Angels & Airwaves – I-Empire

I have to concur with others: significant surface noise on this, just like We Don’t Need to Whisper. QC must not exist within UMe these days, I get so many UMe releases with surface noise now

This is a holy grail for me with every issue previously on my wantlist until this release. So this maybe a slightly bias review.
Seemingly all the money went into the audio mastering and was skipped on the pressing. The vinyl are quite thin and unfortunately because of IVCs mailer do not well in transit. Side B is the worse with a massive warp to it luckily the RB330 Tonearm handles it well. The surface noise is up there with picture discs and the style choice is poor from this. Im going to try give them a wet clean to reduce this. The audio though is fantastic and having heard this 200 odd times this is the best version ive heard of it with the drums slamming the headphones.

Absolutely love this album, can't even really understand why I love it so much. This pressing is incredible, packaging is amazing, vinyl looks great, and I have no issues at all with the sound. Need to turn it up a little bit, but that is all I experienced. And the biggest peeve of mine in past pressings, they have "Jumping Rooftops" at the start of side 4, where it belongs. Listened three times and not a pop, this shit is the bomb

Killer sound, Levi crushed it as usual! Soundstage is wide open, drums are forward and booming. Most impressive is how the color is spot on with the mockup. There’s some light surface noise on quiet parts but otherwise not noticeable

#1744 checking in, sounds pretty good. similar to what chadgeborkoff said there some cracks on side B

How does this pressing compare to any of the SRC pressings? Need to know which copy to pick up.

Sounds phenomenal! Levi has worked his magic once again. The dynamics and sound-stage are on par with the BSM One-Step reissues! everything feels alive and you can hear every little detail in this pressing. The 45rpm cut is fantastic as well and really helps everything come together.

The gatefold jacket has a nice matte finish to it and a pretty thick spine. I wish the pockets were a bit wider so I could fit my rice paper sleeves in a little better but It's not too bad.

My main issue with this record is where it was pressed, Precision Record Pressing has once has again pressed a record with pops and clicks throughout, especially on "Star Of Bethlehem" on my copy. I have vacuum cleaned it with some high quality solutions and it still has those clicks. There's all sorts of micro-scratches throughout which I've noticed on most of their pressings recently.

I just wish it was pressed at R.T.I like the previous IVC release from Elastica.That would be the only thing that would make this record absolutely perfect.
But still, this is definitely worth it for the master by Levi and the packaging itself is very nice.

:Edit:
Runouts don't have the standard PRP runout string but it still does have a made in canada sticker on the back and a GZ media string so It's still most likely PRP.

#0919 here sounds really good, surprisingly. A few cracks and pops on side B but nothing to complain about.

#1251. my copy of this sounds great. punchier and more dynamic than the SRC copy i have. IVC didn't miss with this one. 5/5

the addition of the acoustic "everything's magic" track was a choice though. holy hot crap is it rough. 😮‍💨

Not gonna lie. The surface noise is quite abysmal. Great packaging though.