Genesis Selling England By The Pound UK Pressing Charisma CHC 46 Blue Label NM

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21

• Genesis.
• Selling England By The Pound.
• "Blue Label" Charisma UK Pressing.

Item Details
Manufactured in: United Kingdom
Recorded: August, 1973 at Island Studios, London, UK
Original Issue: 1973
This Issue: Believed to be 1982-1984 since "CHC" is the "Charisma Classics Series"
Label: Charisma CHC 46
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:(some stamped text was struck-thru in the runout)
Side 1: (stamp:)CHC 46 CAS 1074 A-2U-1-1
Side 2: (stamp:)CHC 46 CAS 1074 B-1U-1-2-1
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 couple 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) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I neutralize residual static charge with a Zerostat immediately after cleaning. 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 take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
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. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. eBay no longer allows me to enter separate grades for each side of the sleeve or record so you may not see any in the box above but are listed below. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are graded and described in detail separately for your complete assessment.

Outer Jacket Inspection/grading:
NM/NM-
The jacket front only has a little bit of blunting at the lower right corner. Otherwise it is perfect. The rear jacket has one mild 1/4" crease at the lower left corner and mild touches of color fading along the top left corner edge. The "CHC 46" sticker was part of the original UK manufacturing process.

Vinyl visual inspection/grading:
VG++/NM-
Side A does have a LAST protective vinyl wear prevention treatment sticker on it. I usually treated my new vinyl with LAST before the very first play. Side A had some short hairlines localized in the 1st half of T2 that might have passed into the groove depth. I made a note to myself to check that out thoroughly during play test. Otherwise this side looked very smooth and glossy. Side B only had a patch of light grayish mottling in one narrow sector of T1. Looked to be well above groove modulations but made a note to play test that track 100%.

Play Testing:
NM/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
On the lead-in grooves I was able to hear what I would describe as low-frequency "rolling-wave" vinyl pressing noise that followed each revolution. No higher frequency or or other types of vinyl artifacts were present. I'm certain this is an original artifact of the pressing itself that could not have been imparted by handling or playing. I have heard the same thing on many other vinyl pressings. T1 does start out at very low volume making it easier to detect on my headphones and as the track fades-in to full volume it virtually disappears about 20 seconds from the start. The audio quality of the music is very clean and clear. I attribute this to the neutral mixing choices that did not lay on a bunch of heavy EQ. That prevented any single instrument or voice track to overpower any other but become perfectly balanced overall. The result is total clarity with no congestion. I really liked this quality. The music got quiet again in the last 1/4" when I could again detect the "rolling wave" repeating low-f noise but now reduced in volume. It dropped to insignificance after this. My first single low-level tick was heard in the transition grooves into T2. T2 was very quiet at its very beginning and I did detect a few "micro-ticks" but they effectively masked out once levels got high enough. T3 is a long track so I took many samples. The audio was totally clean and I heard only a single low volume tick. T4 was a very short and at low volume level track throughout. It sounded totally clean but for a few "micro-ticks" and the very end.

Side 2 Play
The first track was a long one so again I took many samples. As it began to slowly ramp up in the first 1/8" I heard several random "micro-ticks" in the background that had a "midrange" spectral density. Once the track got up to decent cutting levels the vinyl got totally quiet, as was the trans-groove into T2. T2 was a short track but very clean and quiet. T3 was my favorite of the whole album. I really liked the instrumentation on it. T3 has no silent groove following it. It runs seamlessly into T4 which I also enjoyed very much for its musical content, audio fidelity, and absence of any vinyl noise. The final 1/4" was mixed at low volume but the vinyl stayed very quiet right into the lead-out grooves.

I recall not being very attracted to this album on its first play. The music didn't move me as much as a couple of other Genesis albums I had bought before. I just put it back in my shelf and have never played it again until preparing for this sale. So, I am certain that what I heard during play test is exactly the same as what I did during its first play long ago. I'm assigning NM to both sides for that reason. So by definition then, "Near Mint" to me means a record is nearly indistinguishable from its original new condition including all the original pressing artifacts. It does not mean an "NM" vinyl is free of any noise artifacts. I don't think any record is by the intrinsic nature of that medium. As definitions do vary, please adjust your grading expectations accordingly if applicable. Kind regards, Ice.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Original plain paper inner sleeve is not included separately because it was immediately replaced with a discwasher-brand Japanese non-scratching sleeve when first purchased.
• Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeve even though it had been stored in the V.R.P sleeve since owned. I wanted to keep its newly-cleaned condition pristine during shipping and for ultimate 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 $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 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 invoice.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.