The Doors – Strange Days

These Doors titles are right up there with the best of this series so far. This particular one pretty much matches the AP45rpm but has the bonus of less flipping. Bit of non fill spoils a few brief moments but its a 50/50 with these Rhino HF for non fills and ive had far worse than this. The best one remains The Doors and Waiting for the Sun. Its probably only LA Woman where i can hear the advantages of the AP45 ive long had. That makes these a real success!!

Amazing presentation of my favourite Doors’ album. Glossy gatefold sleeve, with a cool insert. And the dead-silent vinyl, one can tell, is of the highest quality. Perhaps the best sounding LP in my entire collection! I’m really kickin’ myself for not getting their debut as a Rhino High Fidelity record.

Bought a copy of this as a backup for the box set. It has exactly the same scratch on A1 as my box set copy did (and which was replaced). Faulty stamper?

This record is immaculate in both playback and mastering.

I don't have a problem with albums being reissued as 2x45rpm LPs. In some cases, I strongly prefer them, as in the case of the KIND OF BLUE UHQRs. I don't have a huge issue with flipping a record over. There's the benefit of way more cutting space to let the grooves "breathe," as in the case of the FOLK SINGER AP-45. I would want neither of those records in 33rpm. AP did them perfectly. But if I can get an equal or better pressing at 33 than 45, it's a no brainer.

I bought the four bookend albums of their discography on Rhino, because I'm not a fan of the middle two. These four I own are nearly perfect pressings. I say nearly because I'm sure a microscope would reveal an imperfection and we know vinyl is charmingly imperfect. But these are damn near perfect. Jackets are amazing, too. And they sound AT LEAST least as good as the same four AP-45s I own. The LA WOMAN AP-45, UHQR, and Rhino sound different, but ALL sound absolutely phenomenal. I could take any of the three to a desert island.

I've heard some collectors complain about the jackets being too tight to fit the record in. Tbh, I haven't housed a record in an outer sleeve in years. No reason to go through the hassle or risk damaging the jackets from regular use. I strongly recommend collectors pull the vinyl out, discard inner sleeves if they're not the MoFi archival type, slip their outer jackets into a crystal clear (not inferior milky) plastic outer sleeve from the top. That's usually the last time I even touch the jacket with my bare hands, unless I want to see something about it while listening to the album, but in my case, that's almost never. I can look at the front and back of the jacket through the plastic. In the case of these Rhinos, I slide the booklet in between the gatefold for easy extraction and protection from the top. I'll slip the vinyl into new archival inner sleeves and slip that sleeved vinyl along the rear of jacket, facing out so I can see the record. This has proven a perfect way to store my vinyl and keep everything in impeccable condition. This way, you don't even know what people are talking about when they complain about gatefold sleeves being too tight. You only deal with them once.

Thanks to Rhino HiFi, Kevin Gray, the Doors, and Optimal Media for daring to improve on Doug Sax/AP's standard setting by making this incredible audiophile production.

Does anyone know when these will be available in stores? Like one person up here, I am seeking to replace two of the defective discs in the box set I ordered. (Strange Days was severely dish warped and WFTHS had major surface noise because of non-fill). Rhino told me that they couldn't replace the discs because they were sold out, which is weird because these appeared two months later. To be fair, they issued a generous partial refund. Anyway, I would rather purchase from a brick and mortar so I can return easily if there are issues, which considering who I am dealing with is a possibility.

I found this reissue to sound absolutely amazing. Far better than the CD's and tapes of it that I owned in the past. Except... The first 45 seconds or so of the first track on the copy I received has a light repeated tick. I noticed that weeks before it went up for sale on Rhino's website, there was a copy for sale on here for a reduced price that described this exact issue, so maybe there is an issue with the pressing. Also on side A is a whooshing sound between a few of the tracks. And the poly lined sleeve on my copy came rather wrinkled. I put in for a replacement copy, so I'm hoping that one does not have these issues, because the music sounds so crisp and dynamic that it is really a joy to listen to.