Prince – The Hits 2

Love Prince and his whole discography but my god this sounds so bad. I don’t my copy of HITS 1 sounding like this. I double checked all my audio wiring thinking maybe something was loose or dirty….nope…just a very bad pressing

Both ''cream'' vinyl are clean, quiet and flat, must have been a lucky pick! Sound quality is overall great, well balanced, not overly compressed or harsh. It's a little bit low on the volume so you have to dial it up to get the sound level where you generally prefer. Glad to have this to round off my Prince music selection.

I received my copy today, the matrix matches this and also has the Czech Republic sticker on the back. But my copy is BLACK vinyl. No issues with playback on my copy.

Words cannot express how bad of a pressing this vinyl is. The mix is distorted and compressed and goes in and out of loudness and quietness. Wet cleaned the record, surface noise everywhere. Although it is a beautiful pressing, visually speaking, this is a record I cannot bear to listen to. I am not wholly disappointed, though, because the packaging has always been a personal favorite of mine. Owning Prince's photographs by Herb Ritts on a 12" record is truly a gift. That being said, horrible image quality! Images are sourced from low quality scans. Very disappointing!

Maybe I will try ordering the standard black from the Prince Estate site. I believe the reviews for the record are better, and black vinyl is already a step in the right direction for better sound quality. Fingers crossed (but I won't hold my breath).

Did a really good deep vacuum clean on these and that still didn't resolve the issues with the surface noise. :( It helped a bit, but it's still really noticeable in between tracks. Gotta agree with the s that suggest getting the 4Ever box set if you can find it for a decent price. My copy of that is completely silent, no noticeable surface noise at all.

Simply avoid. Too much miserable cutted versions so what's the point discussing about the sound quality?

the distortion is so noticeable on the high notes. this is a borderline awful pressing.

Flat, no excessive noise here, highs and lows sound clear and great and no issues with my pressing. Think this is a mixed bag of quality control based on other reviews. Definitely would recommend picking this up but play it quickly to make sure the one you pick up doesn’t have QC issues.

I also winced at seeing where this was pressed, but I guess I lucked out. My copy is flat and quiet and no defects. I've seen some copies posted in our FB group that definitely were a mess. :(

Noticed some static like others mentioned, but also found spritzing some Pledge on it knocked it out, so overall I'm happy with this release. Has a grip of my favorite songs all in one package, plus the cream vinyl is perfect for Prince.

Update: Yeah the noise is a little excessive for a new record, and Delirious skips half way through the song on a loop despite being mint condition to the naked eye, which is just perplexing me. Moreover, the audio fidelity on side 2 seems degraded, while side 1 sounds fine. Mixed bag here.