The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore

Bought a new and factory sealed copy, Disc 1 was full of scratches on both sides and there is also a weird bump on side a, looks like melted metal drop solidified there. 1-2 mm in height and 3-4 mm in diameter. Disc 2 looks a lot better but not like a new one, few marks from the lousy inner sleeves. Not what you expecting from 50€ new album. Not good!

Well this my thrid copy now while my last 2 copies had scratches deep grooved paper chafing.
This copy looks clean disc one had 3 x5 minutes passes in my ultrasonic to 8/10
Disc two I'm at 2×8 minute passes still continuous surface noise but finally starting to quieten down a fair bit but not fixed on side D second last song.
Starting to think was this song recorded like this 🤣
Only one song so I'm going for another few ultrasonic cleans see if I gain clarity. If not atleast the rest of the tracks are mint now after ultrasonic cleaning the hell out of both 🤣

When listening to this mono "mix", I hear nothing more than a stereo mix with the 'mono' button pressed on the receiver... turns out that's what it is, which is disappointing... that is to say, a proper mono 'mix' of this album would be very interesting to hear, as mixing in mono (on a 2-speaker system) brings about a whole different dimension to the music that is more akin to what you hear live from a band, vs. what you hear when they have millions of dollars of studio time at their disposal to tweak a stereo mix that is only appreciated when you're head is placed in a perfect position between the speakers... a mono mix is enjoyed everywhere in the room... here is the article that talks about the mono 'mix' (really a collapsed stereo mix) https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/billy-corgan-smashing-pumpkins-adore-reissue/

When listening to this mono "mix", I hear nothing more than a stereo mix with the 'mono' button pressed on the receiver... turns out that's what it is, which is disappointing... that is to say, a proper mono 'mix' of this album would be very interesting to hear, as mixing in mono (on a 2-speaker system) brings about a whole different dimension to the music that is more akin to what you hear live from a band, vs. what you hear when they have millions of dollars of studio time at their disposal to tweak a stereo mix that is only appreciated when you're head is placed in a perfect position between the speakers... a mono mix is enjoyed everywhere in the room... here is the article that talks about the mono 'mix' (really a collapsed stereo mix) https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/billy-corgan-smashing-pumpkins-adore-reissue/

Poor quality control. Unlike the rest of the band's reissues, except Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, which come on anti-static innersleeves, this one comes with paper innersleeves that left a lot of scratches on disc 1... In light, it looks like a second-hand disc... It has a pressing defect on track nº1, the two copies I bought from Gish also came with a pressing defect on track nº1...

My copy has an unreal amount of surface noise for a new record, especially disc two. It’s like I’m sitting in front of a campfire!

Quiet, flat pressing, beautiful presentation. The sleeve is a little bigger than standard size so it doesn’t fit in the protectors I have. Minor gripe!

Pressing sounds good, packaging is exceptional. There’s a little more surface noise than what I would expect, especially one first disc side A, need to wash and recheck, but might be s production quality issue.

i don't have other copies to compare this version to, but my copy sounds really good. i have a pretty revealing/unforgiving system and this sounds excellent. flat and quiet vinyl, pretty good dynamic range, and very lush detail. don't hesitate to grab this one.

Noisy pressing with groove rubbing in the second track. Needs a lot of deep cleaning to get to a listenable state. Compared to the 2023 pressing this is poor.

Edit. Grabbed another copy and it sounds much better.