Leeway Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 As far as BN vinyl goes, I'm pretty happy with any good, clean vinyl that I can get. Of course, I love deep grooves, or early New York pressings. But even the Liberty and many UA-era vinyl re/issues sound pretty good to my ears. However, I've steered clear of Manhattan-Capitol era vinyl (mostly early-to-mid 80s I believe). I believe they have a generally bad reputation for sound quality. Questions: Is this a well-founded perception? And, if so, what is it exactly about the Manhattan-Capitol vinyl that makes it inferior-- the vinyl? the mastering? And, is this the worst of the BN vinyl? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 The early BN/Manhattan discs were imported from Europe. Bad mastering and bad pressings. Later they changed to NY masterings and pressings from Wakefield Mfg. (my old pressing plant in Phoenix). The NY/Wakefield discs are much better, but not perfect. When I spoke to the folks at Wakefield about this, they complained about not being able to control all aspects of manufacturing. Ah, old vinyl stories of the 60s, '70s and '80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted December 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 Thanks Chuck. Interesting history there. Do you recall about when the switch was made to NY masters and Wakefield pressings? Or what were some of the LPs pressed at your plant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 I bow my French head in shame to confirm that most of the bad BN-Manhattan pressings originated from the Pathe-Marconi pressing plant in Chatou, west of Paris. The plant there used the dreaded DMM mastering system. At the time BN made a lot of false claims about the quality of those pressings. All of the albums should have been dumped into the Seine river that flows near the damn plant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 (edited) DMM mostly SUX I have some dmm's out of necessity [i.e. ZT's Blues]. Add an extra $10 and buy Liberty. Edited December 20, 2003 by Dmitry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJ Posted December 30, 2003 Report Share Posted December 30, 2003 I got a DMM of Leo Parker's ROLLIN' WITH LEO and it don't sound that bad to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted December 30, 2003 Report Share Posted December 30, 2003 I got a DMM of Leo Parker's ROLLIN' WITH LEO and it don't sound that bad to me. ROLLIN' WITH LEO is one of the discs mastered in NY and pressed in Phoenix, as mentioned above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzhound Posted December 30, 2003 Report Share Posted December 30, 2003 I dig my Maiden Voyage though it is different from the U.S. pressings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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