The Crystal Cat label have announced a new Rolling Stones set recorded at the Friends Arena, Stockholm from the 31st July, 2022.
As far as we’re aware, there are no other silver disk pressings of this show so far making it unique. It’s also a Crystal Cat exclusive recording meaning that it’s bound to be better than average too!
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When I have a disc that upon first play skipped or has a digital noise, I usually run a CD cleaner disc, this has a small brush that will clean the lens. I also will wash the actual CD with a non abrasive liquid soft soap and pat dry with a micro fiber towel so it will not scratch the surface. I find that 9 times out of ten, this works
Thanks for the tip. I have not tried these methods.
I’ve tried both of those myself many times, and many times they worked for me too, although not quite as successfully as 9 times out of 10.
I have quite a few Springsteen. Young and Stones from this label, but I remember that only the Stones – At the Circus title has small digital clicks on quite a few tracks. due to a production fault. As far as I know there was no second run.
I think you should be more specific about which titles do have the problems you mentioned.
Thanks for your feedback, Oldman24. I have had an unplayable first disc on Springsteen’s 1980 ‘Nassau Night’ and pronounced digital ticking on the first disc of his ‘Main Point Night’ and on Dylan’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ (Rothbury 2009).
I have the 2 Springsteen titles you mention and checked the first disc of both of them. No problem at all.
‘Nassau night’ had 2 pressings, because there were some mastering errors on disc 2 and 3, not on Disc 1.
I think you had either bad luck or the discs were somehow damaged before you received them, but you figured that out your self, I suppose.
Yes bad luck I guess. But fortunately I managed to get a replacement disc 1 for ‘Nassau Night’ from my regular seller. Good to hear you have had a good ride with CC, Oldman24. Their Springsteen titles are definitive – when they play as they should! (‘Winterland Night’ is a personal favourite of mine.)
Sometimes it depends on the CD player as well as the disc, as a disc that plays fine in one CD player may play defectively, or even not play at all, in another. After having used several multi-purpose disc drives on computers a lot for more than the last 25 years, it’s been my experience that they will reveal defects a lot more often than standalone types of CD players, and I remember at least one person reaffirming this on a forum or msg. board many years ago.
Yes good point. If I encounter a disc problem I always try it in at least one other player as a precaution. I remember buying the Bill Levenson-produced Layla 3 cd official compilation back in the 90s and finding a heavy digital ticking on one track. I confirmed this in another player, but when I took it back to the shop it played fine in theirs! I still have that cd and it still has digital clicks on every player I have put it in since!😅 I think the technical expression for this is ‘bloody annoying!’
I have eight other CC titles which play fine, but still that is about a 1 in 4 fault rate, which ain’t great. I mean, if you are paying from $50 to $75 for a top shelf cd release, you at least want to know it will play properly.
Although I’ve reported numerous invisible defects on audio-only CD’s in the past, likely due to my heavy usage of multi-purpose disc drives on PC’s over the past 2 & a half decades that seem to reveal any such disc defects more readily than standalone types of CD players, I have only 1 pressed silver original by Crystal Cat, the David Gilmour 2CD “Alte Oper, Frankfurt 2006” ( https://www.discogs.com/release/2743134-David-Gilmour-Alte-Oper-Frankfurt-2006 ), and it played flawlessly fine for me several times without any issues or problems at all.
Thank you for your feedback, Careful Axeman Eugene. I do not have the CC Gilmour title you mention (it looks a fine release!), but find the Sigma label very reliable for Floyd related titles. I have about a dozen of them and all play perfectly.
My bad run with CC must be collector- related karma of some kind …??! 🤔
Jazzbo, I do not have any Crystal Cat releases in my collection but feedback on pressing issues is welcomed as one of the main focuses of this site if to provide collectors information on currenlt releases, CD pressing issues are a major part of it.
Thanks for your feedback, Relayer67. I mentioned the disc faults because I have not had this recurring problem with any other unofficial label. Crystal Cat have done amazing work over the years – especially for Springsteen collectors – I just wish they would tighten up their quality control measures.
In response to this question – I don’t believe that I’ve ever had a problem with a CC release. I’ve listened intently but don’t think I’ve ever caught a blemish on my disks – Some other labels have been very obvious indeed!
Interested to hear other peoples feedback on this.
Interesting to read your experience, Stuart. Maybe I have been unlucky? I have had three or four titles from CC with significant faults. Funnily enough, I have found that more economical labels such as ‘no label’ never have these problems at all.
I am just curious to hear from other collectors on their experience with this premium label. In my experience, Crystal Cat generally release top quality tapes and have the most lavish and generous packaging (thick glossy booklets, poster inserts, etc. ) of any bootleg label. Indeed, in this regard, their releases often leave official releases in the dust.
However, I have found in the past that their quality management for the actual discs can be spotty. I have received discs that are completely unplayable past a certain point due to manufacturing error, or which are plagued by digital ticking in certain parts. This has put me off purchasing their cds as I find it a bit of a gamble. And it can be a big hassle to organise replacement discs from an online seller. Though to be fair, the last release of theirs I bought – a fine Springsteen outtake/live song compilation called ‘Odds and Sods’ – did not have these issues.