Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin
Classic remastered this title in the 90s — of course they did, it’s clearly one of the better Heifetz recordings.
As expected, Classic’s remastered pressing of the Sibelius Violin Concerto (LSC 2435) was awful, as bad as LSC 1903, 1992, 2129 and others too numerous to list.
(There is one Classic violin concerto record that is actually better than every RCA Living Stereo we have ever played — which amounts to scores of them since we have done shootouts for them all — and one of these days you will be able to read about it right here on this very blog!)
The Classic is both aggressive and lacking in texture at the same time, the worst of both worlds.
Bernie’s cutting system is what I would call Low Resolution — the harmonics and subtleties you would expect to hear are simply not there. He brightens the tonal balance, causing screechy strings whenever they get loud.
The world is full of these kinds of third-rate records. They make up the bulk record collectors’ collections as well as the ones audiophiles have sitting on their shelves.
Old School
The Classic is clearly better suited to the old school duller, less-revealing audio systems of the 60s and 70s rather than the modern systems in use today by audiophiles who have done the work.
These reissues used to sound good on those older systems, and I should know, I used to have an old school stereo, and some of the records I thought sounded good in the dark days of the 80s and 90s don’t sound too good to me anymore (although this one never did,. I regret to say I did sell them, but in my defense let me add that I never recommended them when they were coming out by the dozens all through the 90s).
