久石 譲* – ハウルの動く城 サウンドトラック = Howl's Moving Castle

Silent and very pleasant. The soundstage is massive and the packaging is top tier.

Vinyl is new and it's a shame that it's so dirty from the very beginning. So many noise even after cleaning. Very disappointed with my copy.

Bought my copy through Ebay, paid $60 pretty good price compared to the average retail price.

Beautiful and emotive sounding soundtrack.
My copy is flat, quite and sounds wonderful. Buy while prices are reasonable.

Cheers! My copy sounds clear and has not the issue of the duplicate side A. Although it’s the same matrix run number. Superb edition of this Miyazaki master piece!

This is my first stab at a Ghibli record and Im instantly a fan.
Soundwise its quite a nice orchestral reproduction with mostly accurate tone and frequency spectrum use. The stereo field is effectively spread and the staging is deep with great dynamics.
However, this is all given only if you play back at a fitting volume, which needs to be very loud for this quiet cut, like many orchestral records. About 80% louder than my average album is a natural volume.
Of course this leads into the main issue with this and likely many other Ghibli releases. Pressing wise its far from the best and not ideal for this music. My copy mostly exhibits the occasional low noise or loud click but others seem less lucky. Gone are the days of Japans world class silent vinyl, but this does not need to be a dealbreaker, at least it is not in my case.
Beyond that the printing is the real highlight for me. While the sound is nice in its own right I just cant find fault in the fantastic looking and feeling cover. Its pure eye candy.
In this aspect its a collectors delight. What is not for most, including me, Im sure is the outrageous pricetags on these. Especially considering this is technically not even a 2LP, rather a 1.5LP set.
To me the side 4 etchings are a complete waste and I would have much rather seen more real estate for grooves to fit, even if it only means raising the cutting level by a few db overall it would really help to avoid the softer noise Im sure as well as reducing inner grooves and making the engineer less constrained in general.

Technics SL-1210GR Turntable
ATVM95ML Cartridge
Cyrus 2 Amplifier
System Fidelity SF-3050 Tower Speakers

Seeing that many people may not be aware of how to tell whether or not their copy of "Howl's Moving Castle" Side C is defective, please see the note that I received from the place that I ordered my record from:
Please confirm the matrix number of Side C. If your copy is defective one, it would be "TJJA 10030 A2" (Sometimes, the letter "A"is collapsed and it looks like a ring.)
Another good thing to check is to see whether the music on Side A and Side C is the same (this is basically the defect).
My copy has both the matrix mentioned above and both A and C have the same music.
Hope this helps everyone.

Got an email from HMV about pressing issues. However, my copy was fine. Check with the supplier about potential issues as they might be offering a replacement.

have a serious issue. a side and c side of some records are same