Master Tapes from ABC Int'l Records

Tom B.

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Jul 10, 2011
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c1ferrari

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Just have seen this -- thanks! :cool:
 

audioblazer

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May 13, 2010
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Nice tapes with interesting songs. Anybody have heard it ? USD350 for approx 30min of songs not exactly small change
 

c1ferrari

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Hi audioblazer,

I hadn't realized the length of the program material.
Thanks for the information.
 

audioblazer

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Actually fantastic materials . Nat king cole , Tsai chin most popular album etc. royal ballet as well ?
 
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astrotoy

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May 24, 2010
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I bought five of their tapes. They came (from China) to California within two weeks. I got the Starker Cello Fury, Perlman, Royal Ballet (two tapes) and Voices. Quite fancy packaging - with engraved and numbered reels out of 300. Mine were 120/300, 130/300 etc. The boxes were very nice looking - with album material. Some misspellings, as is often seen in items originating in China. Playing through the tapes - they definitely sound like dubs of running masters - quite excellent. I have the Perlman original on vinyl (it was taken from two different EMI recordings) and the Classics reissue of the Royal Ballet (there were some selections left out to fit the 64 minute running time). The tape has you are there quality that the records do not. I had a problem with a short section of the first Royal Ballet tape, which they are currently investigating - got a reply to my query within 8 hours.

I paid through paypal - the five reels (all between 32-34 minute, so very full) cost $1750 - or $350 each, with $140 for postage.

Larry
 

audioblazer

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May 13, 2010
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Quite pricey at USD350 for a 32-34min tapes but excellent titles
 

c1ferrari

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Thanks for offering your observations, Larry -- much appreciated. :cool:
 

ux226

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Jun 8, 2016
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I had a problem with a short section of the first Royal Ballet tape, which they are currently investigating - got a reply to my query within 8 hours.

Reviving an old thread here... May we know the outcome, and perhaps the nature of the problem?

Thank you
 

astrotoy

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May 24, 2010
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Reviving an old thread here... May we know the outcome, and perhaps the nature of the problem?

Thank you

The first tape of the Royal Ballet had some dropouts and funny edits on the Nutcracker session. All the other tapes were fine as well as the rest of the first RB tape. I contacted them and heard back that the problems were in the master tape they had.

The following is speculation on my part, but my surmise is that ABC Int'l has a copy of the master tape. Companies would make master tape copies and send them to subsidiaries in different countries who would cut vinyl or CD's from those tapes. Chad is planning to reissue RB from the master tapes as part of his new RCA releases. It was original engineered by Decca for RCA and Decca still owns the original master tapes in Germany IIRC. RB is one of many superb recordings that Decca did for RCA (Classic Records reissued many of them in the '90's.) They are considered by many among the very best RCA's ever released. The great Decca Engineer Kenneth "Wilkie" Wilkinson did RB.

Larry
 

emt930

Well-Known Member
May 9, 2016
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I got some ABC tapes (about 5 albums) from my local audiophile store here. Here are some comments:

- Unknown tape source . Some tapes quite impossible to be in China . What is the master that they used ?
- Illegal . ABC inc. is in mainland China which is very close to Hong Kong but almost all titiles of ABC tape not available in Hong Kong. Even in the big hifi show in HK. I think they have license problem.
- Some sound good , some bad. I found the same as above comment that RB got drop out in Nutcracker track.
 

c1ferrari

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 15, 2010
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Cool that you have a local audiophile store to acquire these tapes. :)
When I use the link from the OP, my Firefox browser reports it as an attack page. :eek:
 

Tom B.

Member Sponsor
Jul 10, 2011
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Same here (I'm OP on this one). I had bookmarked a few pages on their site and all now generate warnings.

Tom
 

Tom B.

Member Sponsor
Jul 10, 2011
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I wanted to, but don't think it's possible, to remove the hyperlink from the original post. For now just be cautious....

Tom
 

astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
1,547
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SF Bay Area
I got the same thing. When I ordered from them originally, they didn't have that problem. Larry
 

c1ferrari

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 15, 2010
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Hmm...a web search of "abcrecord" yields the same attack page warning.
Proceed, if you will, with caution! :eek:
 

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