Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral

So, the new EU and USA/CAN press are pressed at GZ instead of Pallas...
It goes less & less 'Definitive' trough the years... Way to go Trent!

To make this post interesting since i have numerous press & copies, here are some info after comparing the last ones on each side of the pond.

Interestingly enough, the US press isn't the best when it comes to certain things:
1) the cover is lighter,
2) printed-inners are slightly lighter,
3) it does NOT comes with a set of antistat inners,
4) the leaftlet is heavier (way nicer than the EU one),
5) record are slightly heavier but are uneven (195g for the 1st disc, 185 for the 2nd)

Because the EU press comes with antistat inners, records were clean & marks-free right out the bat. It was definitely NOT the case for the US/CAN press. (I'm not even sure the 2017 US Def. Ed. came with antistat inners in the first-place)

The run-outs are almost the same which leads to think there is no difference in the mastering (lacquer still cut at Golden, and no indication there have been a recut since 2017). Both are pressed at GZ instead of Pallas like the earlier ones.

I still have to do an analytic listen since the US copy came with marks but, overall, it shouldn't be different in of EQ & dynamics.

Records were pretty difficult to get out of the the sleeves, dust was basically impossible to get out of the grooves for some reason, and there was a weird clipping noise in the right channel on Ruiner, but other than that it was pretty great sounding and the packaging was amazing.

Edit: after playing it and letting the needle work through the grooves, I was able to get the visible dust out, but there is still a noticeable amount of crackling.

Another edit: after better cleaning, this pressing sounds great.

Seems there are a few versions floating around of this. My runouts nearly match, but has this number on Side A: 1648862 and Side B: 16 8499. Sides C and D seem to match what are in the notes here.

Anyway, pressing sounds great. Few scratches from the liners but nothing to write home to discogs reviews about.

My copy sounds absolutely amazing, no surface noise and very clear and dynamic sound.

No made in Canada sticker, but the runouts match. Totally clean, flat, mastering sounds great.

I think warnings to avoid this pressing are warranted. I was told this pressing run was 5000 units. Obviously not all will be defect free. My copy was a little dusty coming out of the sleeve but is flat and sounds great. The music itself is noisy. An occasional tic or pop is unnoticeable or might actually be part of the music!

Do I think it’s a little lazy that they just used an old master to press these? Yes. But knowing the Pallas pressing is highly regarded and this is a prepress of that lacquer means as long as it’s pressed on decent quality vinyl, it should sound pretty good. Probably not as good as a true Pallas pressing but pretty good. And mine does sound good. Been looking for this album for a few years now. I regret not picking it up when I saw it at Barnes & Noble when the 2020 pressing was out. This one will do

Avoid this “USA & Canada” pressing, rubbish QC (not pressed at Pallas like the US and Europe reissues). Got this by accident, each side had copious amounts of non-fill, stitching, absolutely avoid.

Same barcode as US and Europe versions, but can be identified sealed by “Made in Canada” dot-matrix printing on shrink (back of record on my copy).

Have tried three times with this pressing. All were warped, one had a skip on side one. Maybe the fourth time's the charm...

I might be mad. I had the European 2022 reissue of the definitive edition that I had to return due to noise issues on side D and I swear it was much more dynamic than the 2023 US definitive edition I exchanged it for. The US just sounds very average, no better than the digital version, yet the EU version jumped out of the speakers and I was in awe with it-- ( https://discogs.cinepelis.org/release/24820055-Nine-Inch-Nails-The-Downward-Spiral ). Anyone else with this experience?