Deutsche Grammophon sound quality

Horowitz.... Horowitz...

 

I have the SACD set:

 

I have the Debussy Complete Works CD/DVD set put out a couple years back by DG. There's some great-sounding stuff, some quite fair stuff, some okay stuff, some not so pleasant stuff. It encompasses a very wide range of recording locations, styles, gear, capture media, etc. etc. The Karajan Beethoven cycle mentioned above is pretty terrific

 

DG has been supposed to be the great sounding label in Japan for some 60 years. And I do not think so at all.
And few people like the sound of Mercury and EMI. And I think it makes sense.

 

To me, there is only one Karajan’s DG recording that sounds great It is his very first recording for the latel, Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. It was reported that HvK did not like the sound and replaced the engineer.

 

So how many DG recordings do you think you have listened to? I guess I own around 500. Might be more.
Overall, not too bad IMO. As someone said above the venue and engineers varied and the quality was all over the place.

 

I am far from an expert on this, but I always thought this one sounded pretty good on vinyl;



(Also the Karajan Beethoven cycle mentioned above)

 

Clearly not many, and I stated it. Mostly digital (CD and downloads from hdtracks), and some vinyl. The latest record I have is "Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons", which IMHO is an awesome music, but recording does sound good but not very natural - not sure in this case "natural" was a goal to begin with.
But with other stuff... I am not often listen to it carefully as I am in general not fan of pre 20th century classical music -but me wife is (and she doesn't care much about recording quality). My father was semi-professional violin player, classical was always playing in our house, through my life I attended hundreds of classical concerts, operas, etc - it just never touched me like it probably should. Modern classical is a different story )).
But I think I got my answers from this thread, thank you guys!

 

This has been (rightly) supposed to be the greatest sounding vinyl of the label by many people, partly because it has been sitting on HP list for many years.
It sounds great as the master was remixed by the producer.

 

Here's a good article about Deutsche Grammophon and the history of its sound quality

Here's a good article about Deutsche Grammophon and the history of its sound quality Deutsche Grammophon Stereo LPs

 

I have that...BUT it's 30 minutes a side!!! Sounds a little thin in parts as a result.

 

FWIW I found a DG reissue series done in the UK called Accolade which is dramatically better than the originals in sonics. They were issued between 1978 and 1983 and came out on a black label, not the usual yellow label. The remastering apparently was done from the original mastertapes which raises the unsettling question of whether DG had excellent master tapes ruined by post production twiddling. About 125 records were reissued. DG in France put them out on the Paraphe series. The sonics are much more natural in both soundstage and tonality.