Massive Attack Vs. Burial - Four Walls / Paradise Circus [INHALEGOLD001] 2013 DIGITAL RELEASE 320 [Abstract Trip Hop / Atmospheric Electronica] TMGK

Hello All,

(tl;dr - vinyl has distorted sound, buy digital and save your money.)

the sound quality of the vinyl has been questioned, and now that a lossless, official digital version has been released I'm finally able to come to a definitive personal conclusion in this matter.

I was one of the lucky to get an order in for the vinyl before it was sold out, and after a while I received my copy (718/1000). I had heard Paradise Circus from a recording of Hobbs' XFM broadcast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N701JYnjaMs), and although the recording is not of the highest quality, the track sounds good.

When I first listened to my copy I was puzzled, as Four Walls sounded a bit distorted/saturated, but still tolerable; then I got to Paradise Circus, which was completely distorted/saturated from the very beginning, all high frequencies were missing and the vocals were totally broken by crackling distortion; this vinyl rip sounds similar to my copy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o01fUwIX3PA .

My home DJing/listening equipment consists of two Technics SL-1200MK5s with quality stylii, an analogue Ecler NUO 4.0 mixer, an analogue NAD amplifier and two pairs of decent speakers; I've been a vinyl-only DJ for over 20 years, and I think I'm at least somewhat qualified and able to judge how vinyl sounds.

I opened a dialogue with The Vinyl Factory on this issue, claiming that I had received a defective copy. After some back-and-forth email exchange TVF sent me two extra copies of the vinyl, described as "picked randonly from the small quantity of extra copies" they still had. The subsequent extra copies I received sounded exactly like the original first one: unplayable/unlistenable.

I suggested to TVF I make a lossless recording of my original vinyl for comparison; they declined. I asked for quality verification from the mastering studio and the pressing plant; they declined. TVF adamantly claimed that the vinyl sounds as good as it should, there are no problems with the mastering or the pressing and that the final product had been approved by both Massive Attack and Burial. (I have the email exchange stored for reference/evidence.)

Someone commented below that Burial's sound has deliberate noise and distortion; I agree, those two things make Burial's sound unique and easily recognizable, but at the same time I think that both Massive Attack's and Burial's production values are so ridiculously high that the abysmal quality of the vinyl sound is a travesty neither of the artists would underwrite.

I have now listened to the lossles WAVs of the tracks side-by-side with all three copies of the vinyl I have, and there is a huge disparity between the sound quality of the digital and vinyl versions. The digital files sound crisp, clear and beautiful; the vinyls distorted/saturated, noisy and lacking higher frequencies. It doesn't take an audio professional/expert to make this judgement upon hearing the difference.

Based on this evidence, in my personal and not-so-humble opinion, it is possible that all the vinyl copies of this release are defective as described. Of course three copies are not a statistically large enough sample, but if the ones I have are indeed a random selection from the complete batch, there is a good probability that the whole pressing is of the same quality.

(Full disclosure: I was fully reimbursed for the record and p&p, and got to keep all three copies TVF sent me.)

If all the copies are like mine, the prices people are asking and paying for the vinyl are absolutely ridiculous, and I belive some buyers have been gravely disappointed after purchasing a possibly defective copy. If you're looking to buy a copy of this record on vinyl, please take into account that you may receive a record that is a limited edition and relatively rare, but of questionable value due to bad sound quality. I wholeheartedly suggest purchasing the official digital version instead - the price is a pittance and the product is of high quality.

Cheers, Nuutti.

P.S. I have purchased vinyls from The Vinyl Factory after this incident, and the copies I have received are quality pressings, sound great and I'm happy to have them. My intent is not to disparage The Vinyl Factory, I'm sure they do their best to produce and offer the highest quality products possible, but from my point of view, the story of this release is unfortunate.