You’re lucky. I’ve had numerous White Label that are warped and have off center spindle holes. Very disappointing DG quality. I just opened two OS albums that are badly warped and both needed spindle holes reamed.
The new audiophile vinyl series The Original Source from Deutsche Grammophon (AAA)
- Thread starter kodomo
- Start date
If you are asking is there an Eroica recording in The Original Source series, the answer is yes, there will be. Symphony 3 with Giulini and the LA Philharmonic is scheduled for release in early February 2026 as a 3-sided LP. You can pre-order it from DG in Germany if you don't mind the $50 shipping to the US.
Beethoven: Sinfonie Nr. 3 »Eroica« - Deutsche Grammophon
Beethoven began composing his Third Symphony shortly after his increasing deafness and suicidal thoughts became public knowledge. The ‘heroic’ style of this symphony can be interpreted as a musical expression of his triumph over personal suffering. But the symphony also has enormous musical...
store.deutschegrammophon.com
And pay the import duties. DHL collected for tariffs on the last shipment.
That said, seems they switched to a better level of shipping service. Last package arrived within days instead of weeks.
I am going to order the next batch from Amazon.
me too. when you think about dealing with a potential return it makes even more sense.
I too bit the TOS bait and bought most of the issues. I only partly regret it because I discovered so many wonderful interpretations. And wherever I can compare with LPs from the 70's, the TOS are sonically way better except for... strident strings. In fact, the thinness of strings seems to permeate TOS LPs. I narrowed it down to 2 potential issues:
1. Jesus-Christus-Kirche Berlin recordings: these recordings in general sound awful; for example, Scrjabin's Poeme de l'Extase is imho unlistenable; in that church, many great interpretations were mauled by DG's sound engineers.
2. TOS deplorable Optima pressing quality which is appalling at such price level; I just finished listening to the astounding acoustics Mahler 6/Karajan/BPO, yet still not dead-quiet pressing which really annoys in ppp passages.
Note: at TOS, buy everything Gilels! Abbado is also outstanding.
I addressed the 1st issue by no longer buying performances recorded in the JCK.
I addressed the 2nd issue by only buying DG White Label (WL) LPs. They are outrageously overpriced and the packaging is rubbish. However, WL pressings avoid to a great extent the shrillness of violins, are much quieter (but not totally so), have slightly better width and depth whilst increasing clarity and "musical flow".
To check my hypothesis, I bought the TOS MTT/ Tchaikovsky Winter Dreams in both regular and WL, as well as the freshly released Yo-Yo Ma/Nelsons/Shostakovich in both regular and WL. The comparison is embarrassing. WL sounds far superior. Why that is, and why DG chargers double the price for WL is a mystery to me (perhaps not so much the latter: people buy at that price, so DG just goes for it).
I have resigned myself to only buy DG vinyl WL editions, also outside the TOS edition. I was richly rewarded with outstanding releases featuring Gilels (TOS), Yuja Wang, Yo-Yo Ma, Duenas, Zimerman and Sokolov.
This brings me to my final conclusion. DG is incapable of properly pressing vinyl. At the price of its WL editions, DG could release 1-step LPs, which imho is the best that has happened to vinyl in all these years. Imho, sonically 1-step easily beats D2D. WL does not come even close to 1-step.
Competitors (within the same group) are smelling their chance. I just ordered 2 Decca releases out of their Pure Analogue series: https://www.deccaclassics.com/en/ar...unches-a-new-all-analogue-vinyl-series-277409
Reinard Maillard and Sidney Meyer started the TOS adventure but were betrayed by disastrous quality control at DG's Optima pressing plant. If Decca does not disappoint, I ordered my last TOS WL LPs this week.
PS: for those unfamiliar with the 1-step process: the engineer cuts MULTIPLE lacquers. A metal stamper is made directly from each lacquer. Each stamper stamps at most 500-700 records.
1. Jesus-Christus-Kirche Berlin recordings: these recordings in general sound awful; for example, Scrjabin's Poeme de l'Extase is imho unlistenable; in that church, many great interpretations were mauled by DG's sound engineers.
2. TOS deplorable Optima pressing quality which is appalling at such price level; I just finished listening to the astounding acoustics Mahler 6/Karajan/BPO, yet still not dead-quiet pressing which really annoys in ppp passages.
Note: at TOS, buy everything Gilels! Abbado is also outstanding.
I addressed the 1st issue by no longer buying performances recorded in the JCK.
I addressed the 2nd issue by only buying DG White Label (WL) LPs. They are outrageously overpriced and the packaging is rubbish. However, WL pressings avoid to a great extent the shrillness of violins, are much quieter (but not totally so), have slightly better width and depth whilst increasing clarity and "musical flow".
To check my hypothesis, I bought the TOS MTT/ Tchaikovsky Winter Dreams in both regular and WL, as well as the freshly released Yo-Yo Ma/Nelsons/Shostakovich in both regular and WL. The comparison is embarrassing. WL sounds far superior. Why that is, and why DG chargers double the price for WL is a mystery to me (perhaps not so much the latter: people buy at that price, so DG just goes for it).
I have resigned myself to only buy DG vinyl WL editions, also outside the TOS edition. I was richly rewarded with outstanding releases featuring Gilels (TOS), Yuja Wang, Yo-Yo Ma, Duenas, Zimerman and Sokolov.
This brings me to my final conclusion. DG is incapable of properly pressing vinyl. At the price of its WL editions, DG could release 1-step LPs, which imho is the best that has happened to vinyl in all these years. Imho, sonically 1-step easily beats D2D. WL does not come even close to 1-step.
Competitors (within the same group) are smelling their chance. I just ordered 2 Decca releases out of their Pure Analogue series: https://www.deccaclassics.com/en/ar...unches-a-new-all-analogue-vinyl-series-277409
Reinard Maillard and Sidney Meyer started the TOS adventure but were betrayed by disastrous quality control at DG's Optima pressing plant. If Decca does not disappoint, I ordered my last TOS WL LPs this week.
PS: for those unfamiliar with the 1-step process: the engineer cuts MULTIPLE lacquers. A metal stamper is made directly from each lacquer. Each stamper stamps at most 500-700 records.
My DG TOS Batch 9 arrived here in the UK this morning 
Mine were shipped six days ago, but got diverted to a Rhine River tour awaiting their flight to the USA.
In other words, the package is now sitting in Frankfurt waiting for the scheduled cargo flight.
In other words, the package is now sitting in Frankfurt waiting for the scheduled cargo flight.
You can buy these on Amazon and have them tommorrow.
And skip the Rhine River cruise?You can buy these on Amazon and have them tommorrow.
Soooo ... how are they?
3 out of my 4 pre-orders just arrived yesterday from The Elusive Disc for the following....
I won't have a chance to listen to them until late Saturday or Sunday. Something to look forward to.... staying out of the winter cold weather and sitting in front of some nice warm single ended 845's playing some nice vinyl.
Best wishes,
Don
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I won't have a chance to listen to them until late Saturday or Sunday. Something to look forward to.... staying out of the winter cold weather and sitting in front of some nice warm single ended 845's playing some nice vinyl.
Best wishes,
Don
Interesting. This is the first report I've read comparing regular TOS vs White Label TOS. Does anyone know the differences between these issuances? I speculate the WLs were a limited number of first pressings but that is just a guess.
Do you have examples of 1-step LPs?
Hi 'oldvinyl',
Kind of you to ask, thank you.
I am afraid that I haven't taken them out of their sleeves yet.
Likewise with a lot of the past batches (I think from batch 4 onwards) I have bought and received that are still in their sleeves and never been taken out of them (not even to check them for damage or warps etc.) as I need to put them all through my record cleaning regime and into anti-static sleeves and have just not had the time this year due to work commitments and the quality time to sit down and properly listen to my vinyl collection. So at the moment, they are all nicely stored in my LP shelves.
Fair enough. I certainly know what it is like when collecting exceeds listening and records pile up in the cleaning pile.
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