Vinyl Asylum

Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

Return to Vinyl Asylum

Earmark...Horrible??

209.240.206.191
Posted on November 8, 2009 at 08:20:11
old junk
 My Earmark copy of The Kinks Something Else is absolutely horrible sounding. Tinny, shrill, almost unlistenable. Beautiful packaging, dead-silent pressing, hust a shame it sounds sooooo bad. Makes me scared to buy any re-releases from anybody. Are they all this bad?
RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 9, 2009 at 04:27:48
user510
Manufacturer

Posts: 455
Location: Seattle, USA
Joined: September 5, 2008
Contributor
  Since: October 23, 2004
 I have one Earmark. A 2001 re-issue of Pentangle's "Basket of Light".
This one is remarkably good sounding. Although I have to admit that I have no other copy of the album for comparison. I do have a few Transatlantic copies of other Pentangle Lps, and Reprise. The Earmark sounds like the equal or better to any of those.

dynamics, presence, full sounding, airy details. It is a good sounding copy for me.

Can't say about any other Earmark Lp. the Pentangle is the only one I have.

-Steve
Speaking of European copies without rights..., posted on November 8, 2009 at 13:54:14
newdreams
Audiophile

Posts: 1250
Location: West Coast
Joined: April 9, 2007
Contributor
  Since: June 5, 2007
 I bought a European CD copy of Deep Purple's Book of Taliesin years ago, only to find it was obviously copied from an LP, and their LP was in far worse shape than mine. (The newer official release is quite good.)

Nearly all of them but not all of them, posted on November 8, 2009 at 11:15:29
olddude55
Audiophile

Posts: 25149
Location: Pittsburgh
Joined: July 12, 2003
 Earmark's reissue of Paranoid sounds pretty good, and I have had zero luck finding a green-label WB copy that wasn't totally destroyed.
___
From the Industrial Hub of the Mid-Mon Valley!
I like the Euro NEMS and Rhino reissues better., posted on November 8, 2009 at 13:43:43
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 Especially the NEMS reissue. It's the closest to the green label original I've found.


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
Earmark, Simply Vinyl, Vinyl Lovers... all terrible, posted on November 8, 2009 at 10:55:41
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 Stick to Classic Records, Analogue Productions, Sundazed, Pure Pleasure, etc if you must have a reissue.

My best advice is search here on a particular title before buying any reissue.


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
I keep hearing this about Simply Vinyl......., posted on November 8, 2009 at 21:13:14
Marc Bratton
Audiophile

Posts: 4578
Joined: June 15, 2000
 Maybe I just lucked out. But the SV copy I have of The Who's 'Tommy' sounds great. So I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead.

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 08:29:54
astralnavigator
Audiophile

Posts: 570
Location: North York, Ontario
Joined: June 28, 2009
 All Earmark vinyl is unauthorized and from the CD, to be avoided.

No, not all reissue labels are bad. But a lot are.

Good ones - Classic Records, Cisco, ORG, Analogue Productions, Sundazed, Music Matters, Speakers Corner, Pure Pleasure, Mobile Fidelity, Testament, Sunbeam, and most of the Warners reissues.

Most suspect reissue labels are 4 Men With Beards, Earmark, Simply Vinyl, and Back To Black reissues and all of the Capitol Back To The Vaults stuff, Get Back,Lilith and many others.

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 10:32:38
Fishfood
Audiophile

Posts: 774
Location: SoCal
Joined: February 25, 2003
 Unauthorized? Can they do that? Could I just take a CD and cut an LP and sell it? I would think that would be illegal? Maybe it's just not authorized by the artist. Labels do that stuff all the time to make extra money and they don't give a crap how it sounds, although nowadays they seem to be taking a little more care with their reissues.

Unauthorized reissues - happens all the time, posted on November 8, 2009 at 10:51:31
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 and seems most come from Europe. Earmark is an Italian label and, yes, they are all horrible and sound as if sourced straight from commercial CD.


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
Whoa! Have you heard all of them?, posted on November 8, 2009 at 19:14:03
cpielock@eaglebrook.org
Audiophile

Posts: 60
Location: western mass
Joined: May 11, 2004
 I have two Earmark Reissues Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. The packaging is outstanding, the vinyl 200 gram and recordings pretty sonically outstanding. Maybe some of the pseudo heavy rock crap,that was poorly recorded and played,to begin with, when repressed for the septillionth time sounds even worse, well reality check boys and girls......

Have you? I've heard enough of them to know most of them are total, posted on November 8, 2009 at 19:39:25
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 garbage. I realize I shouldn't have used the word "all", but I have heard a good 20+ of them spanning several genres including the dozen or so I purchased when they first came out and those of acquaintances.

If you like them, fantastic - they're your ears, assault them as you please.

As for your pompous and ignorant statement regarding "pseudo heavy rock crap" - I won't even take the time to respond such ridiculous drivel...


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
RE: Unauthorized reissues - happens all the time, posted on November 8, 2009 at 12:14:00
Fishfood
Audiophile

Posts: 774
Location: SoCal
Joined: February 25, 2003
 Wow. Besides sound, that's the best reason to not support earmark.

I'm not 100% sure Earmark isn't legit., posted on November 8, 2009 at 13:39:16
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 But the sound quality alone is reason enough to avoid them. I've seen info on both sides saying they are legit / not legit.


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
RE: I'm not 100% sure Earmark isn't legit., posted on November 8, 2009 at 16:20:47
astralnavigator
Audiophile

Posts: 570
Location: North York, Ontario
Joined: June 28, 2009
 I'm sure Tao has seen all the royalty statements going to the artists, he's the authority.

Gotta wonder though, why a legit label like Earmark needs to use CD's to cut a record from, without even attempting to 'dress up' the sound. I guess that's the way the artists and official label want it, though.

Artists...such fickle people...

RE: I'm not 100% sure Earmark isn't legit., posted on November 8, 2009 at 13:53:20
Tao
 Would you mind sharing your sources on Earmark not legally having the licensing to their releases? It's one thing to say their releases aren't good but it's quite another to suggest they are doing something illegal. I'm sure their distributors and the major retailers who are selling their releases would like to know too for their own legal liabilities.

I never said they weren't legit..., posted on November 8, 2009 at 15:00:12
VynylTap
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: USA - SouthEast
Joined: November 16, 2007
 read my post. I've seen posts on both sides. Do a search here and elsewhere - you'll find them.

I have no idea - but the simple fact that I'm pretty damned sure they are sourced from nothing more than commercial CD's doesn't help them.


"I'll play it and tell you what it is later..." - Miles Davis
RE: I never said they weren't legit..., posted on November 8, 2009 at 15:46:40
Tao
 Sorry, when you said "I've seen info on both sides saying they are legit / not legit." I thought that meant you had sources that said they weren't 'legit', beyond just comments on a internet forum.

Thanks for the clarification.

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 10:51:05
Tao
 I don’t know why he would say that. Their releases are authorized as their licensing comes from their principal partner the U.K. Sanctuary Records Group which is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 11:14:37
astralnavigator
Audiophile

Posts: 570
Location: North York, Ontario
Joined: June 28, 2009
 Actually, Earmark is a joint venture with Get Back, another notoriously bad Italian "reissue" label and minorly with Sanctuary.

Virtually ALL their stuff comes from CD, and not from a hi-rez digital file, from a CD, and not very good ones at that.

They aren't remastered, and their pressings are junk.

Glad you like them, keep on keeping on brother, I don't mean to ruin your day.


Just warning the music lovers to avoid at all costs. The CD is better in every case.

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 11:23:50
Tao
 Actually I didn't say I liked their releases. I just said you were wrong in saying their releases were unauthorized. Which you were.

A good day to you!

RE: Earmark...Horrible??, posted on November 8, 2009 at 08:29:43
Fishfood
Audiophile

Posts: 774
Location: SoCal
Joined: February 25, 2003
 No, they are not all bad. I've got a few, and I like them. Burt Jansch reissues sound nice and I have something else but I can't remember right now, but I'd imagine guitar folk is easier to re-press than the Kinks would be.

Page processed in 0.069 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2009, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ] [ Go Green ] [ Take5 ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]