RCA Victor Red Seal vs Dynagroove: Chopin Mazurkas, mono. (2019, Spring - Summer)
Red Seal: ML-6109 12S/22S (middle pressing). Very nice, superb sound!
Dynagroove LM-6177 1S/1S (first pressing). Way more dynamic and much richer in harmonics but has HUGE warp that kick cartridge off the groove! (Physically butt-kicks the cartridge body!) Red Seal version sounds more natural, though!
LSC-2516 Schubert Unfinished, Reiner / Chicago SO, multiple copies:
3S/3S Hollywood plant. Great looking surface. Sounds as if Toscanini was conducting Tschaikovskij. Not even remotely similar to Schubert. Interesting presentation, although should be renamed Reiner's Unfinished...
16S/12S Indiana plant. Even quieter. Less distorted. Better weight, better mastering. Little less detail. Better dynamics. Sounds more playful, less sombre / haughty.
13S/ 9S Indiana: as previous version, but on steroids. Noisy, scratched, and more distorted (record must have had some abuse, while the others were pristine). Demagnetization and anti-static gun removes most of the noise, but it still sounds distorted. Interestingly, in pentode mode it sounds less distorted than in triode mode (with 807 amp).
13S/8S A1/D1 Indiana. Pristine surface. Best so far. Even musicality is much better! (!!?) Sounds as if it was a different recording altogether.
10S/1S A2/G1 Indiana. Best so far.
10S/1S A2/G2 Indiana, second copy, better condition surface. Quieter. Very clear, completely undistorted, tons o detail. Flows very well. Much more dynamic layering. Listening to the 3S/3S Hollywood pressing again, the H pressing sounds mushy in comparison, as if they melted the master tape or the record (speed stability issues in the Hollywood plant?)
LSC-2652: Heifetz Bruch concerto G minor. (2019, Spring - Summer)
1S/5S Indiana: Way better stereo separation than the later pressing. Accompaniment is much more detailed.
6S/6S Indiana. Appears to have much less content than the first pressing.. As if half the musicians are missing from the recording!
LSC-2562: Van Clinburn / Reiner / Chicago SO: Beethoven Emperor Concerto. (2019, Spring - Summer)
German Pressing: LP-Ste-M2RY-1603X C (side A) -1604X F (side B). Great piano recording! Super quiet surface, very good mastering. Decreased tracking weight from 1.4g to 0,97g (AT440MLb cartridge). Piano became more fluid, detailed, but imaging of orchestra (stability of picture) is less. Presentation is more fluid, but lighter at the same time.
15S Indiana: piano is less fluid, more sugary. However, orchestra is better than the German Pressing! Orchestra has much more weight, girth and flow, but piano is much inferior! In fact, the piano souns broken in comprison to the German pressing.
3S/3S Hollywood: piano is better than on the Indiana pressing, but orchestra is mushy. Piano is still much inferior to Geran pressing. Orchestra has no weight.
24S/12S A1/A1 Indiana: best piao of US pressings so far. Nice orchestra. Less coloration than other US pressings. Less detail than 15S or German versions. Quiet and dynamic.
24S/14S D1/A1 Indiana: piano even better, orchestra muddier.
If they had not fecked up either piano or orchestra, this would be a fabulous recording! How come it's possible to do either well, but not the two together?! What a shame. Van Clinburn deserves better.
LSC-2566 Rubinstein: Grieg piano concerto (2019, Spring - Summer)
16s/13S A1/A1 Indiana: fizzy piano, fickle image.
16S/13S A1/A4 Indiana: much better, but still not rock solid. Hazy and echo-y. As if there was an echo of the recording.
2S/4S A2/A1 Rockaway: much better! Piano clarity is still vbery far from the previous Van Clinburn recording (LSC-2562).
10S/11S A2/A4 Indiana, mint: MUCH better than Rockaway 2S early pressing! First copy to play initial forte without major distortion.
8S/6S B1/A3 Indiana: noisier and more detailed than 10S Indiana copy.
40S Indiana late pressing: still sounds better than 2S early pressing from Rockaway plant! What a shame.
LSC-2601 Van Clinburn / Reiner Rachmaninoff No 2. Chicago SO. (2019, Spring - Summer)
8S/1S A1/D1 Indiana: very noisy and combobulated. Great potential detail and dynmics, but highs are desroyed, probably record was previously badly abused.
11S/16S Indiana: not clean sounding.
7S/7S A1/A2 Rockaway: no noise, no distortion. Piano is clean, but orchestra is very fecked up / mixed up sounding. Horrid mastering. More of a joke, really.
LSC-2576 Van Clinburn: My Favorite Chopin (2019, Spring - Summer)
3S/3S Hollywood: Very noisy and dirty. Dynamic and powerful.
19S/6S C1/D2 Indiana: Noisy and dirty, but better definition and harmonics.
6S/6S A2/A1 Indiana: Much bigger, super dynamic, very detailed, quieter background. Different league altogether from previous copies. Piano fills the room, quite impressive.
LSC-2487 Julian Bream: Guitar Concertos (2019, Spring - Summer)
Side A:very nice music (Mauro Giuliani). Sounds like wedding / chamber music.
Side B: Malcolm Arnold: ugh, modern fluff.
1S/3S A1/A1 Indiana: nice, spacious sound.
1S/3S A1/A1 Indiana: even better, deeper and more detail.
5S/5S A1/D2 Indiana: still impressive, not as deep but still alive.
LSC-2139 Robert Shaw conducts Christmas hymns and Carols Vol1. (2019, Spring - Summer)
3S, 40S Indianas (early and late copies): both are noiseless, quiet, extended frequency range.
3S, 3S Hollywoods (2 early copies): both very noisy. Limited frequency range compared to Indianas.
LSC-2613 Marian Anderson: Christmas Carols. (2019, Spring - Summer)
1S Indiana: Lead vocal jumps on you, very detailed yet natural. Sound coming from space.
6S, plant cannot be identified: sound comes from speakers. Lead vocal recedes back to chorus. Still, overall very nice sound but not as detailed.
RDA-68A, Readers Digest Dynagroove: Scheherezade Box set, Rhapsodic mood music. (2019, Spring - Summer)
4S/3S, very noisy
4S/3S, much quieter, way more dynamics and presence