Are classical CDs suffering the same brickwall issues; old versions collectable?

My copy of "The State of Wonder" 1981 Golberg disc has very low level electrical sounding buzzing in the right channel that cuts in and out. A minor distraction, but I haven't noticed anybody point this out. Or what exactly is causing it.

 

Give me the time(s) when this happens, and I'll check it out.

FWIW, I've not noticed this at all.

 

On headphones it's noticeable, at 22 seconds in on the Aria, it actually rises in level for a moment. I don't want to nitpick, I'm really quite happy with this disc.

 

Nothing here on my copy. Sorry, buddy!

 

Hey Mal,

I likewise look for old West German pressings. Decca's are my favourites, but I also like Philips, and have found good recordings on Teldec.

I limit myself to AAD Masterings ("Digitally Mastered" on the earliest discs) because they sound way superior to DDD or ADD discs.

Interestingly a lot of the early AAD issues were later released as ADD's - I guess they reissued them with the hiss taken off when they could .

Nearly all new and recent classical releases are ADD or DDD.

Cheers

David

 

All I want for Christmas...

http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-C...3808739?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191911940&sr=8-2

the $64,000 question: is it DSD-mastered?

 

Classical audio porn.....

 

Top left is what I think must be my oldest CD:

DENON 38C37-7004

The date on the back is (P)1982.10 - I'm guessing this was the release date, October 1982!

Top right is a great sounding Victor Musical Industries mid 80s pressing from Japan:

Melodia VDC-1026

There is an RCA Red Seal from Japan (1987) and in the middle are my beloved Teldec Dvořák CDs (more details here). The rest are various 80s Decca CDs

One of my favourite items is the lovely and thick 80s Decca Classical CD catalogue - I found it in one of my 80s Decca 2CD purchases a while back :

 

Some of the other Original Jacket Collection sets I've seen have been "DSD" remastered according to the blurb on the back but the Horowitz one wasn't. That is because they used the earlier mastering from the 1993 Complete Masterworks Recordings collection:



Fortunately, this 1993 set is absolutely fanstastic - however (according to this wonderful Horowitz site), it used some alternate takes to those used on the original LPs so the Original Jacket Collection CDs don't always match the original LPs

So, you may find that this Gould set uses previous mastering - don't assume they are new re-masters.....

 

The German EMI pressings are quite nice with little surface noise.

 

From the New World

found another mint orig. WG London/Decca:

• Dvorak - Symphony No. 9: Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

an early (1984) digital recording, the sonics are clear but a little harsh on the loudest passages, and the CSO brass is really blowing. on the whole, Solti's no. 9 is excellent, but i like the Kubelik better. what are some other versions i should check out??

 

i really like Hyperion recordings. i find the sound and peformances to be uniformly excellent.

 

which are your favorite and why?

 

My local library has literally hundreds of classical CD's which are all either West Germany or Japan made.

Many of the Japan CD's are from 1983 and are 3800 yen.

I've been meaning to check some out and listen to them, for the longest time. Maybe now is as good a time as any.

 

Here are two, one frustrating: Toscanini/NBCSO and Royale 1257, attributed to the pseudonymous "Berlin Symphony Orchestra" under "Karl List." The former is one of my favorites among the Maestro's many estimable performances, and the recording quality is better than average for him. The latter is a real sonic sow's ear. Like all Royales, it sounds as if it was pressed in a particularly low grade of sandpaper (no CD issue for this one, natch), and the opening of the last movement is obviously patched from some unrelated recording. No matter; what can be heard is a whale of a performance, although the patched bit isn't up to the rest. I surely wish I knew who was really responsible. The good news: since collectors generally ignore Royales, if you find a copy it shouldn't set you back more than a dollar or so. (Apologies for wandering a bit off topic to insert an LP into the thread, but I just refuse to be bound by format when a fine performance is in the offing. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming....)

 

more good minty finds today.

Liszt: Rhapsodies Hongroises - Cziffra
EMI 7473702

• Made in France by MPO

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos 2 & 4 - Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw Orchestra/Haitink
Decca/London 414 475-2

• Made in West Germany by Polygram

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto 3 - Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw Orchestra/Haitink
Decca/London 414 475-2

• Made in West Germany by Polygram

 

Interesting thread. Sorry to join in so late but I thought I'd comment on something:

I've got 2 CD versions of the same recording/different masters of Wagner orchestral works w/Cleveland Orch, George Szell. I picked up the remaster a while back because of a glowing review in the Penguin Guide (it even got the coveted "rosette") in which the writers say: "the latest remastering for CD is little short of miraculous. The remastering engineers seem to have found a lower octave in the recording which was never apparent on LP" which may indeed be true as I have not heard the LP. I wish they commented on the original CD though, which to my ears is far superior in sound quality to the remaster (hm, wonder if the original mastering engineer tried to match the sonics of the LP?). The remaster is almost TOO bass-y where the original seems to contain more natural ambience of the hall and better overall dynamic range and the bass sounds totally present to me. Anyway, just my thoughts and an example where I feel classical music was OVER-remastered which seems to occur so regularly with rock CD's .

 

I found the Decca Legends very enjoyable. The recordings were originally recorded in the 50's.

 

I frequent a few classical forums, but I've never seen any fetishism for early CD pressings (but none about remasterings either).

The classical world is lucky that most of the early CDs were well done (except for many CBS reissues) and that the remastered reissues are fine too. It may be fun to search for early classical CDs as they can be found very cheap in second hand stores, but I doubt they will ever become collectibles.

 

Ernst Lumpe says the "Karl List" performance is the same one that has been incorrectly attributed to Furtwängler; it's actually Oswald Kabasta and the Munich Philharmonic, in 1944. Try this Amazon sound sample for the Music and Arts release:

http://www.amazon.com/Oswald-Kabasta-1943-44-Broadcasts/dp/B000054OYP

His merits as a musician aside, the Austrian-born Kabasta was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler. He committed suicide in 1946.

Apologies for thread drift, but I'm always happy when I have an answer to a question that's on the table.

 

Does anyone know if there is an earlier digital version of Carlos Kleibers Beethoven 5th and 7th with the Vienna Philharmonic other than the one from the DG "Originals" Series ?

 

They were first released separately on CD, just like the original LPs.

 

Thanks

 

I really like George Szell on an old Columbia lp. The more recent Sony re-masters are pretty bland.



haas

 

And sounding better than the one from the "Originals" series ?
Does this apply to all or most of the DG "Originals" CDs ?