ravelalbor

Ravel / Daphnis & Chloe – Suite No. 2 and more / Ansermet

More of the music of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) 

More Imported Pressings on Decca and London

  • An incredible Decca pressing of these amazing orchestral works with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a superb Double Plus (A++) side two
  • Both of these sides are clear, full-bodied and present, with plenty of space around the players, the unmistakable sonic hallmark of the properly mastered, properly pressed vintage analog LP
  • The presentation of the Suisse Romande is wide, tall, spacious, rich and tubey, exactly the way we want to hear them
  • When you hear how good this record sounds, you may have a hard time believing that it’s a budget reissue from the early-70s (1971 in this case), but that’s precisely what it is
  • Here is a link to more records like this one containing some of our Favorite Performances with Top Quality Sound

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Iberia on Classic Records – What, Specifically, Are Its Shortcomings?

The Music of Claude Debussy Available Now

Album Reviews of the music of Claude Debussy

An Audiophile Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records LP debunked.

The Classic of LSC 2222 is all but unlistenable on a highly resolving, properly setup hi-fi system.

The opacity, transient smear and loss of harmonic information and ambience found on Classic’s pressing was enough to drive us right up a wall. Who can sit through a record that sounds like that?

The Classic reissue has plenty of deep bass, but the overall sound is shrill and hard and altogether unpleasant. The better bass comes at a steep price.

Way back in 1994, long before we had anything like the system we do now, we were finding fault with the “Classic Records Sound” and said as much in our catalogs. (Sometimes. Sometimes we were as wrong as wrong can be.)

With each passing year — 29 and counting — we like that sound less.  The Classic may be on Harry’s TAS list — sad but true — but that certainly has no bearing on the fact that it’s not a very good record.

For a better sounding recording of Iberia, click here.

Here Are More Titles that Are Good for Judging These Recording Qualities

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Ravel, Falla – Bolero, Three Cornered Hat, etc. – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

Side two here has a SUPERB sounding Bolero, and an EVEN BETTER Alborado del Gracioso, possibly the best we have ever heard. Truly A Triple Plus sound.

As you probably know, Bolero is very hard to find on vinyl properly performed with audiophile quality sound. The sound of Bolero here is excellent: very natural, not harsh at the end where the trombones comes in, and not too compressed.

This is probably the biggest problem with most recordings of the work. Compression makes the quieter parts ravishingly open and clear, and positively ruins the climax with distortion caused by compressor overload.

A classic case of compression having sonic tradeoffs.

Alborado… has some of the best sound we have heard on London. It’s spacious, dynamic and clear. With an extended top end, the strings and horns sound harmonically correct. The orchestra from top to bottom is tonally correct as well.

Side One

The material on side one is not quite in the same league as that of side two, earning a grade of A+ for both works. The sound is a bit dry and lean, which means it is very detailed and clear but may not wear well unless your system is very rich and full in the lower mids and below.

My guess is that Old School Vintage Tube Equipment (or the modern equivalent thereof) may be just right for this side.

Either way, no matter what equipment you have, side two should be quite a thrill.

Side One

Weber / Berlioz – Invitation To The Waltz
Falla – The Three Cornered Hat

Side Two

Ravel – Bolero
Ravel – Alborado Del Gracioso

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Ravel / Karajan Conducts Ravel / Orchestre de Paris

EXCELLENT SOUND!

I recently purchased a large number of EMI classical pressings from the ’70s, many of which had disappointing sonics. Without paying any attention to this particular record, I threw it on and was pleasantly surprised — it really sounded good! Checking the back of the cover (the old fold-over flap kind) I noted that this recording was from 1972 — of course it sounds great! EMI from that period is often AMAZING. It’s only later, when they got into quadraphonic, that their sound becomes vague, diffuse, hard and even sour. Some of the EMI records on the TAS List can sound that way, which is a real scandal in my opinion.

As for the performances, they are wonderful. This is not a German orchestra. The French know how to play their own music!

This record includes alborada de gracioso, rapsodie espagnole, valses nobles et sentimentales and more.

This is an Older Classical/Orchestral Review

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)

We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.

Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.

As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.

The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.

The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.

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