Hot Stamper Pressings that Feature the Violin
Many years ago we wrote:
This is a very old review and it’s doubtful we would not prefer the right Shaded Dog pressing these days.
That turned out to be the case, as we had two late-label 70s Red Seal pressings in the shootout we just did and only one of them was even passable.
A few things about the new pressings and the old commentary caught my eye.
First off, 3s is a fairly low number. The Shaded Dogs that win the shootout must be lower, which means they are either 1s or 2s. Not much to choose from there!
Secondly, the commentary you see below goes into great detail regarding what each piece found on the pressing was doing right and wrong.
It makes us sound like we knew what we were talking about when it came to this specific Red Seal pressing of the album we had played.
I assure you that we did not.
On the web I come across lots of reviews for audiophile pressings in which the writers go on for page after page about how much better the new Heavy Vinyl pressing is compared to the old record the reviewer owns.
This is no longer hard for me to understand. They are simply as lost as I used to be.
Our old system from the 80s and 90s was tubier, tonally darker and dramatically less revealing, which strongly worked to the advantage of leaner, brighter, less Tubey Magical titles such as this one.
Like most audiophiles, I thought my stereo sounded great. (I haven’t met too many that didn’t.)
It would take many technological improvements and decades of effort until I would have anything like the system I do now.
Which all adds up to this Red Seal from the 70s being a classic case of live and learn and a good example of progress in audio. We can now hear that the reissues of this album have problems we did not recognize because our old system was neither accurate nor resolving enough to show them to us.
Below you will find links to other records we’ve played that had the same problems as this RCA.
- These pressings will tend to have dry sound
- These pressings will tend to have thin sound
- These pressings will tend to have dry string tone
- These pressings will tend to lack Tubey Magic
As an audiophile, you should consider avoiding these titles, including those that are pressed on premium-priced Heavy Vinyl.
At least RCA had an excuse for making records that don’t sound good: they were cheap reissues.
Not-So-Cheap Reissues
If you wasted $150 on a crappy sounding pressing of Aja, or $100 on Thriller, or even just forty bucks on The Cars, what else would you feel other than ripped off? Sadly, to my knowledge none of these companies offers refunds.
We do, however, so feel free to return any record that doesn’t live up to your standards. We want satisfied customers.
If we sold you a bad sounding record, the way we sold somebody the 70s reissue of LSC 2563 fifteen or twenty years ago, just tell us and we will make it right.
Our Very Old and Very Wrong Review of LSC 2563
This Red Seal pressing of the famous 1961 recording (LSC 2563) has SUBLIME White Hot Stamper sound for one of the works contained herein, the Schubert. It’s so rich and sweet you may have a hard time believing it’s on a Red Seal LP. The originals we’ve played over the years sure never sounded like this!
Perhaps it’s the thin vinyl that contributed to the shockingly good sound. Maybe, just maybe, RCA was right to start pressing thinner records in the ’70s. If they can sound this good, we should all be for it.
So often when we do these shootouts involving original pressings up against their reissue counterparts, it’s the reissues that sound rich, warm and tubey, and the originals that sound dry and boxy. If you haven’t noticed that in your own critical listening, play this record against any shaded dogs that you own and see which one is more Tubey Magical.
If you have your VTA set right, you might be shocked to find it’s this one. Don’t get us wrong; lots of these later RCA pressings are awful: thin, often with no top end at all. Flat transfers perhaps? Who is to say?
Thankfully we don’t judge records by their labels and never have. This record has wonderful sound; the label, and the thickness of the vinyl for that matter, are of no concern to us, and we hope you feel the same way. (You should if you get your VTA setting right!)
RCA is famous for its chamber recordings, which tend to be somewhat rare for some reason. Let’s be honest: we did not conduct this shootout with a dozen copies of the album. (It would take us at least twenty-five years to find that many clean pressings.)
What we had were quite a few other Heifetz RCA chamber recordings, as well as some favorites by the Quartetto Italiano and I Musici that we are very fond of and know well.
After twenty six years [now 35] in business selling vintage vinyl, by now we’ve played scores if not hundreds of good violin recordings. We have no problem recognizing good violin sound (as well as correct violin tone, not exactly the same thing) when we hear it. In the past our top Hot Stamper classical pressings would go directly to our best customers, customers who want classical recordings that actually sound good. not just the kind of Golden Age Recordings that are supposed to. Now that we are able to do classical shootouts on a regular basis, we hope to have enough superb sounding classical recordings for all of our audiophile customers.
I’ve often commented over the years that one should listen to classical music on a regular basis; at least once a week seems about right. I love rock and roll, jazz and all the rest of it, but there is something about classical music that restores a certain balance in your musical life that can’t be accomplished by other means. It grounds your listening experience to something perhaps less immediately gratifying but deeper and more enriching over time. This has been my experience, and with good Hot Stamper classical pressings to play it can surely be yours.
Side One – Beethoven Trio in D
A++ to A+++, nearly White Hot and (almost) Hard to Fault. The sound is BIG and RICH and, unlike a lot of RCA’s chamber recordings, not too dry. The tonality is Right On The Money. With enough copies we could imagine even more richness (see the Schubert below) so let’s dock a half plus for that and call it nearly White Hot.
Side Two – Bach Sinfonias 4,9 and 3
A+ to A++, a step down for sure, with sound similar to side one but lacking the harmonic richness and clarity that resolve the individual timbres of the three instruments convincingly. Very good sound but not the equal of the best.
Side Two – Schubert Trio No. 2
A+++ and some of the best and most natural sound we heard all day! It’s richer and sweeter. Recorded on a different day when the humidity and temperature were better? Maybe in the morning instead of the afternoon? It doesn’t take much for something to sound a little off in a recording. Here is sound we could not find fault with. It’s glorious!
Further Reading