Not surprising..in the 70s when I programmed classical radio, Columbias were pretty near the final choices (aside from my being bored to death by most Ormandy performances and wondering when Bernstein was going to stop being such a freaking showoff). Their eq was definitely weird and usually earsplitting. Two pressings of the same disc could sound vastly different. I opened the US sample of Berman playing the Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto and was knocked out. The Canadian pressing had no life to it. (And at the time the Canadian pressings were far superior..the US pressings were always accompanied by little bits of plastic shavings which scratched the discs before you ever played them.)
dl
phillip holmes wrote:Yes, recent CD transfers (done by Sony, right?) and the original 7.5ips tapes were very good. Yes, they had limitations, but they didn't have the weird EQ that the LPs had.
Phillip
Don Cox wrote:On 08/01/07, phillip holmes wrote:
I snatch up Columbia promo copies whenever I see them. The classical
promo copies are especially good, compared to the regular issues, even
though the Columbia classical sound doesn't measure up to RCA,
Mercury, EMI and Decca standards--mostly because of EQ decisions
made--house sound?--the tapes and CD reissues sound much better than
the LPs.
That has been my experience with Columbia LPs, especially if you mean recent CD transfers.