Quality of today's LP pressings - are they really that good?

awsmone

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Apr 6, 2014
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To my ears

I have never been that impressed by the RR recordings and always thought I must be missing something

The aspect is so distant, and the room acoustic seems to invade to much of the recording

I have lot of great recordings but would not say they were go to records for me

Interested in others thoughts......experiences
 

jeff1225

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Jan 29, 2012
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I bought "Milestones" and "Round About Midnight" because they are amongst my favorite Miles' records. The original mono 6 eyes were better to my ears and I gave the MoFi's to a friend. YMMV

Yes we are comparing apples and oranges. You're talking about late 50's mono 6 eyes, I'm talking about late 60's early 70's Columbia stereo pressings. Not sure if you listen to Miles' second quintet, but you should listen to the MoFi's.
 

Fiddle Faddle

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Aug 7, 2015
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To my ears

I have never been that impressed by the RR recordings and always thought I must be missing something

The aspect is so distant, and the room acoustic seems to invade to much of the recording

I have lot of great recordings but would not say they were go to records for me

Interested in others thoughts......experiences


I can agree in some respects, however sometimes I wonder if RR recordings are a victim of their own obsessive level of engineering. The reason I say this is because the dynamic range in these recordings is absolutely stupendous. As someone who has experience as a concert-goer, orchestral musician and on the podium a few times, these recordings are the closest I have heard in terms of conveying the enormous dynamic range inherent in a live performance (though like Telarc, the bass drums are overdone compared to real life). This recorded dynamic range is WAY beyond any other record label that has ever existed - and by a long shot. That being the case, these recordings are going to be a supreme challenge to any system out there, especially as you have rightly observed that the aspect is a distant one.

I have actually ended up slightly compressing these recordings in the digital domain for my own private listening because to try and recreate that dynamic range without problems is quite simply too difficult in a home environment without risking equipment, neighbourhood relations and my own hearing. I take out about 15 dB of the range (using the PSP Audio OldTimer Mastering Edition plug-in) which brings them more into line with "typical" modern classical recordings. The result is that they subjectively sound far nicer to me, even though what I am doing makes them technically inferior. But the system is no longer busting it's balls on the loud bits and I can still hear the soft bits OK. Mind you, in the concert hall I can still hear the softest bits better even though in real life they are softer than what I hear at home. I guess that is a combination of the losses inherent in the recording and reproduction chain as well as the limitations of 24 bit recording (I say that as I duck for cover, since no one will agree with me that a "24 bit" noise floor still isn't good enough if you want to capture EVERYTHING there is to hear at a live concert in the concert hall).
 

Big Dog RJ

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Feb 2, 2012
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G'day maties, we're having a very warmish x'mas and cheers to all for the season!
Today it was a nice 38C in Melbourne (that's about 100F in the US). Way too hot to listen to music, let alone tubes adding to the heat...

Nice topic I must say, and something I've been wondering about a lot lately; new releases are not at all great compared to older ones. Also to me, or at least on my analog rig, the older ones sound far more musical or at least more pleasant to listen to. Quite a number of new LP's that I do have from ECM, Music On Vinyl, Prestige, Blue Note and MoFi have been pretty good. Although not labelled as reference recordings, rather heavy weights from 180g to 200g. I must say that for me spending large sums on so called "ref quality records" are not justified compared to older pressings. Some are dead silent and have wonderful tones, they not only sound better but seem to be far more natural, there's something captivating about the recording & just plain vinyl!

One of my dealer mates, who also happens to be a TT and LP guru, advised to wash new LP's with a tiny bit of dish washing liquid and leave to dry on a tea towel! Stated that he has noticed some sort of powder being sprayed on new LP's before packing (anti-fungus or some sorts). This powder build up was always accumulating on the Ortofon 2M Black stylus, which I had to continuously send across for cleaning. He would look closely at the stylus with his magnifying tool, and wonder where on earth I was buying my LP's from...

I did wash one or two new ones, and found this build up of powder to go away, it was as if something had been sprayed on the surface of both sides. One LP was from Liz Wright and the other was Esperanza Spalding, now both of them sound great and no build up on the stylus either. However, I don't think this was due to powder build up or anything but rather VERY dirty LP's bought from a second hand shop, which now I don't go to! I used a magnifying tool to have a closer look and noticed at once all the gunk in those older LP's! That was the problem, and so I started cleaning these ones at least.

The washing and drying was also cumbersome and I wasn't too sure about using Fairy liquid either. For new LP's just a quick clean with recommended cleaning solutions, sorted out that build up problem. I also use an Ortofon 2M Blue instead on the first play. This sort of clears out any unwanted bits if at all, and on the second play I place back the 2M Black.
So far, nearly all my LP's are alive and sounding well, and now I'm very careful where and what labels to look for.

I never knew this was such an issue until I experienced these new pressings and found older LP's to be completely different, specially in tonality. I also noticed the MoFi Labels are very much lower in output compared to the many well established labels that I have. For some reason, I have to turn up the level quite a bit to get a good presence of realism. I'm not too sure if others experience this? It has also somewhat put me off into buying MoFi, although I must admit they do sound superb!

Ah! Digital, no worries there whatsoever, just pop in a CD/SACD and hit play, and tunes start! (definitely a different level of musicality compared to LP's, as I am now enjoying both LP's and CD's). Sometimes I wish for those pops & clicks to just vanish on LP's, and then again sometimes I wish for those digital recordings to have that extra extension & vibrancy in tonality... some have it and some definitely don't.

I must say interesting read on other posts, it certainly gave me more insight as to choose more wisely for good labels. Thanks and Cheers to 2016, and we shall welcome in 2017!
Big woof, RJ
 

Marcus

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Oct 5, 2012
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my problem with Reference Recordings is that they are all digitally sourced and 'some' sound like crap (and there are lovely tape masters that could have been used). some are pretty good. none are as outstanding as they could be. I'm cool with pressing issues for great sound.
Agree regarding the sound quality. Something they do is obviously wrong. Take for instance Mozart piano concertos (RM-2506, 45rpm). Flat and centered pressing, beautiful music and playing, but the sound of strings is steely and unnaturally sounding, same goes for the piano to a degree. I took out my old CD and it didn't have any of this anomalies. Tonally it sounded better than this LP! Unacceptable.
The first side of the Firebird suite/The song of the nightingale (RM-1502) has spurious noise through the whole side and I tried three LP's. All had the same problem. Side two is OK though.
 

MadFloyd

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May 30, 2010
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Agree regarding the sound quality. Something they do is obviously wrong. Take for instance Mozart piano concertos (RM-2506, 45rpm). Flat and centered pressing, beautiful music and playing, but the sound of strings is steely and unnaturally sounding, same goes for the piano to a degree. I took out my old CD and it didn't have any of this anomalies. Tonally it sounded better than this LP! Unacceptable.
The first side of the Firebird suite/The song of the nightingale (RM-1502) has spurious noise through the whole side and I tried three LP's. All had the same problem. Side two is OK though.

I experienced the same thing with the Firebird LP. A whistling sound in the left channel throughout side 1. Tried replacing it and the replacement almost seemed worse.

I did buy every RR reissue but now find I don't play them; they just don't seem to compare musically or sonically to other titles.
 

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