Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Rimsky-Korsakov Available Now
An audiophile record hall of shame pressing and a Heavy Vinyl disaster poorly mastered for the benefit of audiophiles looking for easy answers and quick fixes.
In 2009 or 2010, during our testing of the TT Weights turntable products, the record I played again and again — close to a hundred times over the course of two days — was a wonderful White Dog pressing of LSC 2446. The sound was glorious, some of the finest reproduction of a large orchestral work I have ever heard.
(Late in life, Harry Pearson disgraced himself by putting this Classic Record on his TAS list of Super Discs.)
A week later I was still testing the system, and again using Scheherazade. A friend brought over his Classic pressing, probably the same one I would have sold him in the mid-90s. Now we could compare the two.
It was a massacre. The sound on the reissue is simply AWFUL.
There is no transient information anywhere on that Heavy Vinyl pressing whatsoever.
No instruments have any texture — not the strings, not the woodwinds, nothing.
There is no air going through the flutes.
There is no rosin on the bow of the solo violin.
The tympani are a blurry mess.
Triangle: okay.
Bass drum: okay.
Everything else: FAIL.
Not having played it in years, I could not believe how much worse the record sounded than I remember. The gulf between the real thing and the Classic wannabe was now so huge that the reissue was nothing less than positively UNPLEASANT to listen to.
Enjoyment? Out of the question.
TAS List? The original is, but the Classic is too. Now how messed up is that?
Disgraceful, that’s all I have to say about it.
If I were in charge of the TAS Super Disc list, obviously I would not have put this record on it.
Here are some others that we do not think qualify as Super Discs.
Here are some Hot Stamper pressings of TAS List titles that actually have audiophile sound quality, guaranteed.
And if for some reason you disagree with us about how good they sound, we will be happy to give you your money back.
Our favorite performance of Scheherazade is Ansermet’s with the Suisse Romande from 1961.