Decca and London Hot Stamper Pressings Available Now
UPDATE 2025
This was written a very long time ago!
1958 just happens to be one of the All Time Great Years for Analog Recordings, as can be seen from this amazing group of albums, all recorded or released that year.
INSANELY GOOD vintage Decca sound from 1958 — bigger, richer and more Tubey Magical than 9 out of 10 (or more!) records we’ve ever played from the pre-’60s early stereo Golden Age. How they got this one so right is beyond me.
We were sorely tempted to grade it White Hot, but chose instead to err on the side of modesty and call it A++ to A+++ or better (which is practically White Hot when you think about it).
Can it be that THIS was the first stereophonic sound music lovers of the world were exposed to on LP? (Stereo tapes may have existed in 1954, but they had to wait until 1958 to be transferred to vinyl.)
Could we possibly have fallen so far in only fifty years?
What to listen for ask?
Dry sound.
Some of the copies lacked the richness to balance out the clarity and were dry sounding. There is a balance to be found.
The right VTA will be critical in this regard.
When you have all the space; the clearest, most extended harmonics; AND good weight and richness in the lower registers of the cello, you are where you need to be (keeping in mind that it can always get better if you have the patience and motivation to tweak further).
For more advice on setting your VTA properly, please click here.
On the other side of that coin is smear, usually from too much tubey richness. Again, finding the balance is key.
Here are some other records that are good for testing string tone and texture.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Mozart Available Now
CS 6109 is a handy record for VTA adjustment.
Listen for fullness and solidity, especially in the piano, although a rich, full sounding clarinet is a joy here as well.
Some of the copies we played in our shootout lacked the weight and solidity to balance out the qualities of transparency and clarity.
The resulting sound is less natural, with the kind of forced detail that CDs do so well, and live music never does. There is a balance to be found.
The right VTA will be critical in this regard. When you have all the space; the clearest, most extended harmonics; AND good weight and richness in the lower registers of the piano, you are where you need to be (keeping in mind that it can always get better if you have the patience and drive to tweak further).
Sonic Grade: B?
A fairly good Speakers Corner Decca reissue, probably.
Not sure if we would still agree with what we wrote back in the 90s when this record came out, but here it is anyway.
One of the best of the Deccas. I raved about this one years ago when it came out. If I had to pick a record to demonstrate how wonderful Decca recordings are, musically and sonically, this would be an easy choice.
These wonderful concertos — some of the greatest ever composed — should be part of any serious classical collection.
Others that belong in that category can be found here.
Kenneth Wilkinson was probably the engineer for these sessions in glorious Kingsway Hall. It’s yet another remarkable disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Mozart Available Now
About fifteen years ago (2010) we played an original pressing of this title that we really liked. It’s the one with the rare cover you see pictured, and might have actually been the first one we had ever found in audiophile playing condition. We had a devil of a time finding more copies, but we were convinced that the early pressings were clearly the best.
More recently we were able to acquire quite a variety of different pressings for an upcoming shootout and were fortunate to be able to include one of the stereo originals for the first time in many years.
We started out with high hopes, but once the early pressing began to play, our hopes were dashed fairly quickly.
Our notes for the original pressing read:
In other words, it just sounded like an old record, and not a very good one at that. The world is full of them.
Only an old school audio system can hide the faults of a pressing such as this one. The world is full of those too, even though they might comprise all the latest and most expensive components.
Were we wrong years ago? Hard to say. That copy from many years ago is gone.
Three things we always keep in mind when a pressing doesn’t sound the way we remember it did, or think it should:
Living Stereo Orchestral Titles Available Now
Many years ago we wrote the following review for LSC 2472:
Superb sound. The violin is wonderful on both sides. The Mozart is absolutely gorgeous; the best I’ve ever heard it.
The orchestra on the Bruch side gets a little congested in the louder passages, which is typical for records of this era.
Laredo plays these pieces beautifully. The Bruch is an especially romantic work and his violin sings sweetly and with deep emotion throughout. The Mozart is more spritely and he plays it with the light touch it requires. You will have a hard time finding a better violin concerto record. This ranks with the best of them.
UPDATE 2024
More recently we got in a nice 1S/1S pressing that sounded thick and dark, even after a good cleaning.
Were we wrong years ago? Hard to say. That copy from many years ago is gone.
Three things to always keep in mind when a pressing doesn’t sound like we remember it did, or think it should: