For whatever reason, these three LPs were in a special bin marked "Sealed Records: $10." Lucky day! $30 is exactly how much I budgeted for records this week.

Do you only notice it when you play that record or on other records too? That would tell you off the bat if it's from the source. I've only ever listened to BS once on vinyl and I don't remember liking the pressing. But another thing to consider is that even brand new vinyl is dirty. It's a manufacturing thing. You should give the record at least a quick brushing when it hits the table.

As for tracking force the arm should hover with the lift down. That is your "zero". From there you add the designated amount of weight intended for your cart... i.e. something around 1.5g-2g. Too little and the bass will be thin, too much and you're just wearing out your record.

Let us know how it goes.

is the ITW vinyl available?

Yep. I saw it in a store a few days ago.

It's a reissue.

Pyramid Electric Co. may actual kill me.

Right.

I have it and it's totally worth buying.

Both of the solo records come with CDs, too, which is a nice bonus (if I remember correctly, they were never actually released on cd separately from the LPs)

I can confirm this, having owned it for over a year now myself.

Excellent. It will save me the work of downloading your mp3 code offers and burning them to car-ready CDs myself.

Anybody ever buy something new on vinyl that just sounds awful? I bought Songs For A Blue Guitar by Red House Painters a while back because I really love the album. The trouble is, whenever I put it on the popping and cracking ruin it, especially so when you take into account it is very understated acoustic music.

Frustrating.

More often than it should. I try to to stick to stuff mastered separately for vinyl or with bands that have a history of pretty good sounding stuff in general. Usually if I can't find reviews and start getting risky it bites me in the ass.

This brings up a question I've had on my mind for a while now; Aside from actually listening, is there a way to discern whether or not a newer release of a record was mastered for vinyl?

I'm not a serious enough collector to care much about original pressings vs reissues. Unless, of course, it's a lesser quality reissue.

How do you do the value thing on discogs?

Not really, other than looking for what people are saying about it on forums and, like Oh, Jimmy said above, sticking with bands and labels that have a reputation for putting out good sounding stuff.

Go to "My Collection" and then click on the little icon that looks like a bar graph.

It'll be listed in the credits sometimes, but not sure if you can find that info without buying for alotta stuff. And they do it different for what seems like everything.

Got some albums that have "Vinyl Mastering" listed on all formats
Some just have who mastered it on the particular format.

No names popping into my head right now, but once you start checking into this stuff there are a few names that pop up quite a bit with vinyl mastering.