dry-str-lon

These Londons (and Deccas) suffered from dry string tone. They could benefit from more Tubey Magic somewhere in the recording chain.

Falla / Three-Cornered Hat – We Changed Our Minds

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Falla Available Now

In our review from 2010, we wrote:

Falla’s Three Cornered Hat is positively WONDERFUL on this copy (A++), and the Sinfonia Sevillana by Turina on side two is every bit as good. The second suite on side one is particularly lovely — check out how rich and full the sound is.

Side two has a HUGE soundstage, as wide as they come. The sound is very rich and full of audiophile colors — this is the kind of record that you’re going to love playing for your audio pals!  

Argenta brings the authentic Spanish flavor out in these works. Like so many audiophile reviewers have over the years, you may find these performances definitive.

The strings on the first side are a bit dry to start, like the sound many of you will recognize from Mercury’s classical records. Still, there’s much to like about the sound and you’ll have a very hard time finding a copy that’s any better. Most pressings do not have such an extended top end, and that quality here really brings this music to life.

UPDATE 2025

We played a copy of CS 6050 not long ago and were not at all pleased with the sound. You can read more about it here.

An orchestral record with dry strings? Not our idea of good sound.

But who else reviewing records these days even notices these kinds of things?

The De Burgos performance for EMI in 1964 and the Ansermet for Decca from 1961 (CS 6224) are both better recordings and our two current favorites, with the Ansermet getting the nod due to its wonderful energy and exciting performance.

There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. Both are  deserving of a place on that list.

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This Tony Hawkins-Mastered Pressing Sure Was a Letdown

Hot Stamper Pressings of Orchestral Spectaculars Available Now

This London original pressing with 1K/1K stampers (the work of Tony Hawkins) was so bright, dry, and shrill I could hardly stand it for more than the minute it took me to realize it was not going to get any better. The sound is bad enough to send it right into our hall of shame.

There are a number of other Deccas and Londons that we’ve played over the years that were disappointing, and they can be found here.

The copy we had back in 2010 was a very good sounding record, or so we thought.

Maybe we were wrong! It’s not as though we don’t admit to the possibility. You can read all about it below.

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Listening for Dry Strings on Espana

 Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chabrier Available Now

On many copies the strings are dry, lacking some of the Tubey Magic heard on the better copies.

This is decidedly not our sound, although it can easily be heard on many London pressings, the kind we’ve played by the hundreds over the years.

If you have a rich sounding cartridge, perhaps with that little dip in the upper midrange that so many moving coils have these days, you will not notice this tonality issue nearly as much as we do.

Our 17Dx is ruler flat and quite unforgiving in this regard.  

It makes our shootouts much easier, but brings out the flaws in even the best pressings, exactly the job we require it to do.

We discussed the issue in a commentary entitled Hi-Fi beats My-Fi (if you are at all serious about audio).

Here are some of the other records we’ve discovered that are good for testing string tone and texture.

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Does Anybody Ever Talk About the Dry String Tone on London LPs?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Tchaikovsky Available Now

Not that we know of.

If audiophiles and the reviewers who write for them are listening carefully to these famous recordings on the supposedly high quality (and often very high-dollar) equipment they use, why do they never talk about this problem?

Here is what we noticed when we played a big batch of Nutcracker recordings on London and Decca:

On some copies of this album the strings are dry, lacking in that wonderful quality we like to call Tubey Magic. Dry is decidedly not our sound, although it can often be heard on the hundreds of London pressings we’ve played over the years.

And we imagined that this might be the culprit:

If you have a rich sounding cartridge, perhaps with that little dip in the upper midrange, the one that so many moving coils have these days, you may not notice this tonality issue nearly as often as we do.

Our Dynavector 17Dx Karat is ruler flat and quite tonally unforgiving in this regard. It makes our shootouts much easier, but brings out the flaws in all but the best pressings, exactly the job we require it to do.

We discussed the issue in a commentary entitled Hi-fi beats my-fi if you are at all serious about audio.

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Gorgeous Cover, Bad Sound

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Felix Mendelssohn Available Now

UPDATE 2025

Our favorite recording of the work can be found here.

Awful sound. It’s bright, dry and flat, with strident strings.

The sound is much too unpleasant to be played on high quality modern equipment.

If your system is dull, dull, deadly dull, the way older systems tend to be, this record has the hyped-up, bright and aggressive sound that is sure to bring it to life in no time.

There are scores of commentaries on the site about the huge improvements in audio available to the discerning (and well-healed) audiophile. It’s the reason Hot Stampers can and do sound dramatically better than their Heavy Vinyl or audiophile counterparts: because your stereo is good enough to show you the difference.

With an Old School system, you will continue to be fooled by bad records, just as I and all my audio buds were fooled thirty and forty years ago. Audio has improved immensely in that time. If you’re still playing Heavy Vinyl and other audiophile pressings, there’s a world of sound you don’t know you’re missing.

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Borodin / Symphonies 2 & 3 – Side Two Had Some Common Sonic Problems

More of the music of Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

This shootout, conducted back in 2012, was our first for the album.

This White Hot Stamper pressing has DEMO QUALITY sound of the HIGHEST ORDER on fairly quiet vinyl no less. We’ve long considered the album one of the greatest of all the Decca / London recordings, but this pressing takes the sound beyond even our high expectations.

There is simply nothing in the sound to fault. Where is the slightly dry and midrangy quality in the upper strings that so many Londons from this era suffer from? It’s nowhere to be found on this side one. (If you have a rich sounding cartridge, perhaps with that little dip in the upper midrange that so many moving coils have these days, you will not notice this tonality issue nearly as much as we do.)

And it’s not as though our stereo was hiding that quality, because some of it creeps into the sound on this very side two (which is why it earned a slightly lower grade of A++).

Big, rich and dynamic, this is the sound of LIVE MUSIC, and it can be yours, to enjoy for years to come — if you’ve got the stereo to play it and the time to listen to it.

The powerful lower strings and brass are gorgeous. Ansermet and the Suisse Romande get that sound better than any performers I know. You will see my raves on record after record of theirs produced during this era. No doubt the world renowned Victoria Hall they recorded in is key. One can assume Decca engineers use similar techniques for their recordings regardless of the artists involved. The only real variable should be the hall.

Ansermet’s recordings with the Suisse Romande exhibit a richness in the lower registers that is unique in my experience. His Pictures At Exhibition has phenomenally powerful brass, the best I’ve ever heard. The same is true for his Night On Bald Mountain. Neither performance does much for me — they’re both too slow — but the sound is out of this world. Like it is here.

Side One

A+++, big, rich and lively, yet clear, transparent and spacious. The brass is shockingly dynamic and powerful. I defy you to find better brass on a record than can be found on this side one. I can’t recall hearing it, and we play the best sounding Golden Age classical recordings by the score week after week.

Side Two

A++, a bit wider, with lovely sheen to the strings, but tonally a bit thinner and drier than it should be. Still, awfully good in comparison to the better classical records we put up every week, just not competitive with this amazing side one.

If you’re looking for Demonstration Quality Sound, look no further. This side one has it in spades.

Heavy Vinyl

Speakers Corner did a heavy vinyl reissue of this title, which we auditioned and used to sell. It’s reasonably good, but like all reissues it lacks the weight found on this original. I remember it being a little flat and bright. I haven’t played it in years so I could easily be wrong.

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