An Audiophile Hall of Shame pressing and another record perfectly suited to the Stone Age Stereos of the Past.

The famous Classic pressing of the Mercury is a gritty, shrill piece of crap.

I don’t know how dull and smeary a stereo would have to be in order to play a record this phony and modern sounding and make it listenable, but I know that it would have to be very dull and very smeary, with the kind of vintage sound that might work for Classic’s Heavy Vinyl pressings but not much else.

It’s a disgrace, and the fact that it’s on the TAS Super Disc List is even more disgraceful.

I much prefer Ansermet’s performances on London to those of Paray on Mercury. I know of none better. [Not true. As of 2022 we actually prefer the famous Argenta recording for Decca that’s on the TAS List, CS 6006.]

With the amp you see pictured, you might be able to sit through Classic’s awful remastered pressing, although we certainly don’t recommend you try.

My advice is to get better equipment, the kind that will allow you to do a better job of recognizing bad records when you play them.

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