Sold Date: January 12, 2024
Start Date: January 2, 2024
Final Price: £246.00 (GBP)
Bid Count: 19
Seller Feedback: 5487
Buyer Feedback: 0

A very rare to find first edition with the HMV etched non playable side four. Mahler’s 9th Symphony conducted by John Barbirolli. A three sided record set, ASD 596 and 597. I’ve taken a couple of hours to carefully play test and describe this set for you. Please read and see photos.

The sleeves are very pleasing generally, clean and straight and bright. The flip backs are clean and white. To be super critical there’s very minor creasing near spine edges, a very small area of delamination near the spine of record 2. There’s very slight evidence of stickers to fronts, only seen in the right light, and two green ‘E’ stickers to rears which look original so I’ve left them.

The labels are very clean generally with very little sign of play / spindle marks.

Visually the surfaces are glossy, clean and bright. On very close inspection there are some very slight and light scuffs not heard in playback. On incredibly close inspection you’ll find that tiny scratch described below near the start of side 1.

Side 1. Quiet intro, there’s minor static crackle and the odd pop. One minute in, there’s a barely visible 2mm scratch that does, frustratingly, produce an audible tick heard in this quieter passage on 13 rotations. As the music builds there’s an occasional slight pop and as the music subsides in quieter passages some static crackle and the very occasional pop can be heard. This is most noticeable in the very quiet outro, at the end of the side around 25 minutes. No skips or jumps at all the entire side.

Side 2. Minor static crackle at the start and one audible pop, this side develops promptly into brighter passages where the playback is perfect. Again just light crackle and the very occasional pop in the quieter grooves. Probably only 6 pops the entire side and they’re not severe. At 14:45 the runout into the second section is smooth and pretty quiet generally, very minor crackle. This side is generally punchier so there are less quiet sections to hear any crackle. No skips or jumps the entire side.

Side 3. Similar to side 2. Minor static crackle and the occasional pop heard in the intro and quieter sections, such as 12 to 13 minutes in. Perfect playback in punchier sections. It’s quiet and a little crackly at 19m 45s with one pop. Very quiet outro (22min) with noticeable crackle. No skips or jumps the entire side.

Side 4 is clean, and beautifully etched with the HMV logos as seen.

I get the feeling professional cleaning could remove a lot of the superficial crackle and pop heard.

I package all valuable vinyl very robustly, with beyond the usual care taken, extra thick stiffeners etc…