terry2@ihlpm.UUCP (t. nelson) (03/13/85)
If anyone is contemplating purchasing RCAs' special 3 CD
set of "Elvis The Legend", they should try and listen
before they buy! I assumed before I bought this set that
RCA would naturally take great care in the compilation of
these recordings and use either the original master tapes
or the best available disk master tape. However, it has
turned out to be (unfortunately for me) an expensive
($100) example of poor quality. The quality I'm referring
to is the transfer of the original(?) master tapes (or
what ever they used) to the CD format. One of the
selections on this CD is "Its Now or Never". This CD track
contains heavy dropouts in the right channel and is laden
with short quick dropouts very evident in the high
frequencies. The record album release of this selection is
clean with no such dropouts. By my count, there are no
less than 13 tracks on this 3 CD set with similar and/or
other problems. On the plus side, a few of the selections
are very clean (especially for their age) and all the
selections originally recorded in mono are reproduced in
mono on the CD and and have not been "electronically
enhanced for stereo"! (Why can't all record companies
leave their mono recordings unaltered?!)
My only recourse, it seems, is to complain
to RCA (which I have done and I am awaiting a reply) and
to inform unwary buyers.
Terry Nelson
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Indian Hill
Naperville, Illinois
ihlpm!terry2
***The opinions expressed above are those of the author and not of
AT&T Bell Laboratories***