Tim Buckley Dream Letter 1990 1st Press UK Demon Records DFIEND 200 2LP

Description: Tim Buckley. Dream Letter (Live In London 1968). 1990 Double LP Vinyl Release. This First Vinyl Release Only In UK On The Demon Label (first US vinyl is 2011 Manifesto). Mastered From Original Analog Tapes In January 1990. Item Details Manufactured in: United Kingdom Recorded: October 7, 1968 At Queen Elisabeth Hall, London, UK Mastered By: Bill Inglot And Ken Perry At A&M Mastering Studios, Hollywood, CA Lacquer Cut By: Tim Young At CBS Studios. London Pressing By: Audio Services, Ltd. London, UK Original Issue: 1990 This Issue: 1990 (based on Jacket. labels, and matrix codes) Label: Demon Records, DFIEND 200 Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers: Side 1: (etch:) DFIEND-200-A1 ✲ MAX · Side 2: (etch:) DFIEND-200-B1 ✲ MAX · Side 3: (etch:) DFIEND-200-C1 ✲ MAX · Side 4: (etch:) DFIEND-200-D1 ✲ MAX · Was bought New by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection (you have absolutely known provenance). Has had just a few plays only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit brand) to prevent warpage. All vinyl sides are cleaned on a VPI HW-16.5 record cleaner. I use the Audio Intelligent "One-Step" formula that requires no rinsing and leaves no residue. It is alcohol free and uses enzyme agents to remove pressing mold-release compounds, fungi & bacteria, finger oils, and many other environmental contaminants. Made with laboratory-grade pure water(50X purer than distilled water). I neutralize residual static charge from both vinyl and new inner sleeve with a Milty Zerostat. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl. Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with NOS Soviet Voskhod matched tubes (see last photo). Track list For track listings, please see my attached record label photographs. I never post "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket in my listings. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to show the true vinyl condition/grade from any photograph. After cleaning I use very bright light and close visual inspection on each side to assign "visual-only" grades. However, I always perform play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment to assign play grades. Grading Details Note: Grading LPs by text characters is subjective and at best are only a guide as no two used records are of exactly the same quality. I do not use "EX" grades as my VG+ is right below "NM-." I never sell a "G" play grade and very rarely ever sell a "VG" play grade. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are separately graded and described in detail for your complete assessment. Outer Jacket Inspection/grading: VG+/VG++ The biggest artifact on the jacket front is a 5" long crease in the upper left corner going from Tim's left ear up to the middle top of his head. It does not break color. A small scuff at the left corner does breaks color. There is just the start of ring dulling of the finish gloss at the top and bottom edges. One small (3/8") crease is on the top edge above the "L". There is a price sticker removal mark there too. There are 3 short creases along the spine in the lower left corner. One small white abrasion at the bottom middle and some rub wear along the bottom edge. Given that the overall look of the front is very shiny and attractive I think it is much closer to VG+ than VG. The rear face is nearly NM. The only wear marks are a sticker removal at upper left corner, three 1/2" light creases along the bottom edge, one light non-continuous corner crease at lower right and only two 1/4" spine creases. Somewhere between VG++ and NM- so I'll just say VG++. Really looks great in person. Vinyl Visual Inspection/Grading: NM/NM/NM-/NM S1 looked near perfect. S2 had only one 1/8" surface hazy rub mark that possibly resulted from a light slide against the polished TT post. Also could be a transferred plating blemish on the metal stamper. Regardless, I will check this area during play test. T3 had what looked like multiple curved reflective hairlines in an oval "bundle" within the 2nd half of T3. This area will need to be be checked 100% during play test. S4 only had some very small and hard to see "mottling spots" in a very small sector close to the rim. Was otherwise perfect. Play Testing/Grading: NM/NM-VG+/NM Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection (continuous written notes were taken). I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. When the track width was noticeably greater I took more play samples to get good coverage. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 96k/24-bit WAV files. This allowed me to go back and re-check some of my notes on digital playback in ProTools. Here is rundown of each side from those notes. Side 1 Play This side was noticeably tight on the spindle. It was caused by a slightly off-center label press. The side also laid very flat on my platter. T1 is just a spoken intro that did have some of the tiny lead-in groove crackle heard within that intro. T2 showed me how good the mastering and mixed was from the original tape to vinyl. Instruments had solidity and harmonic bloom. The dynamic range was wide for 1968 standards. No vinyl noise on any sample. None of the transition grooves on the album are silent. They contain applause, spoken intros and pre-tuning. T3 had no vinyl noise. T4 only had a couple of tiny ticks near the end. T5 is my favorite of the whole album and in my top list of his compositions. A long track, it only had a couple of the tiniest near-inaudible ticks at its end. T6 had a very soft musical fade down at its end letting a few very tiny ticks become heard. I felt that the whole side sounded exactly the same as a first play out of the jacket so I rate it NM Side 2 Play T1 is just Tim and his guitar performed and recorded at very hushed levels. This allowed me to occasionally hear some non-distracting very tiny HF and LF ticks every once in a while. This seemed to me pretty much at normal vinyl pressing limits for signal to noise thresholds at these cutting levels. T2 and T3 blend together within a single long band of grooves. The play test check did not pick up any noise related to the rub mark noted in visuals. With much higher cutting levels than T1, these tracks were free of vinyl noise except for one tick picked up near the very end. I added a minus to the overall NM because of the occasional come-and-go HF crackle in the very low cutting levels of T1 even though I think it is mostly because of vinyl pressing limitations. Side 3 Play T1 & T2 are within a single band. I only picked up a few tiny ticks as the levels ramped up in the first few seconds of T1. T2 has a long quietly spoken intro that did have some tiny HF crackle coming in and out but that went away once the music of T3 ramped up. Not a hot cut, but only a very few random single HF micro ticks once in a while until the T3 finish. T3 has a long spoken intro but the music is one of the best on the album. The 2nd half required 100% play per my visual check. During the very loud guitar solos I thought I heard some tiny repeating HF ticks that were not continuous but came and went. T4 had zero vinyl noise on all play samples. I took another look under bright light to the area of T3 that correlated to the noise I heard during my 100% play test in that section. I concluded that the hairlines did create the off and on tiny repeating HF ticks in that portion of grooves. So even though the rest of the side played NM I felt the need to both reduce the side grade to VG+ and reduce my pre-planned start bid for the album. Side 4 Play On T1 I heard some tiny HF vinyl pressing crackle for the beginning vibraphone solo. That intermittent noise reduced as Tim's hushed vocal came in. T1 had no vinyl noise when the cutting volume was normal for the about the 2nd half of the track. T2 is a merge of two different songs that played perfectly with no vinyl noise. T3 also played perfectly making the overall side grade NM. The whole album had very high performance in audio quality because of the fine job of mixing and mastering from the original session tapes. The vinyl pressing did create limitations at the lowest cutting levels and there could have been some kind of handling contact on S3T3 that created the intermittent repeating HF low level ticks. I did make a grade reduction for that side and lowered my planned starting bid. While not absolutely perfect on the whole there is a lot of good music that can be fully enjoyed on this album. I hope some potential buyer gives it a consideration. If only the pressing could have been a Direct Metal Master it would have been truly perfect in every way. Packaging Records are placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting. Original inner sleeves (if still present) are included separately. All records will be placed into new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeves. Any original sleeves may be holding onto some dust and if paper lined could even be abrasive. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean and well protected during shipping and ultimately during buyer usage. Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve. Sent in high quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners and all corners double-taped. Shipping Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $4.75 per single album sale. eBay keeps raising the rates for Media Mail but I still don't pass all of that or any costs for shipping materials on to the buyer. I do try to reduce additional costs for my customers. A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day ($4.75 plus $0.50 for each additional LP). If you do buy more than one LP on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined with the discount applied to your total.eBay does give you the option to "Request an invoice from the buyer," but this option is not available on the eBay mobile app. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.

Price: 12 USD

Location: El Dorado Hills, California

End Time: 2024-12-07T17:45:35.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.75 USD