In thee area of historical context I would recommend "Putting he Record Straght" the autobiography of John Culshaw. For the younger generation, JC joined Decca Records in 1946 and served as it's foremost producers of classical music through 1967, when he left Decca and ended up at the BBC. He was instrumental in assembling Deccas recording team for classical music as well as producing many of the greatest Decca recordings of that era. His autobiography is not a technical account but does provide a fascinating look at the growth and development of the record industry from its infancy to becoming a multimillion dollar industry. Topics include the birth of stereo recordings, personal recollections of artists of the time (HVK, Solti, Pavarotti, Neilson. Ansermet, Kubelik and others), and the economics and politics of producing recordings. This book may be difficult to find but is definitely worth finding/reading if classical recordings are of interest to you.
Books!
I realized that all of my other hobbies - cooking, biking, photography, brewing, have plenty of books written about them, and I in turn have many of them. Listening to my stereo system is probably the hobby I spend the most time with yet have absolutely no books on the subject. So I ask of you, what are the essential books?
I will l note I’m more interested in the “how to listen” flavor versus the super super technical end of things. Ideally it would be a nice mix of both, how a and b leads to this, and how c and d leads to that and later on I could get more into the engineering side. Also would be interested in historical context reads. Lastly I would like recommendations that are actually published in book form. Look forward to your responses. Thanks all!
I will l note I’m more interested in the “how to listen” flavor versus the super super technical end of things. Ideally it would be a nice mix of both, how a and b leads to this, and how c and d leads to that and later on I could get more into the engineering side. Also would be interested in historical context reads. Lastly I would like recommendations that are actually published in book form. Look forward to your responses. Thanks all!