I finally opened my SOTT SDE hoping to listen to it, and first thing I noticed was the spine of the Live In Utrecht LPs arrived damaged, and then when examining the contents, 2 of the 3 LPs inside were dished/warped.

I see on Amazon and around that I'm not the only one to experience this, but how widespread is this? I didn't find warping on my other LPs, but many of the black paper sleeves were already split, and one of my picture sleeves had been jammed too far into the gatefold pocket and then creased when it was folded at the factory.

Very disappointing for $255. How widespread is this? If you received the vinyl SDE, have you opened it and verified the vinyl pressings are free from defects?

strongoxman1 said:

I finally opened my SOTT SDE hoping to listen to it, and first thing I noticed was the spine of the Live In Utrecht LPs arrived damaged, and then when examining the contents, 2 of the 3 LPs inside were dished/warped.

I see on Amazon and around that I'm not the only one to experience this, but how widespread is this? I didn't find warping on my other LPs, but many of the black paper sleeves were already split, and one of my picture sleeves had been jammed too far into the gatefold pocket and then creased when it was folded at the factory.

Very disappointing for $255. How widespread is this? If you received the vinyl SDE, have you opened it and verified the vinyl pressings are free from defects?

Mine appears to be in perfect condition (ordered from Amazon UK and shipped to Ireland).

I haven't been able to verify that it's free from audio defects as my amp decided to blow up the day before it arrived and hasn't been replaced yet (been listening to the downloads instead), but I did examine all the vinyl closely and it appears to be fine. No warping, scratches or any other obvious damage. No damage to any of the sleeves or anything else.

Lots of split sleeves seems like an indication of shipping damage to me. An occasional creased sleeve is to be expected during packaging, I guess, but that much damage? I would think that those responsible for packaging these things know how vinyl should be treated. Sounds to me like it may have been thrown around after it left the factory.

jazzz said:

Yeah, warps, scratches and sleeve damage happens with vinyl. Don’t buy vinyl when you cannot deal with that. It’s vintage technology and I never went back to it after happily switching to cd in 1986.

What the hell are you on about? People should have a reasonable expectation that the products they order arrive in good condition. Vintage technology has nothing to do with it. By that logic wine glasses and dinner plates would be considered vintage technology. Should anyone ordering them accept it if they arrive broken and unusable?

For the record, an iPhone is more susceptible to damage in transit that a vinyl boxed set. The reason they don't arrive smashed to bits is because they're packaged properly.

So you think people should just accept damage to their very expensive boxed sets just because some twonk didn't package it properly?

AsylumUtopia said:

jazzz said:

Yeah, warps, scratches and sleeve damage happens with vinyl. Don’t buy vinyl when you cannot deal with that. It’s vintage technology and I never went back to it after happily switching to cd in 1986.

What the hell are you on about? People should have a reasonable expectation that the products they order arrive in good condition. Vintage technology has nothing to do with it. By that logic wine glasses and dinner plates would be considered vintage technology. Should anyone ordering them accept it if they arrive broken and unusable?

For the record, an iPhone is more susceptible to damage in transit that a vinyl boxed set. The reason they don't arrive smashed to bits is because they're packaged properly.

So you think people should just accept damage to their very expensive boxed sets just because some twonk didn't package it properly?

I Second this.... the whole 'vinyl is out of date and you should expect skips and crackles' argument is so, so tired, and - most importantly - untrue. It's nonsense...

vintage technology arguement aside, vinyl can easily warp in heat and humidity changes. do people really think packages get transported in temperature controlled trailers? warping should be expected to happen from time to time.

Update: I ordered a replacement set directly from the Prince Store. Guess what?! Directly from WMG, my replacement set was missing a Record Nine picture sleeve, and in its place was a second Record Eight picture sleeve! One other picture sleeve arrived torn. Record Two (sides 3 and 4 of the remastered SOTT) was also completely warped -- not just a little, there was a big hump when set on the turntable. The DVD was also scratched to shit. Otherwise the new set still arrived in much better physical condition than the original one did.

IF YOU BOUGHT THIS SET ON VINYL FOR PERSONAL USE, PLEASE OPEN IT AND VERIFY ITS CONDITION BEFORE IT'S OUT OF PRINT!

Luckily I checked everything before I returned my original damaged set, as I was able to do a simple swap for Record Two and the picture sleeves, but HOLY FUCK what is going on here?!

Warner needs to get their shit together in a major way; this is completely unacceptable for such an expensive set. Not cool.

[Edited 10/30/20 2:50am]

[Edited 10/30/20 2:56am]

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Min is in perfect condition all over,

except for that back sheet of the box set.

It was wrapped while it moved so it has this serious fold on two sides, but I can live with that.

Even my carton bow was in absolute great shape.

I orderen in France, and had it send to Belgium.

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