Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I REALLY hate having to write this review. I bought this set in October 2017 and have been taking my time to go through the set over time. Unfortunately now I’m recalling how a good friend of mine (who is one of the most successful high-end LA studio techs) warned me against this purchase, saying it wouldn’t be worth the aggravation. Ugh. So here’s my advice: DON’T BUY THEM! First, the positive – these recordings sound truly phenomenal. The mixes are so incredibly gratifying. There is such beautiful depth and clarity. I am listening to them in a professional recording studio setting and they really are something marvelous. Such painstaking work went into the mastering, it’s so very obvious. There are so many 5-star reviews of this product and so I’m confident I just got a bad set. But some of the pressings in my set are trash. Where on earth was the quality control? Most of the discs are warped, which is just plain weird. I wish it ended there. There are many aggravating clicks and pops throughout these pressings. I was absolutely stunned to hear what sounded like scratches and obvious harmonic distortion on the “Abbey Road” LP. I wrote the third party that sold me the set through Amazon asking whether they have had any other similar complaints but they never responded. It gets worse. Yesterday when I played the “Let It Be” disc it actually skipped (on two different turntables) – right out of the box! I can’t see any scratch but I can see the tonearm lurch sideways at that point in the track. I’m a professional musician with many hundreds of LPs. Before playing any LP on my system I clean it with a Record Doctor vacuum system and carefully sweep it with a carbon fiber brush. I have played these LPs on two different B&O turntables, each carefully set to track properly, and the dismal result is the same. I see one consumer warning against buying the Rainbo pressings of this set. I’ll just say that I’ve used Rainbo professionally and found them to do high quality work, at least in CD mastering, so I’d not jump to blame them. Regardless, somewhere in the supply chain, there is a serious problem going on. What a bummer! This is a LOT of money to pay for such disappointment. I doubt I will ever listen to these again. My friend was right, this turned out to be a very expensive source of aggravation. I would be remiss if I didn’t warn other consumers to stay away!