Re: [ARSCLIST] Aren't recordings original sources?

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Clark

On 21/10/08, Clark Johnsen wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 2:07 PM, Steve Abrams
> <steve.abrams@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> 
>> I spoke to Hardwick once on the telephone, c. 1987. He told me that
>> he had to do some CD work from tape copies because of time pressure.
>> With respect to special pressings I note that many if not most of the
>> originals in the original LP great performances series (in the late
>> '50s and early '60s) are supposed to have been destroyed in the
>> mistaken belief that it would never be possible to improve on the
>> tape copies made at that time.
> 
> 
> [Sigh] There's a word for that: hubris.
> 
> I once wrote up my own experiences with playing 78rpm originals over a
> widerange system (read: bass-capable) and the effect on others. Would
> those fellows (Hardwicke, Crimp, etc.) had heard this before venturing
> ahead with diminished capability! (The process, not them.)
> 
> "Besides containing an historic musical treasure-trove, 78s can sound
> *more like the real thing than any other source, *bar none except live
> feed an extravagant claim, perhaps, but consider what 78s have going
> for themselves, besides those great old tubes. They have: high
> velocity, wide grooves, inert material, ribbon microphones,
> direct-master pressings in short, a medley of superior engineer­ing
> attributes."
> 
> http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue25/cjdiarires.htm
> 
Vinyl 12 inch 45s share some of these.

Disadvantages are non-linearity of disc cutters and pickup cartridges,
resonances in cutter arms and "tone arms", and acoustic feedback at low
frequencies in turntables. An advantage you miss is that the pickup
cartridge connects directly to the amp, without a line level
interconnect. (Bad design of line level stages is what I blame most for the
widespread poor sound from CDs.)

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx