With current exchange rate it is more like 480$ plus the shipping makes it over 500$. If your credit card company is giving you that exchange rate please let me know!
The Electric Recording Company Does The White Stripes' White Blood Cells !
No need to check your calendar it's not April 1st and this is for real: ERC just announced it would be releasing The White Stripes' White Blood Cells, the group's 2001 final release on the Sympathy For the Record Industry label cut from the original analog master tape and packaged in the usual meticulous ERC way.
The Jack White produced record will be limited to 333 copies. It will be interesting to see if it immediately sells out the way the classic and jazz titles always do. Love's Forever Changes did so why not White Blood Cells? Price is £350 or approximately $400.
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COMMENTS
This is awesome news
Submitted by bkinthebk on Sat, 2021-10-30 13:29
For those who want the black or peppermint colored versions, they are now in print and in stock. For those that want the special ERC treatment and are willing to pay the extra dough — fantastic. So many audiophiles keep wishing ERC and other top notch companies do the Beatles, or (even better), more modern music, esp. rock music. Lots of great stuff from the 90s and 00s put down on tape that can be mined. Hope this is the start of something.
Total ripoff...
Submitted by azmoon on Sat, 2021-10-30 13:59
..gee, cut from the original tape and packaged well. Just like many other LPs that cost $40-60. Wake up people.
Have You Ever Compared?
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Sat, 2021-10-30 16:04
A $50 cut from tape LP mastered on modern solid state gear and packaged in Stoughton Tip on Jacket with a $400+ cut from tape LP mastered on ERC's restored Lyric/Ortofon vintage tube-based cutting system packaged in a jacket featuring authentic 50s era "hot type" set back jacket lettering? Until you do, you really ought to lay off of the "Total ripoff" tripe because back in the real world of free streaming BOTH OF THOSE ARE "RIP OFF"s. In our world these are two outstanding products aimed at different audiences. Were you lucky enough to hear the ERC version fo "Quiet Kenny" for example, you'd not claim it a "rip-off" compared to any other version.
Absurd!
Submitted by DigMyGroove on Sat, 2021-10-30 14:38
This album is no sonic wonder, I’m utterly baffled at such an edition being pressed. But of course it will sell out due to the collectible factor and the money to be made flipping them. I can think of many other things I could do with the money this pressing will cost.
Or Perhaps It Is
Submitted by AnalogJ on Sat, 2021-10-30 17:39
Is it possible that original didn't capture the full range that is on the tapes?
The new 2021 reissue is AAA
Submitted by MrRom92 on Sun, 2021-10-31 10:50
The new 2021 reissue is AAA as well, cut on a scully lathe with (iirc) a westrex cutterhead, both of a similar vintage to the ortofon system ERC employs. One is tube, one is solid state. I think each equally have as good a chance of faithfully transcribing the master tape as the other one does.
I think ERC does awesome work for people who want a very faithful recreation of a vintage product, but there were a lot of advancements in the world of analog audio since the 1960’s and personally if I wanted a “high end” or audiophile approach (even if given to a decidedly non-“audiophile grade” recording, whatever that means!) I would probably go the route of higher fidelity gear than what is currently being used in either mastering room responsible for these 2 current AAA reissues. Give me the speed and accuracy of an SX-74. Give me the speed stability and black backgrounds of a VMS 80/82 motor. Give me the better s/n and lower distortion of the late VMS cutting computer, or a Zuma. Better yet, give me all that and spread it over 4 sides at 45! That’s a decidedly more audiophile grade approach, or at least a different “flavor” of audiophile approach than taken here. But that’s the one that would convince me, personally, to happily pay the upcharge.
A bit over a decade ago, Jack White went on a lengthy diatribe about many aspects of audiophilia, and stated that it would be impossible (or at the very least take a “scientist”) for anyone to tell the difference between a record mastered in one studio over another. I would strongly disagree with that, not to mention many other things that were brought up. But I can only assume Jack White has since either had a serious change of heart, or saw a significant business opportunity.
ERC's
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Sun, 2021-10-31 13:20
System has been fully restore and the results are superb. You may not like tubes and think solid state is a "step up" but that's you. Have you actually heard one of their records? or are you like the people who see pictures of my room and from that determine with great authority that the sound must be terrible? I have compared for people at audio shows, ERC and Kevin Gray cuts of the same tape and opinions vary as expected but final declarations are really unnecessary.
Though I don’t own any of
Submitted by MrRom92 on Mon, 2021-11-01 13:54
Though I don’t own any of their records (wish I did!) I have heard some, and there is no doubt they sound great. I am not knocking their work by ANY means. But it is a different “flavor” of hi-fi than I personally prefer most of the time. It’s a little like the difference between a fully restored Garrard 301 and a Technics SP-10MkIII. Both undeniably very nice audiophile grade tables. But very different in their approach and philosophy, and neither maybe someone’s particular idea of “best”. Isn’t it nice we have options?
I suffered a several-hour long internet outage this morning (thanks, Optimum!) so I had plenty of idle time available to crack the seal on Wes Garland’s latest AAA cut of the album and give it a spin. It sounded fantastic and I was not left wanting for more. It kicks ass in the exact way it needs to. I might feel differently had I been comparing a classical recording cut on both systems, but really, I would not say the “standard” version of the album is any slouch. They didn’t cheap out on the packaging either. It may not stand up to ERC’s best, they are in a class of their own when it comes to printing and typesetting, but it’s pretty close to the top of the food chain as far as any mass produced jackets go. A very nice Stoughton tip-on, reminiscent of the jackets that the major labels were too stingy to continue printing as standard by the early 60’s. It’s a strong, thoughtfully done reissue worthy of consideration despite ERC taking their own crack at the record. $45 and worth every cent.
Tip-on jackets
Submitted by AZ on Sat, 2021-11-13 10:22
Tip-on jackets continued well into the 70's as "standard" in the US... But they generally weren't as thick as the ones from the 50's and the 60's.
Would be best to check against the CD
Submitted by Eskisi on Sun, 2021-10-31 11:31
Or a streaming service…
Check out Discogs.
Submitted by Anton D on Mon, 2021-11-01 08:32
There are some titles that might make someone some money, but the current releases don't venture up too high against the original price.
It's great that you can think of other things to do with the money! Well done!
Putting Jack White into the equation...it seems he doesn't need the money, so why put in the effort except for comparing sound and having fun?
No audiophile ,another thing...
Submitted by ilbiffo on Mon, 2021-11-01 09:21
ERC does not make audiophile reissues,anyone who has listened to at least one knows.
The ERC records have no greater fidelity than other reissues,but are different from the other reissues.The music is natural and magic.
Magic is this.I think due to the vintage tube cutting chain,but the result is amazing.
To feel and then to judge.Are they worth the price?
I don't know,but does an emotion have a price?
IMHO
I wouldn't insist on them being "non-audiophile"...
Submitted by AZ on Mon, 2021-11-15 11:23
They have a very nice sounding playback and cutting system. They generally use no EQ or other processing, according to the press releases. The results are no less audiophile than you can get with Bernie Grundman, Kevin Gray or Ryan K. Smith (just to name a few audiophile reissue folks), IMHO. One could even argue that ERC extracts more from the tapes... That's not impossible with a vintage all-tube system like the one they use.
just wait a little longer...
Submitted by PeterPani on Tue, 2021-11-02 03:12
one day, perhaps Jack White will release it on reeltoreel tape, too
Crazy!
Submitted by PeterPani on Wed, 2021-11-03 00:37
look at the prices of ERC on the 2nd hand market!!
https://www.discogs.com/de/sell/list?sort=price%2Cdesc&limit=25&label_id...
Asking prices don’t equal sold prices
Submitted by Lxgreen on Wed, 2021-11-10 15:32
I have purchased two ERC albums and have enjoyed both. In my system, however, I am amazed how good the new Blue Note classic and tone poet series sound. I try to track the ERC resale prices on eBay and they routinely do not sell anywhere near the asking prices. In fact some sell below original cost. So buy these if you want to enjoy a limited run well made album but don’t count on making money if you try to flip.
White Blood Cells
Submitted by Paul W on Thu, 2021-11-11 09:43
I logged into the ERC website before 5:00 PM GMT (noon for me, being in the central time zone).
By the time their website refreshed (it was 5:01 PM GMT, 12:01 PM my time), the page displayed and said it was sold out. I was literally on their website one minute after the record was posted for sale and had no chance to purchase it.
I just hope that ERC doesn't continue this way of selling records. In hind-sight, I've purchased several of their pressings (Love, Forever Changes stereo pressing among them), but it appears I never had a chance at this one. Between the reduced number for sale on their website (a number of them were available at Third Man record outlets (stores??), demand far outstripped supply.
Check out the TMR shops
Submitted by Happy Will on Tue, 2022-03-29 03:43
It seems as though they are actually being sold via three TMR shops as of last weekend (26/27 March).
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