Testing Harsh String Tone

RCA Released This Awful Living Stereo with Reiner in 1958

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Recordings Available Now

Some audiophiles buy albums with their favorite labels. For example, this pressing from the Golden Age of RCA Living Stereo might appeal to a certain kind of audiophile who treasures LSC’s on the Shaded Dog label.

More than that, he might even limit himself to 1S Indianapolis pressings.

However, many records from this era simply do not sound good, and this is one of them.

We have never heard a good sounding copy of LSC 2112, and we’ve played plenty of them over the decades we’ve been in the business of selling Golden Age classical records.

A copy came in just last week [which was many, many years ago] and I figured it was time to give it a spin and see if there was any reason to change my opinion. Hey, maybe this one had Hot Stampers! Can’t say it wouldn’t be possible. Unlikely, yes, impossible, no.

So here’s what I heard: A wide stage. A bit dry.

But then the trouble started: Shrill strings?!

That’s all she wrote.

A Johann Strauss record with shrill strings is a non-starter. All is not lost however. Decca knew how to record Strauss, and they had halls with wonderful acoustics to do it in.

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What to Listen For on Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Mozart Available Now

On most copies the strings are slightly drier and more harsh and steely than one would want, occasionally turning strident in the louder passages.

As always, proper VTA adjustment — by ear — is critical to getting the strings to sound their best.

More advice on setting your VTA.

An extended top end helps the harmonics of the stringed instruments immensely.

Here are some other records that are good for testing string tone and texture.

The more resolving copies will show you more of the hall, which greatly adds to the sense that you are listening to live music, not a record.

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Satie, Ravel, Debussy / The Impressionists – Phase 4, its Strengths and Shortcomings

More Bernard Herrmann

Presenting an exceptionally rare and very good sounding Decca Phase IV pressing (with the textured cover, ooh!), the first to ever hit the site. We have been on the lookout for this album for years and somehow cannot find any clean copies, other than this one of course.

Not to worry; this one will do nicely. Three of the six works here have SUPERB better than Super Hot Stamper sound. We went through them one by one and were rather surprised that the sound quality varied so much from track to track.

One might conclude from the variation in the sound that the album must be a compilation — so many of Herrmann’s albums are — but that is not the case, assuming the liner notes are to be believed.

Here’s what we heard, taken directly from our notes.

Side One

Satie / Gymnopedies I & II

A++ or better. Rich, smooth, sweet, big, natural, clear and very ANALOG. I don’t know when I’ve heard these famous works sounding better than they do here.

Debussy / Clair de Lune

A+, rich but a bit smeary, strings need more texture.

Debussy / Valse ‘la Plus Que Lente

No grade – Too murky.

Ravel / Five O’Clock Fox-Trot

A++ to A+++, with Demo Disc sound! So lively and clear, the sound will jump out of your speakers when you play this track!

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Bread / On The Waters

More of the Music of Bread

Hot Stampers have finally been discovered for the most consistent and BEST SOUNDING of the Bread albums (not counting the Best of Bread compilation, one of our long time favorites here at Better Records, but a compilation nevertheless). This is the record that put their heavily Beatles-inflected Pure Pop on the map, and at the top of the charts with their Number One hit single Make It With You.

We used to think that only the Best of Bread album could get that song to sound as luscious and Tubey Magical as it does when we hear it in our heads, but it seems we were wrong — it sounds positively amazing on the best copies of On The Waters. To hear the vocal harmonies that these guys produced is to be reminded of singers of the caliber of the Everly Brothers or The Beatles. (more…)