EMI - His Master's Voice - Stereo/Digital Release 1984

[No Regrets]

Hello fellow music lovers,

I was hoping to learn from the vast knowledge of our forum members...

I listen 95% of my time to my vinyl system and enjoy adding to my record collection periodically. I'm interested in acquiring some additional classical recordings and noticed that some of the EMI HIs Master's Voice records have Stereo/Digital printed on the record label.

The release appears to be 1984 from Belgium. They seem to command a very high price averaging $200 - $300.

I'm concerned that it must have some digital processs in the recording or mastering, etc and I may not enjoy the sound due to whatever artifacts the digital processing may bring to the recording. Or, I may be quite surprised and be very impressed!

I was hoping members here might be willing to share any experiences they may have with the EMI His Master's Voice that have the "Stereo/Digital" printed on the vinyl label with me, before I go out and drop huge wads of cash on these records.

Thank you in advance for your time and your help.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[No Regrets]

As a quick follow-up or additional question regarding EMI records, I've also noticed that some of the His Master's Voice records have DMM printed on the vinyl label. These are also very costly ranging from $300 - $400. Any thoughts on the sound quality of these EMI Classical DMM from 1984?

Wishing you all the very best,
Don

 

[astrotoy]

I have a fair amount of experience with the French classical EMI's. Most were also available as British EMI pressings. Many were recorded in France and some were unique to the French catalogue. For example, the piano music of Satie played by Aldo Ciccolini. Most of the series was only on French EMI, only two of the albums made it to the British EMI catalogue. As far as digital recordings, EMI started doing digital around 1979 (British EMI ASD3804 Previn Debussy was the first British EMI digital release in 1979), with a few recordings popping up among the analogue releases. By the early '80's (1981-2) there were very few analogue recordings released, most of them from Russian Melodiya which had a cross licensing agreement with EMI. So if the recordings are from 1984, I would be pretty sure they would be digital. I think the general consensus was that the EMI digital releases were not that good sonically, with the digital Deccas from that period much better (Decca used a proprietary higher resolution system at 48K/16 to do their digital recording).

I don't have any experience with Belgian pressed EMI unless the French EMI's that I bought were actually pressing in Belgium. Prices that you are listing seem extremely high to me. Later British EMI pressings should be in the USD10 range. Maybe these are extremely rare pressings.

Larry

 

[No Regrets]

Hi Larry,

Thank you for taking time out of your Sunday to reply to my thread! I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. It's good to know that the Decca digital is considered much better than that of the EMI digital recordings.

Yes, I had sticker shock when looking at the asking prices of some of these recordings, especially considering that they are digital recordings on vinyl.

These are very rare recordings with great musicianship, but I have to wonder if the high price is due more to the rarity of the record than that of the sound quality of the record.

I am not a "Record Collector" . I buy vinyl because I enjoy listening to music. I enjoy the performances and the sound quality of most vinyl records. I do not buy records with the hope of selling them at some point into the future for some astronomical price.

You had mentioned the Russian Melodiya records.... Are they known to have great sound and excellent pressing quality?

Thanks again, Larry!
Best wishes,
Don

 

[DeYoung]

As a quick follow-up or additional question regarding EMI records, I've also noticed that some of the His Master's Voice records have DMM printed on the vinyl label. These are also very costly ranging from $300 - $400. Any thoughts on the sound quality of these EMI Classical DMM from 1984?

Wishing you all the very best,
Don

DMM.. Direct Metal Mastering
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_metal_mastering

 

[adrianywu]

Hi Larry,

Thank you for taking time out of your Sunday to reply to my thread! I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. It's good to know that the Decca digital is considered much better than that of the EMI digital recordings.

Yes, I had sticker shock when looking at the asking prices of some of these recordings, especially considering that they are digital recordings on vinyl.

These are very rare recordings with great musicianship, but I have to wonder if the high price is due more to the rarity of the record than that of the sound quality of the record.

I am not a "Record Collector" . I buy vinyl because I enjoy listening to music. I enjoy the performances and the sound quality of most vinyl records. I do not buy records with the hope of selling them at some point into the future for some astronomical price.

You had mentioned the Russian Melodiya records.... Are they known to have great sound and excellent pressing quality?

Thanks again, Larry!
Best wishes,
Don

I tend to avoid all the early digital LPs. I had quite a few, because that was the time when I was buying records quite enthusiastically, but I have got rid of most of them subsequently. I find the original release EMI LPs inferior to those from Decca. However, having acquired quite a few copies of EMI and Decca master tapes from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, I can say that EMI recordings are actually quite excellent, and competitive with Decca, in general. The problem came from their mastering in that era. The same goes for the Melodiya LPs released by EMI. I have quite a few Melodiya recordings copied from master tapes in the Melodiya archives, and they can be really great. Their recording engineers in that era knew what they were doing, and they were using tube equipment until quite a lot later than the Western companies. I also believe they used Lyrec tape recorders.