What's the deal with RCA shaded dog labels?

Sorry, guys - typo in my last post's subject line. I am reposting it here so maybe it makes more sense to someone.

I am in the process of buying some vintage vinyl RCA label Christmas albums, and I have the choice of buying shaded dogs or non shaded (white) dogs on a few of them. Everything else looks the same (printing on the jackets, the condition of the vinyl, etc. The labels have silver writing on the shaded dogs and white on the white dogs. I've heard things about shaded dogs - are they the ones to have as far as sound quality or collectibility? I hate to buy 2 copies of the same record (I know, this is the wrong place to say that, but I'm running out of room)...

Any advice about shaded dogs would be helpful. I searched the forum but didn't really find anything definitive about them.

 

Can you post some label pics?

 

The Shaded Dog pressings are earlier pressings. The White Dogs are later pressings. And also when near mint, the Shaded Dogs are on quieter vinyl than the grainy vinyl formulation used on White Dog era pressings.

 

I've mentioned it many times before...one has the ability to edit the thread title here within the first 30 minutes of posting.

 

Shaded dogs are earlier, white dogs are later. White dogs are more likely to suffer from a "Dynagroove" mastering job, less dynamics and bass, theoretically easier to track. As regards "collectibility", RCA's Christmas Records are not really collectible. Not many Christmas records are collectable. Thing is, condition is more likely to be determined by wear. If the titles are cheap [and they should be] I'd take a close look at surface condition and spindle marks. A white dog in good shape is going to sound better than a worn shaded dog.

 

Which is true. In equally near mint condition, the Shaded Dogs are a no brainer. But given a choice between a Shaded Dog in rough shape, I agree wholeheartedly that a Near Mint White Dog beats a rough shaded dog. A tip for Dynagrooved White Dog playback, a good light tracking .7 mil conical is ideal for their playback, They sound much better than playing them with elliptical styli or line contact types. That obviates the pre-distortion tracing simulator used in their mastering (Dynagroove used this to supposedly improve stylus tracking on average phonographs, with no real improvements, and owners of better equipment were often upset with the degrading of their sonics)

 

Also, the first Living Stereo "Shaded Dogs," from 1958 to 1961, were mastered on Scully 601-type lathes; after '61, stereos of all types (even RCA Victor's popular titles) were cut exclusively on Neumann AM-32 lathes. That had some bearing on the sound quality along with whatever else was mentioned. And on deep-catalogue releases, who knows how many tape generations down were used by the time of the onset of the "White Dog" era in 1965 and up to its end in late 1968?

 

Oooooohhhhh get you sweety!!!

 

labelography of Shaded dogs:

http://www.shadeddog.com/labelography/

 

Yeah, I just didn't notice it until several hours later.

 

Got it. Thanks!