Re: [ARSCLIST] Record tracking,and ageing, was De-static question

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry, right instrument and wrong concerto..it's the Brahms Double with Milstein and
Piatigorsky I was thinking of.

David Lennick wrote:

> This leads me to another question..why were RCA's 70s reissues of early 50s mono
> masters so gawdawful? Dull sound in particular, as on "Amahl" and Piatigorsky
> playing the Dvorak Concerto on Victrola and "Call Me Madam" on CBM1-2032 (which
> also suffers from cutter hum and horrible pitch control.."They Like Ike" is
> about 5% slow). I just transferred this set from vinyl DJ 78s, by the
> way..fabulous sound on those.
>
> Club issues....yikes. These often turned up in the dollar bins....I picked up
> two of the Tchaikovsky Suites for Orchestra (Dorati) on Canadian Mercury in what
> I realized later was a "club" pressing. 3 of the 4 sides were original Quality
> stampers and the 4th was a re-cut done over at RCA at about half the level.
>
> dl
>
> Steven Smolian wrote:
>
> > I think we're all forgetting what underlies many of the issues that we now
> > see as problems.
> >
> > As the cost of shipping kept escalating, the weight of the record package
> > was reduced.   The European take on this was to fabricate a thinner jacket,
> > ours a thinner record.   What I call the RCA taco was the belimic restult of
> > too much thinning down.
> >
> > The other factor in making lighter weight records was the record club, which
> > accounted for a large proportion of the LP market.  At one time, I believe I
> > read but can't find the referece, it was one side or the other of 40%.
> >
> > It has always been my feeling that the average quality of playback equipment
> > by those buying through the clubs was somewhat below that of the store
> > purchaser.  The ability of the changers and cheaper players to track bass
> > and inside grooves resulted in that most expensive of overhead items,
> > returns.  My empirical observation leads me to believe that identifiably
> > record club pressings have less bass than records sold through the stores,
> > though this is not true for Reader's Digest issues, for example.  Try the
> > early commercial relase of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" with it's club
> > counterpart.  Eventually, the K-Mart type small all-in-one York, Lloyd,
> > etc., units, were also having problems with inner grooves and bass.
> >
> > And, of course, EMI took a more active role in their American outfit-
> > Captiol, Angel, etc., and got their revenge for the American Revolution by
> > milking the U.S. market with terrible pressings at normal retail prices
> > while a far superior product was available in the U.K.
> >
> > And I could go on...
> >
> > Steve Smolian