greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (07/25/84)
The CBS "MasterSound" series is, in terms of packaging,
one of the most gussied-up, gaudy series on the market.
A gold sticker with an ornate design proclaims that the
recordings are digital and there are extensive notes
about the supposedly superb quality of the master and
the pressing. The price tag is also premium.
I have yet to hear a good one. My most recent annoyance
was in attempting to get a good copy of the performance
conducted by Michael Tilsson Thomas of Debussy's "La Mer"
with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Each of my defective
copies let me hear enough to know that the performance
and the playing were extraordinary. None of them were
listenable. I'm not talking about "golden ears" standards
of listenability, but the fact that each copy was either
too badly warped to track or, in several cases, had small drops
of goop (looked like glue) on the record ("Columbia
Factory Sealed") which caused it to stick.
The fact that this, and others in the series, are being
issued in CD format leads me to a horrible suspicion.
Are companies deliberately sabotaging their own analogue
product in order to firmly establish the superiority of
the digital? Certainly if you compare one of these
pressings with the CD equivalent, the vinyl record comes
off sounding terrible. Is this supposed to be proof
that a CD sounds great and an analogue LP sounds awful?
All it proves is that it is possible to make a truly
horrible analogue LP, something that will not surprise
the staunchest defender of analogue recordings. It
certainly does not prove that the CD is superior to
a good analogue pressing.
- Greg Paleyrctracy@uokvax.UUCP (08/03/84)
#R:olivej:-19400:uokvax:1000013:000:387 uokvax!rctracy Aug 3 15:50:00 1984 Ditto on the crappy CBS Mastersound pressings. At least the first two samples of each recording I've bought were warped beyond belief. Grrrr! The sonic quality of the pressings I finally "settled" for is disappointing to say the least. "Boil them in recycled vinyl!" --Bob Tracy AT&T Technologies, Inc. Oklahoma City, OK ...!ctvax!uokvax!rctracy ...!duke!uok!uokvax!rctracy