Right, I just got the copy of said record delivered, I bought it on Ebay and prior to buying emailed the seller asking about it being legit or not. S/he wrote it is 100% original and not a bootleg. It also says so in the listing. Now anyone would probably assure potential buyers it's an original test pressing and I didn't really think it would be but I got it and apart from the NTV003 etching it also has the 'Simon -> The Exchange' tag which I compared to the ones I got on released records and it is in fact identical. The records sounds surprisingly good as well, really great mastering, very clear in the high end area. I got hold of (P2P...) the leaked tune's 320 to cross reference the sound. It's a common knowledge that the leaked track was originally 192 kbps and only later got ripped to 320 from the lower quality mp3. I listened to both the record and the 320kbps (err, should I say 192kbps) mp3 and compared them on my studio monitors (flat sounding nearfield yamaha ns10 replicas) and on my sennheiser hd 25 mk II headphones (couple of times, at the same loudness level). Outcome: the vinyl sounds a lot better and you can tell it's not only the bass areas but predominantly the high end, it's much clearer and you don't get any sound artifacts like you do in case of the mp3 that was leaked. Additionally :stalker mode on: I checked the paypal invoice and the person who sold it to me lives in Edinburgh, Scotland at the moment... Still not sure what to make of it all, I did not believe the record would be original from the get go but the etchings, the fat sound of it and err... Scotland seem like pieces of a puzzle. Anyways, emailed the seller again to possibly give me some insight on how they got hold of the copies of NTV003...
Rare
