Four albums, and the dearest was the worst

At $30, $50, even $80 a record, you expect it to be better than a used copy from the '70s. Increasingly, it is not. I tested four albums to find out how bad it is.

Four albums from one of the most universally recognised catalogues, different pressing runs, every one cleaned and played on my reference chain. One had manageable minor defects, low-level clicks audible only in dead-silent passages. Two had significant surface noise with the classic outer-to-inner improvement pattern: textbook non-fill.

And the premium anniversary edition, at a premium price, was the worst of all. Pervasive surface noise on the first side, cyclical stamper defects and a noise floor that dominated the quiet passages. For $80.

My finance brain reads this as a pricing failure: the price signalled quality and delivered the opposite. Three of the four came from the same plant, one generally considered upper tier, and each side is pressed from its own stamper. On one album, side four sounded clean while sides one and two were defective. Another copy of the same pressing will not save you.

You are not unlucky. The entire run is compromised.