

I might send the iffy ones back out of paranoia, they're sealed. I did not get these particular ones from Bleep, so if I opened them I'd probably be SOL.