Nautilus SuperDiscs

Fred

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2010
296
5
365
Covington, LA
Occasionally I run across a used lp of some title or another that has scribed across the top Nautilus Superdisc.

Over time I have acquired 2 examples of these discs. The Cars (1st LP) and The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta. Fortunately I own a mint original pressing of The Cars which I purchased new. I also own an original of Zenyatta Mondatta, but I never broke the seal on it.

Personally, I find the original of The Cars to be superior to the Nautilus Superdisc. Both lp's are in remarkably good condition for their age. The Police LP, however, sounds extremely good. It displays excellent sonics, a wide soundstage with plenty of dynamic range. Not knowing much about this label (a pre-runner or contemporary of MOFI?) I did a quick google search. Interestingly, this is what I was able to find.

http://www.audioinvest.no/tt_vinyl/suprdisc/nautilus.htm

Apparently, Nautilus made 3 direct-to-disc lp's and a handful of digitally recorded lp's. They did, however, produce some 50+ high quality analog lp's. See the list: http://www.audioinvest.no/tt_vinyl/suprdisc/naut_rec.htm

I would like your input and feedback if you own or have had any meaningful exposure to any of the Nautilus catalog. I repeatedly see used versions of various titles at record fairs and in the used record bins at record stores. I would like to pick up a few more titles, but would really only be interested in the very best examples of the Nautilus line. As I understand it, from visiting a few other forums, the Nautilus offerings have been a bit hit and miss. This thread could serve as a sort of compilation of the best that Natuilus had to offer. :)
 

arnies

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2010
104
88
1,583
Austin, TX
HI,

I have a Nautilis Superdisc that is quite good - musically and with excellent sonics -The title is "The Three" and features the trio of Joe Sample, Ray Brown and Shelley Manne.
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
181
458
La Jolla, Calif USA
After 30+ years of record collecting, I learnt another interesting thing about the Nautilus LP's the other day. I bought the 'Allman Bros at Fillmore East' on the Nautilus label, I had thought that this LP was going to be great and paid very good money for it.
Turns out that the particular LP I bought was 'DBX' encoded! In my stupidity, I knew that the LP was 'DBX' encoded when I bought it and thought that wouldn't make much difference....WOA was I wrong..! The 'DBX' encoded LP needs a 'DBX' encoder to sound! So ,be warned,
there are several Nautilus LP's that are 'DBX' encoded and frankly IMHO are now complete dinosaurs.....:0(
 

jadis

Well-Known Member
Apr 28, 2010
12,347
5,460
2,810
Manila, Philippines
The Nautilus Lps that I truly like are John Klemmer's 'Straight From the Heart' - which is a Direct to Disc recording, and Joan Baez' 'Diamonds and Rust'.
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
181
458
La Jolla, Calif USA
Well, I sold the DBX encoded Allman Bros Lp...Got my money back:rolleyes: Quite a surprise as I was convinced that the DBX discs were of no value:cool:
Anyhow, replaced with the non-dbx version and IMHO it's a lot better:)
 

jadis

Well-Known Member
Apr 28, 2010
12,347
5,460
2,810
Manila, Philippines
Well, I sold the DBX encoded Allman Bros Lp...Got my money back:rolleyes: Quite a surprise as I was convinced that the DBX discs were of no value:cool:
Anyhow, replaced with the non-dbx version and IMHO it's a lot better:)

The dbx LP virtually cannot be played without the decoder/expander. There are still some dbx lps being sold on the net, mostly on ebay. Sometimes, the seller might not even know it needs a decoder unit to play, hence they don't even make a big fuzz about it. Long time ago, I have heard it being played through a decoder and what I recall is that the dynamic range was quite impressive.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
You could always hear those damn dbx decoders *breathing* though-pumping more like it.
 

jazdoc

Member Sponsor
Aug 7, 2010
3,320
730
1,200
Bellevue
In my experience, the Nautlis Superdiscs were slightly softened at the frequency extremes but had great dynamics. My favorite is relatively obscure The Great Jazz Trio "Direct From LA".
 

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