Use low odour clear Turpentine to dissolve the glue and remove the tape, won’t harm the cover…
@grayhalf18549 күн бұрын
Found my first charity shop Columbia SAX today, both discs of the Brahms / Klemperer German Requiem set. Lovely condition, pricey (for a chazza!) at £4 apiece 😀 (Annoyingly one is the blue/silver but the other is the red magic notes... which is a little irksome but I'll live with it...)
@PocketFilms10010 күн бұрын
I recently picked up an SXL ('A Recital of Lute Songs - Peter Pears and Julian Bream') in a local charity shop. Thanks to you and your channel and the information you've given on these records, I didn't miss it or disregard it. It's in excellent condition.
@LPCLASSICAL9 күн бұрын
that is probably one of the bottom 5 SXLs to own. But still worth having.
@JudgeDrokk11 күн бұрын
Why didn't they just put it in a properrecord sleeve - instead of wrapping ut up like an old school book. ?
@LPCLASSICAL11 күн бұрын
Yes - which is what I have done now.
@JudgeDrokk11 күн бұрын
@@LPCLASSICAL Good for many decades now then.
@AitchAitch99911 күн бұрын
For the removal of sellotape in book and document restoration hot air from a hairdryer is used (for about 30 seconds) to soften an area of the tape which enables the top layer to be removed (half an inch at a time), so it’s slow and laborious. Then the tacky & stained residue is removed using a solvent such as heptane on cotton wool (q-tip or some such).
@kenheitmueller6910 күн бұрын
I came to say the same. I use a 300W hobby hot air gun and plastic razor blades to soften even old, dried labels and tape. The softness of the plastic razor blades doesn't run the risk of damaging the jacket. Some WD-40 and a paper towel can then remove any unscraped residue from the cover.
@moc502211 күн бұрын
I Always buy Supraphon
@moc502211 күн бұрын
Did you say you wouldn't even listen to them?
@LPCLASSICAL11 күн бұрын
Yes but I did. Listened to 1 side of each so far.
@slowpawstevet367611 күн бұрын
I wouldn' t use any white spirit, that could damage the vinyl. They don't seem to use Clarifoil anymore that lasted for years. I store my albums in polythene outer sleeves, never use clear acetate/pvc as it will have a chemical fogging effect on the vinyl, well documented on the Toob.
@brians13211 күн бұрын
My advice would be similar to what you already did, but with a slight modification. Hold the stanley knife flat to the inside of the record sleeve so the blade is almost parallel to the card. Slip the blade under the plastic and try to run it very gently UNDER the tape. Once you get the tip of the blade under the tape, wiggle the tip very gently to create a gap under the tape, then once a gap has been created, very gently slide the blade along the length of the tape to loosen it and gradually work it free. Best to try using the blunt side of the blade to prevent cutting the tape as you want to work it loose gently. If the tape starts to pull away the cardboard, stop in that area and repeat the whole process a centimetre or so further along and work back to where the cardboard started sticking to the tape. If you can slide the blade all the way under the tape and through to the other side, this will stop the tape splitting and leaving bits stuck on the record. In fact, if you can do this, then you may want to try sliding a blunt sewing needle through the gap under the tape so the needle lies between the bottom of the tape and the cardboard but perpendicular to the line of the tape, then try working it along the line of the tape as described above to loosen the tape from the cardboard. If the tape has been stuck to the inside for 30 years or so then it should (hopefully) already be a bit less sticky and come away fairly easily...🤞
@grayhalf185412 күн бұрын
I'd try white spirit to remove the rest of the plastic sleeve.
@brians13212 күн бұрын
No, don't do that. White spirit is a harsh solvent and will probably also soak into the cardboard and leave a mess.
@VagueRANT10012 күн бұрын
Preserve them....the MAGIC WORDS....
@slowpawstevet367612 күн бұрын
i found many on ebay selling good Classical records, often good budget issues, for as little as £1.99, the postage cost is eased if you buy a few for around that price, and they are almost always in near mint condition. I usually go for various editions of well known compositions and conductors though find the odd gem from little known ones. One label i have found to be very good performances, sound quality and "quiet" vinyl is the Decca series "The World of Great Classics", i have built up quite a collection of these but i notice prices are going up quite quickly so maybe the secret's out! Will miss your reports, Stuart, maybe you could use your knowledge and experience in future videos to guide buyers showing the pitfalls and best buys of various compositions and conductors? (-:
@ftumschk12 күн бұрын
I've got a good few recordings of Van Dam in German operas, but I've never heard him sing Lieder, so that was a great find. The other record looks beautifully produced, so it's worth having for that reason alone.
@AitchAitch99912 күн бұрын
I certainly would have bought the Elizabethan Viols record, perhaps not the other. My own charity shop adventures continue to produce little of note, my last trip resulted in nothing at all (there were interesting classical records, but the condition of all of them was awful). The most interesting recent purchases (well, interesting to me) being (1) a Decca box set from Germany of Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflote’, a 3 record narrow band silver on plum set with a brilliantly illustrated booklet, almost 80 pages (SET 479-81); and (2) an EMI boxed set of David Munrow’s ‘Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance’ which contains a 96 page book all in English detailing the instruments (SLS 988) - I bought this mainly for the book! Both cost me £1, neither worth a lot though.
@jorgeleandrorosa288112 күн бұрын
Forlane and Arion are both French labels. Both released good classical recordings. I've bought several in Portugal (I'm Portuguese). Van Dam is an excelent belgian baritone. Arion is the oldest and more interesting of the two: they had classical and tradicional music recordings. This was quite pionnering, before "world music" became a thing.
@LPCLASSICAL12 күн бұрын
Very interesting especially with British musicians playing British music. Listened to one side last night - beautiful analogue sound and excellent pieces.
@melvincalladine818714 күн бұрын
Not every one can afford the big bucks for hifi gear . I have a few grands worth of gear , CD player turntable etc great amp and speakers . I love vinyl but CD beats it everytime with the very rare exception . Cds are the best just let go of the past
@analogueanorak190421 күн бұрын
By coincidence I dug out my copy of this double album as I hadn’t listened to it for ages and with a very different hifi set up. It sounded much better than I recalled with a very pleasant detailed sense of presence of the hall and very warm sonics for digital. The main reason it’s vulnerable to downsizing is my tastes have changed and I’ve become immune to the charm of the NYD concert.
@osliverpool21 күн бұрын
Oh wow, I have a copy of that and I never realised it was the first UK digital classical LP! Mine still has the original insert describing the digital process, but it doesn't actually say very much. I haven't played it in years, but I must do. Red labels here, btw. PS: You can see the insert on one of the discogs listings.
@Crimsonphilosophy21 күн бұрын
Fun channel, I don't listen to tons of classical or vinyl, but still, your stories are interesting.
@joseluisherreralepron998722 күн бұрын
I remember hearing the Schnittke Cello Concerto for the first time on our local PBS radio station one night. I was listening with headphones as it was after midnight and loved it; hard to hear in a way but remarkable to me. After it ended there was a long pause and the locutor came in and said, "Well. That was...interesting." Heh! I found the recording on CD and listen to it to this day, over 30 years later.
@ReneAlexisPenalozaMunoz22 күн бұрын
Digital recording on an analogue medium. Kind of a downgrade IMHO
@joseluisherreralepron998722 күн бұрын
Oh, the "Giant Piano Sound". Yes, I'm quite familiar with that sound. RCA made some wonderful stereo recordings in the 50's but they tended to suffer from this recording style. It's definitely distracting to me; the music can be wonderful but that huge piano, speaker to speaker, matching the soundstage of the orchestra, is jarring.
@joseluisherreralepron998722 күн бұрын
Here in the states I went to university at the University of Arizona. In the late 80's, early 90's as a student I was really getting into classical and unfortunately my experience with little out of the way shops was to look through the bins under the baleful glare--over reading glasses, of course--of tiresome old gits who thought I was a poser. My age, I suppose, as I was only about 20. That put me off such out of the way shops and I found most of my collection at larger used media shops and op-shops after that.
@sidesup828622 күн бұрын
That was early digital. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab said in a KZread interview that when they make a DSD copy of a master tape, it samples a thousand times more per second than SACD. A million times per second is the sampling rate of SACD. I did some math and came up with an analogy. If you had a helicopter that had enough fuel to fly from Los Angeles to the U.K., the amount of times its blades would rotate in that very long trip would be far less than how many times our most spphisticated digital recorders sample PER SECOND! Digital has gotten very advanced. In the comparisons I've made with DECCA SXL lps versus the same performance on London Blueback lp; so far the SXL always wins for sound quality. Someone said everything was done the same, but in a process that involves so many little steps, it sounds like somewhere down the line, they were doing something better in the transfer process of the SXLs.
@grayhalf185422 күн бұрын
Some historical significance but still worth naff all. Wonder what the bitrate was...
@slowpawstevet367622 күн бұрын
On the subject of digital recordings, Stuart, i recently saw a reel on KZread where an eminent tonearm designer thought digitally recorded albums on vinyl would still sound like vinyl albums, i must say i agree with him from whst i have heard but i will do my own listening tests this week (-:
@LPCLASSICAL22 күн бұрын
Digital on vinyl is preferable to any other digital format anyway.
@67Parsifal23 күн бұрын
This is not one of my favourite Beethoven symphonies. I feel that the best performance by far is that by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
@jimmyagates25 күн бұрын
One example is really quite irrelevant.
@melvincalladine818714 күн бұрын
So true
@67Parsifal25 күн бұрын
‘I do hope everything will be OK….’ Hm. A bbc man to his boots.
@AitchAitch99926 күн бұрын
Another blank day for me, today!
@sidesup828627 күн бұрын
There has never been one intelligent cd sound quality versus vinyl sound quality debate that I've ever seen. People may think they're comparing the merits of one format vs.another; but they're not! Only one kind of person is qualified to be a participant in that debate. Someone who has state of the art vinyl playback equipment and someone else, (or actually preferably the same person) who also has state of the art cd playback equipment. And we are not in 1993; we are in 2024. Not just "good" equipment but state of the art equipment. Like Ayon on Burmester cd players. Anything LESS than that and you are not comparing formats, even if you think you are. You are comparing one piece of limited equipment with another piece of limited gear from the other format ; not the inherent quality of cd vs. vinyl!... But few people will ever own $25,000 Ayon cd players or $75,000 Burmester cd players. So the only relevant question is; what format and playback sounds better at down to Earth prices that people can afford? I can do the complete opposite, and change vinyl people over to cd. Cd playback at its best sounds as analog as vinyl. There is that warm liquid continuity to the sound. No thinness, hardness, naturalness limitations or spatial limitations. Those bad qualities are how cds sounded on equipment we've upgraded from decades ago. Vinyl people running around like chickens, seeking that better pressings and paying through the teeth for it, is ridiculous. If they had a great enough cd player, and it doesn't have to cost that much, they would realize that 90% of the time, the best pressing is conveniently at the nearest store that sells cds.
@LPCLASSICAL27 күн бұрын
@@sidesup8286 Get that test set up then and prove your claims.
@sidesup828627 күн бұрын
I make no claims as to which is better. I have never heard the current state of the art in vinyl olayback. For instance the best phono cartridges I ever heard were a Madrigal Carnegie One Moving Coil, (years ago) it was the first cartridge ever to get a 4 star rating from The Absolute Sound magazine. And the other best cartridge I ever heard years ago was a $1,200 Sumiko Talisman Virtuoso Dti moving coil cartridge; said to have the best highs ever by Stereophile magazine. That was years ago, & wouldn't qualify me as someone who could state what the current performance ceiling is on vinyl playback. I do extensive mods on my cd player and it keeps getting better and better. It could be state of the art, or it might not be, so I, nor anyone else would have any way of knowing what format is better. You can't know that without knowing the current performance ceiling on either format, and what equipment achieves that. No one even knows for sure what IS the very best equipment. So you would not even know what to compare. So the debate of what format has the best sound quality is a bit silly and in fiction land. One outstanding top performer out there, could change the lines on the map. Digital is a fast improving technology. Don't bet against digital sound getting even better than it is capable now. Even now, analog people would be surprised greatly.
@LPCLASSICAL26 күн бұрын
@@sidesup8286 "I can do the complete opposite, and change vinyl people over to cd." That's your claim. Do it under controlled conditions with a third party and publish the results. Ideally you would need to provide test subjects with this £1M system to live with and listen to for 1 week. Then the same with a £1M vinyl playback system for 1 week. There would need to be parameters etc. Not an easy claim to test. A/B comparisons side by side are not the way to do it. A digital system can sound great until you find yourself with such a system and wanting to listen less and less without knowing why.
@sidesup828626 күн бұрын
Type in Goldmund Reference turntable pics. My digital system can compete with lps played on a turntable like that. Could your turntable compete with a Goldmund for sound quality? No, the Goldmund would make your turntable and vinyl playback sound like a toy. Of course there could be a 1 in 100,000 chance that you have a Goldmund, so I am making an inference there; but a safe inference I'm sure. Most people are totally ignorant of what equipment like that sounds like. I am not one of them. Most people who say cliche negative things about digital, might have been correct 40 years ago, but digital at its best has come a ling way. Do you really think that your turntable/cartridge sounds anywhere near as good as the cd playback equipment they have at Sony or Philips headquarters? It doesn't come anywhere close I'm sure. You simply speak out of No Experience as far as actually living with state of the art equipment, and having any remote idea of how such equipment sounds. Michael Fremer's debacle calling the Mofi Abraxas by Santana, lp the best recording for sound quality he has ever heard, and then later embarrassingly finding out it was a digital lp, after Mobile Fidelity revealed that their lps have been cut from DSD instead of analog master tapes for a long long time, is just one example of people like yourself getting caught with their foot in their mouth. High end audio review magazines for quite a while now realize how great digital at its best can sound. And they embrace it. Even 20 years ago when thise magazines were saying stuff like "Analog has a touch more sweetness, airiness and natural ease", that "touch" more was based on the sound of their $20,000 turntable setups and their $10,000 phono stages. Would YOUR turntable/preamp have sounded like IT had a touch more air and natural ease? Let's not get ridiculous, and realize the perspective their statements were coming from.That upscale digital sound doesn't draw you in and make you want to listen more and more, might have been true in the past. But it's the year 2024, and that is now a cliche reminscent of people who don't have a clue as to how good digital sound now can be. My cd playback equipment when playing an average cd, will run all up and down any lp playback you are likely to have. And what would make us want to stop listening is the higher distortion and the surface noise of vinyl. Our cds we could enjoy listening to all day long And we don't get fleeced by price gougers when buying our music. And no, I am not one of those who tries to measure the world and does controlled experiments which would take a ridiculous amount of time and money. But actually spending afternoons listening to edge of the art vinyl AND cd playback, is a lot more Scientific, than someone pretending to know what they speak of, but does not.p. Even the most severe digital critics, have been silenced by the Mofi scandal. Realizing the lps they regard as ne ultra plus turned out to be digital lps! I believe there is a "need to believe" among many vinyl enthusiasts to think of digital as inferior; to think you have something SPECIAL there as far as vinyl. But what you really have there is enormously higher levels of second order harmonic distortion which softens the sound and makes it sound warmer. Your thinking digital is inferior is based on not being familiar with digital at its best, and there are many digital lps which is digital at it's worst. Paul McGowan, the owner of PS Audio said on one of his daily KZread videos, that he thinks that so called vinyl warmth is due to resonance flaws in phono cartridges. No one has ever heard an lp without a phono cartridge playing it.
@nicksterj26 күн бұрын
You don't even need high-end CD gear. A plain old Sound Blaster is good enough to be audibly transparent. Take the output of your high-end turntable, or reel-to-reel...ANY source you like, actually...and run it through an A/D-D/A converter set to CD quality. Match levels and switch back and forth (blinded) and see if you can tell the CD quality digital from the original source better than 50% of the time. Good luck! :)
@joseluisherreralepron998728 күн бұрын
Westminster. Good label, mostly. I like their tech disclosures given their time...Dynamic Range, frequency response, etc.
@joseluisherreralepron998728 күн бұрын
Cheap record players out there. I bought a Rega planar 2 in '99 and it still works perfectly.
@joseluisherreralepron998728 күн бұрын
There is difference between CD standard and SACD. I've done a number of comparisons and SACD gives a wider soundstage and sounds less...processed and digital. I have a Marantz CD player and I'm very happy with its sound. It's a little warm but it works well for 95% of recordings.
@SuperLisalis29 күн бұрын
Beautiful vinyl..well found.
@VagueRANT10029 күн бұрын
You did very well indeed buying these Gems "on the blind"! CARMEN was my introduction/indoctrination to the wonderful world of the classics...your speakers remind me of my beloved long serving Celestion Dittons...Happy Hunting!
@johnholmes91229 күн бұрын
25 years ago I bought the entire Solti ring on vinyl for £4 from an Oxfam shop
@johnholmes91229 күн бұрын
I have an expensive two box CD solution. Visitors always comment as to how great it sounds. Then I put a record on and their jaws hit the floor.
@johnholmes91229 күн бұрын
I have rather a lot of DG from the 70s, although I thought the RCA living stereo records had a better sound
@AceTechHDАй бұрын
Videos like this are never popular. More often than not a good LP played back on a good analog disc player will absolutely put any CD (and high res digital file) to shame.
@nicksterj29 күн бұрын
Well, although I've never owned a high-end turntable and cartridge, I did listen to them in the shop back in the day. The first time I heard CD, it absolutely put all the vinyl I had ever heard to shame!
@sidesup828627 күн бұрын
Actually neither one puts the other to shame; but vinyl guys like this guy obviously is, would have culture shock if he ever heard anything approaching a true state of the art cd playback system. He would like to continue to believe that he has something elusive there, in sound quality, because it's vinyl. Does he have a $15,000 phono cartridge that would run with super great digital gear? That's about what it would take Cd playback has gained in leaps and bounds over the years. What about vinyl playback? If you still had a top of the line $1,200 Talisman Virtuoso Dti moving coil phono cartridge from back in 1994. What new tricks could it be taught by expensive cartridges of today? And yes, almost all $1,200 phono cartridges sound like a whole new listening experience, compared to what most audiophiles use.
@nicksterj26 күн бұрын
@@sidesup8286 The first time I heard a CD in the shop, the sales associate put the disc in the player and hit play. He said, "Hear that?" I said, "No." Then the music burst forth at full volume from dead silence. I made up my mind that day to get a CD player as soon as I could afford one!
@careyatchison1348Ай бұрын
Like you, I recently found a copy of a RCA shaded dog Sibelius/Heifetz album. I paid under $10 (U.S.) and can attest that it sounds magnificent. Such a passionate performance!
@Roamany-JonesАй бұрын
As a Collector myself I agree with u over the DG pressings, however you need to try the DG GY5's 'alle hersteller' originals these were made in the 50 & 60's and as sound much better than the UK or German reissues. Up there with the Decca's
@SuperLisalisАй бұрын
Im Drooling.. Carnegie hall...You found a great haul, well done.😊
@SuperLisalisАй бұрын
My best find was a 12' pic disk vinyl with a ufo landing, bought it thou hadnt heard of the group. Following month it was actually in pop chart's Journey Don't stop believing, £1.
@TojazzerАй бұрын
You have a great haul today. Congratulations. Those London records are not American Decca, which is a different label entirely. This is a British Decca, re-labeled for export to North America. Exactly the same pressings as those labeled Decca. Same stampers from the same factories. That London box set with the blue back is a great find. All Londons and British Deccas that have the blue back are early pressings and wide band, whether box or single record.
@LPCLASSICALАй бұрын
I actually said in the video that the "American Deccas" are made in England. Yes I am aware of all that thank you. I use the term American Deccas to mean exactly what you say. Maybe there is a better phrase I could have used. Maybe "British Decca's sold under the London label in the USA". That is a mouthful though. I obviously did not mean that Decca make them in the USA as I said they are made in England. Le Nozze Di Figaro would be a great find. That Alceste is worth little.
@slowpawstevet3676Ай бұрын
i've just dumped a load of vinyl and cd's in my local branch of Oxfam, got to keep the flames going and doing my bit (-: btw using VinylShelter cleaning fluid is very good for reducing static and minor crackles from records, also invest in a goat hair brush and DiscoAntistat cleaning bath, worked great for me for many years. Very envious of your Heifetz find!
@SuperLisalisАй бұрын
Dare I ask which Oxfam😅
@slowpawstevet3676Ай бұрын
the ones i give to Oxfam all have slight faults which i would be reluctant to sell online but would probably suit the beginner looking for cheap bargains, though i do have a job lot of Bruckner symphonies on the 'bay you might be interested in bidding on..? (-:
@PurpleDrekiАй бұрын
Impressive! Seems to have worked very well!
@Andrew_from_Oz_Vinyl_LandscapeАй бұрын
They always sound brighter before a clean ime !
@DrWrapperbandАй бұрын
Charity shops are just pure luck what donations they have and how quick you get there before someone else spots them.
Пікірлер
Fantastic finds,well done subscribed.
Use low odour clear Turpentine to dissolve the glue and remove the tape, won’t harm the cover…
Found my first charity shop Columbia SAX today, both discs of the Brahms / Klemperer German Requiem set. Lovely condition, pricey (for a chazza!) at £4 apiece 😀 (Annoyingly one is the blue/silver but the other is the red magic notes... which is a little irksome but I'll live with it...)
I recently picked up an SXL ('A Recital of Lute Songs - Peter Pears and Julian Bream') in a local charity shop. Thanks to you and your channel and the information you've given on these records, I didn't miss it or disregard it. It's in excellent condition.
that is probably one of the bottom 5 SXLs to own. But still worth having.
Why didn't they just put it in a properrecord sleeve - instead of wrapping ut up like an old school book. ?
Yes - which is what I have done now.
@@LPCLASSICAL Good for many decades now then.
For the removal of sellotape in book and document restoration hot air from a hairdryer is used (for about 30 seconds) to soften an area of the tape which enables the top layer to be removed (half an inch at a time), so it’s slow and laborious. Then the tacky & stained residue is removed using a solvent such as heptane on cotton wool (q-tip or some such).
I came to say the same. I use a 300W hobby hot air gun and plastic razor blades to soften even old, dried labels and tape. The softness of the plastic razor blades doesn't run the risk of damaging the jacket. Some WD-40 and a paper towel can then remove any unscraped residue from the cover.
I Always buy Supraphon
Did you say you wouldn't even listen to them?
Yes but I did. Listened to 1 side of each so far.
I wouldn' t use any white spirit, that could damage the vinyl. They don't seem to use Clarifoil anymore that lasted for years. I store my albums in polythene outer sleeves, never use clear acetate/pvc as it will have a chemical fogging effect on the vinyl, well documented on the Toob.
My advice would be similar to what you already did, but with a slight modification. Hold the stanley knife flat to the inside of the record sleeve so the blade is almost parallel to the card. Slip the blade under the plastic and try to run it very gently UNDER the tape. Once you get the tip of the blade under the tape, wiggle the tip very gently to create a gap under the tape, then once a gap has been created, very gently slide the blade along the length of the tape to loosen it and gradually work it free. Best to try using the blunt side of the blade to prevent cutting the tape as you want to work it loose gently. If the tape starts to pull away the cardboard, stop in that area and repeat the whole process a centimetre or so further along and work back to where the cardboard started sticking to the tape. If you can slide the blade all the way under the tape and through to the other side, this will stop the tape splitting and leaving bits stuck on the record. In fact, if you can do this, then you may want to try sliding a blunt sewing needle through the gap under the tape so the needle lies between the bottom of the tape and the cardboard but perpendicular to the line of the tape, then try working it along the line of the tape as described above to loosen the tape from the cardboard. If the tape has been stuck to the inside for 30 years or so then it should (hopefully) already be a bit less sticky and come away fairly easily...🤞
I'd try white spirit to remove the rest of the plastic sleeve.
No, don't do that. White spirit is a harsh solvent and will probably also soak into the cardboard and leave a mess.
Preserve them....the MAGIC WORDS....
i found many on ebay selling good Classical records, often good budget issues, for as little as £1.99, the postage cost is eased if you buy a few for around that price, and they are almost always in near mint condition. I usually go for various editions of well known compositions and conductors though find the odd gem from little known ones. One label i have found to be very good performances, sound quality and "quiet" vinyl is the Decca series "The World of Great Classics", i have built up quite a collection of these but i notice prices are going up quite quickly so maybe the secret's out! Will miss your reports, Stuart, maybe you could use your knowledge and experience in future videos to guide buyers showing the pitfalls and best buys of various compositions and conductors? (-:
I've got a good few recordings of Van Dam in German operas, but I've never heard him sing Lieder, so that was a great find. The other record looks beautifully produced, so it's worth having for that reason alone.
I certainly would have bought the Elizabethan Viols record, perhaps not the other. My own charity shop adventures continue to produce little of note, my last trip resulted in nothing at all (there were interesting classical records, but the condition of all of them was awful). The most interesting recent purchases (well, interesting to me) being (1) a Decca box set from Germany of Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflote’, a 3 record narrow band silver on plum set with a brilliantly illustrated booklet, almost 80 pages (SET 479-81); and (2) an EMI boxed set of David Munrow’s ‘Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance’ which contains a 96 page book all in English detailing the instruments (SLS 988) - I bought this mainly for the book! Both cost me £1, neither worth a lot though.
Forlane and Arion are both French labels. Both released good classical recordings. I've bought several in Portugal (I'm Portuguese). Van Dam is an excelent belgian baritone. Arion is the oldest and more interesting of the two: they had classical and tradicional music recordings. This was quite pionnering, before "world music" became a thing.
Very interesting especially with British musicians playing British music. Listened to one side last night - beautiful analogue sound and excellent pieces.
Not every one can afford the big bucks for hifi gear . I have a few grands worth of gear , CD player turntable etc great amp and speakers . I love vinyl but CD beats it everytime with the very rare exception . Cds are the best just let go of the past
By coincidence I dug out my copy of this double album as I hadn’t listened to it for ages and with a very different hifi set up. It sounded much better than I recalled with a very pleasant detailed sense of presence of the hall and very warm sonics for digital. The main reason it’s vulnerable to downsizing is my tastes have changed and I’ve become immune to the charm of the NYD concert.
Oh wow, I have a copy of that and I never realised it was the first UK digital classical LP! Mine still has the original insert describing the digital process, but it doesn't actually say very much. I haven't played it in years, but I must do. Red labels here, btw. PS: You can see the insert on one of the discogs listings.
Fun channel, I don't listen to tons of classical or vinyl, but still, your stories are interesting.
I remember hearing the Schnittke Cello Concerto for the first time on our local PBS radio station one night. I was listening with headphones as it was after midnight and loved it; hard to hear in a way but remarkable to me. After it ended there was a long pause and the locutor came in and said, "Well. That was...interesting." Heh! I found the recording on CD and listen to it to this day, over 30 years later.
Digital recording on an analogue medium. Kind of a downgrade IMHO
Oh, the "Giant Piano Sound". Yes, I'm quite familiar with that sound. RCA made some wonderful stereo recordings in the 50's but they tended to suffer from this recording style. It's definitely distracting to me; the music can be wonderful but that huge piano, speaker to speaker, matching the soundstage of the orchestra, is jarring.
Here in the states I went to university at the University of Arizona. In the late 80's, early 90's as a student I was really getting into classical and unfortunately my experience with little out of the way shops was to look through the bins under the baleful glare--over reading glasses, of course--of tiresome old gits who thought I was a poser. My age, I suppose, as I was only about 20. That put me off such out of the way shops and I found most of my collection at larger used media shops and op-shops after that.
That was early digital. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab said in a KZread interview that when they make a DSD copy of a master tape, it samples a thousand times more per second than SACD. A million times per second is the sampling rate of SACD. I did some math and came up with an analogy. If you had a helicopter that had enough fuel to fly from Los Angeles to the U.K., the amount of times its blades would rotate in that very long trip would be far less than how many times our most spphisticated digital recorders sample PER SECOND! Digital has gotten very advanced. In the comparisons I've made with DECCA SXL lps versus the same performance on London Blueback lp; so far the SXL always wins for sound quality. Someone said everything was done the same, but in a process that involves so many little steps, it sounds like somewhere down the line, they were doing something better in the transfer process of the SXLs.
Some historical significance but still worth naff all. Wonder what the bitrate was...
On the subject of digital recordings, Stuart, i recently saw a reel on KZread where an eminent tonearm designer thought digitally recorded albums on vinyl would still sound like vinyl albums, i must say i agree with him from whst i have heard but i will do my own listening tests this week (-:
Digital on vinyl is preferable to any other digital format anyway.
This is not one of my favourite Beethoven symphonies. I feel that the best performance by far is that by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
One example is really quite irrelevant.
So true
‘I do hope everything will be OK….’ Hm. A bbc man to his boots.
Another blank day for me, today!
There has never been one intelligent cd sound quality versus vinyl sound quality debate that I've ever seen. People may think they're comparing the merits of one format vs.another; but they're not! Only one kind of person is qualified to be a participant in that debate. Someone who has state of the art vinyl playback equipment and someone else, (or actually preferably the same person) who also has state of the art cd playback equipment. And we are not in 1993; we are in 2024. Not just "good" equipment but state of the art equipment. Like Ayon on Burmester cd players. Anything LESS than that and you are not comparing formats, even if you think you are. You are comparing one piece of limited equipment with another piece of limited gear from the other format ; not the inherent quality of cd vs. vinyl!... But few people will ever own $25,000 Ayon cd players or $75,000 Burmester cd players. So the only relevant question is; what format and playback sounds better at down to Earth prices that people can afford? I can do the complete opposite, and change vinyl people over to cd. Cd playback at its best sounds as analog as vinyl. There is that warm liquid continuity to the sound. No thinness, hardness, naturalness limitations or spatial limitations. Those bad qualities are how cds sounded on equipment we've upgraded from decades ago. Vinyl people running around like chickens, seeking that better pressings and paying through the teeth for it, is ridiculous. If they had a great enough cd player, and it doesn't have to cost that much, they would realize that 90% of the time, the best pressing is conveniently at the nearest store that sells cds.
@@sidesup8286 Get that test set up then and prove your claims.
I make no claims as to which is better. I have never heard the current state of the art in vinyl olayback. For instance the best phono cartridges I ever heard were a Madrigal Carnegie One Moving Coil, (years ago) it was the first cartridge ever to get a 4 star rating from The Absolute Sound magazine. And the other best cartridge I ever heard years ago was a $1,200 Sumiko Talisman Virtuoso Dti moving coil cartridge; said to have the best highs ever by Stereophile magazine. That was years ago, & wouldn't qualify me as someone who could state what the current performance ceiling is on vinyl playback. I do extensive mods on my cd player and it keeps getting better and better. It could be state of the art, or it might not be, so I, nor anyone else would have any way of knowing what format is better. You can't know that without knowing the current performance ceiling on either format, and what equipment achieves that. No one even knows for sure what IS the very best equipment. So you would not even know what to compare. So the debate of what format has the best sound quality is a bit silly and in fiction land. One outstanding top performer out there, could change the lines on the map. Digital is a fast improving technology. Don't bet against digital sound getting even better than it is capable now. Even now, analog people would be surprised greatly.
@@sidesup8286 "I can do the complete opposite, and change vinyl people over to cd." That's your claim. Do it under controlled conditions with a third party and publish the results. Ideally you would need to provide test subjects with this £1M system to live with and listen to for 1 week. Then the same with a £1M vinyl playback system for 1 week. There would need to be parameters etc. Not an easy claim to test. A/B comparisons side by side are not the way to do it. A digital system can sound great until you find yourself with such a system and wanting to listen less and less without knowing why.
Type in Goldmund Reference turntable pics. My digital system can compete with lps played on a turntable like that. Could your turntable compete with a Goldmund for sound quality? No, the Goldmund would make your turntable and vinyl playback sound like a toy. Of course there could be a 1 in 100,000 chance that you have a Goldmund, so I am making an inference there; but a safe inference I'm sure. Most people are totally ignorant of what equipment like that sounds like. I am not one of them. Most people who say cliche negative things about digital, might have been correct 40 years ago, but digital at its best has come a ling way. Do you really think that your turntable/cartridge sounds anywhere near as good as the cd playback equipment they have at Sony or Philips headquarters? It doesn't come anywhere close I'm sure. You simply speak out of No Experience as far as actually living with state of the art equipment, and having any remote idea of how such equipment sounds. Michael Fremer's debacle calling the Mofi Abraxas by Santana, lp the best recording for sound quality he has ever heard, and then later embarrassingly finding out it was a digital lp, after Mobile Fidelity revealed that their lps have been cut from DSD instead of analog master tapes for a long long time, is just one example of people like yourself getting caught with their foot in their mouth. High end audio review magazines for quite a while now realize how great digital at its best can sound. And they embrace it. Even 20 years ago when thise magazines were saying stuff like "Analog has a touch more sweetness, airiness and natural ease", that "touch" more was based on the sound of their $20,000 turntable setups and their $10,000 phono stages. Would YOUR turntable/preamp have sounded like IT had a touch more air and natural ease? Let's not get ridiculous, and realize the perspective their statements were coming from.That upscale digital sound doesn't draw you in and make you want to listen more and more, might have been true in the past. But it's the year 2024, and that is now a cliche reminscent of people who don't have a clue as to how good digital sound now can be. My cd playback equipment when playing an average cd, will run all up and down any lp playback you are likely to have. And what would make us want to stop listening is the higher distortion and the surface noise of vinyl. Our cds we could enjoy listening to all day long And we don't get fleeced by price gougers when buying our music. And no, I am not one of those who tries to measure the world and does controlled experiments which would take a ridiculous amount of time and money. But actually spending afternoons listening to edge of the art vinyl AND cd playback, is a lot more Scientific, than someone pretending to know what they speak of, but does not.p. Even the most severe digital critics, have been silenced by the Mofi scandal. Realizing the lps they regard as ne ultra plus turned out to be digital lps! I believe there is a "need to believe" among many vinyl enthusiasts to think of digital as inferior; to think you have something SPECIAL there as far as vinyl. But what you really have there is enormously higher levels of second order harmonic distortion which softens the sound and makes it sound warmer. Your thinking digital is inferior is based on not being familiar with digital at its best, and there are many digital lps which is digital at it's worst. Paul McGowan, the owner of PS Audio said on one of his daily KZread videos, that he thinks that so called vinyl warmth is due to resonance flaws in phono cartridges. No one has ever heard an lp without a phono cartridge playing it.
You don't even need high-end CD gear. A plain old Sound Blaster is good enough to be audibly transparent. Take the output of your high-end turntable, or reel-to-reel...ANY source you like, actually...and run it through an A/D-D/A converter set to CD quality. Match levels and switch back and forth (blinded) and see if you can tell the CD quality digital from the original source better than 50% of the time. Good luck! :)
Westminster. Good label, mostly. I like their tech disclosures given their time...Dynamic Range, frequency response, etc.
Cheap record players out there. I bought a Rega planar 2 in '99 and it still works perfectly.
There is difference between CD standard and SACD. I've done a number of comparisons and SACD gives a wider soundstage and sounds less...processed and digital. I have a Marantz CD player and I'm very happy with its sound. It's a little warm but it works well for 95% of recordings.
Beautiful vinyl..well found.
You did very well indeed buying these Gems "on the blind"! CARMEN was my introduction/indoctrination to the wonderful world of the classics...your speakers remind me of my beloved long serving Celestion Dittons...Happy Hunting!
25 years ago I bought the entire Solti ring on vinyl for £4 from an Oxfam shop
I have an expensive two box CD solution. Visitors always comment as to how great it sounds. Then I put a record on and their jaws hit the floor.
I have rather a lot of DG from the 70s, although I thought the RCA living stereo records had a better sound
Videos like this are never popular. More often than not a good LP played back on a good analog disc player will absolutely put any CD (and high res digital file) to shame.
Well, although I've never owned a high-end turntable and cartridge, I did listen to them in the shop back in the day. The first time I heard CD, it absolutely put all the vinyl I had ever heard to shame!
Actually neither one puts the other to shame; but vinyl guys like this guy obviously is, would have culture shock if he ever heard anything approaching a true state of the art cd playback system. He would like to continue to believe that he has something elusive there, in sound quality, because it's vinyl. Does he have a $15,000 phono cartridge that would run with super great digital gear? That's about what it would take Cd playback has gained in leaps and bounds over the years. What about vinyl playback? If you still had a top of the line $1,200 Talisman Virtuoso Dti moving coil phono cartridge from back in 1994. What new tricks could it be taught by expensive cartridges of today? And yes, almost all $1,200 phono cartridges sound like a whole new listening experience, compared to what most audiophiles use.
@@sidesup8286 The first time I heard a CD in the shop, the sales associate put the disc in the player and hit play. He said, "Hear that?" I said, "No." Then the music burst forth at full volume from dead silence. I made up my mind that day to get a CD player as soon as I could afford one!
Like you, I recently found a copy of a RCA shaded dog Sibelius/Heifetz album. I paid under $10 (U.S.) and can attest that it sounds magnificent. Such a passionate performance!
As a Collector myself I agree with u over the DG pressings, however you need to try the DG GY5's 'alle hersteller' originals these were made in the 50 & 60's and as sound much better than the UK or German reissues. Up there with the Decca's
Im Drooling.. Carnegie hall...You found a great haul, well done.😊
My best find was a 12' pic disk vinyl with a ufo landing, bought it thou hadnt heard of the group. Following month it was actually in pop chart's Journey Don't stop believing, £1.
You have a great haul today. Congratulations. Those London records are not American Decca, which is a different label entirely. This is a British Decca, re-labeled for export to North America. Exactly the same pressings as those labeled Decca. Same stampers from the same factories. That London box set with the blue back is a great find. All Londons and British Deccas that have the blue back are early pressings and wide band, whether box or single record.
I actually said in the video that the "American Deccas" are made in England. Yes I am aware of all that thank you. I use the term American Deccas to mean exactly what you say. Maybe there is a better phrase I could have used. Maybe "British Decca's sold under the London label in the USA". That is a mouthful though. I obviously did not mean that Decca make them in the USA as I said they are made in England. Le Nozze Di Figaro would be a great find. That Alceste is worth little.
i've just dumped a load of vinyl and cd's in my local branch of Oxfam, got to keep the flames going and doing my bit (-: btw using VinylShelter cleaning fluid is very good for reducing static and minor crackles from records, also invest in a goat hair brush and DiscoAntistat cleaning bath, worked great for me for many years. Very envious of your Heifetz find!
Dare I ask which Oxfam😅
the ones i give to Oxfam all have slight faults which i would be reluctant to sell online but would probably suit the beginner looking for cheap bargains, though i do have a job lot of Bruckner symphonies on the 'bay you might be interested in bidding on..? (-:
Impressive! Seems to have worked very well!
They always sound brighter before a clean ime !
Charity shops are just pure luck what donations they have and how quick you get there before someone else spots them.