More of the Music of Richard Strauss
Many of the later pressings of CS 6211 were not competitive with the earlier pressings, something we had no idea was true until we actually did the shootout.
This is why we do our shootouts with every kind of pressing we can find that has any hope of sounding good to us.
(This is of course something that cannot be predicted with much certainty. What we are saying is simply that we do not expect the German, Dutch, Japanese and such like pressings from other countries outside the UK to do well because they have almost never done well in the past, not for Decca recordings anyway.)
The notes on the left in the box are for the copies that did not do as well as our best copies.
If your copy of the album has any of the shortcomings we mention, and you would like a better pressing to play, rest assured we will have something for you down the road, as this is our favorite for both performance and sound.
Stamper Information
The stampers of the pressings that consistently came in last in our shootout had the mastering marking of L, which signifies the work of George Bettyes. He has done good work in the past, but odds are that any pressing of this title mastered by L is going to be inferior to those that are not.
Our advice: stick with E and G.
As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stamper numbers that consistently wins our shootouts for CS 6211. Here are some of the others we’ve discovered through the shootout process.
Our notes for an exceptionally good sounding copy from the last shootout can be seen below.
