geof3:
Thanks, maybe mine is a bad apple. I will look into it.
orpheus10:
It is a hit or miss I agree and most of the albums I obtain are decent to great, i.e. my recently purchaesd Valarie Joyce New York Blue is one of the finest sounding albums/recordings I have heard. It is far beyond the 96khz digital which I’ve owned for more than a decade.
I have purchased CD’s that were equally disappointing, especially painful when I spring for an XRCD and it turns out to be a dud. This is not a subject exclusively germane to analog :) This has even happened with a $600 15ips tape “Here’s to Ben”, not so good, but “Jacintha is Her Name” was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Tape is a whole other level of risk. Jacintha is Her Name was one of the best sounding recordings I had ever heard but I noticed that for some reason some of the Groove Note tapes will fade after about 6 months. None of my other tapes displayed this trait and I am very meticulous about where and how my tapes are stored (and I check for magnetic fields). Tried to contact Groove Note via Elusive Disc but they would not respond to Elusive Disc who did follow-up with me. I suspect they are recording on poor tape stock.
I am calmer now LOL. I was very disappointed yesterday after waiting months for this set. Ah, the value of a good nights sleep.