Chesky RCA Living Stereo Reissues vs. Analogue Productions Reissues

good question. I was thinking the same thing re: Daphne et Chloe. I listened to a Chesky copy and another performance by Ozawa and the BS on OSS. I thought the OSS had better dynamics and more detail. I was thinking of getting the AP version since its the same tapes as the Chesky.

Re: AP, the vast majority of my AP vinyl purchases have been uniformly excellent. No issues like what has been described above. Now, if we want to go off-topic, the DG Original Source pressings have been junk IMHO. I have purchased them all from AS and - I am guessing here - about 80-90% I have had to exchange. Noisy surfaces, skips, pops, clicks, etc. I am fine with 3-7 clicks/pops per side. But some of the ones I have received have 20+ clicks, skips, even what looked to be a human hair embedded in the vinyl. I guess YMMV big time.

I have the Chesky of the aforementioned Respighi (as well as the Prokofiev) and the AP 33 versions.  The Chesky's sound very respectable - a tad on the polite side dynamically, but pure of tone.  They are mastered at a lower level than the RCA originals or the APs.  Personally I prefer the APs for their dynamics, soundstage and sense of presence which more closely mimics the original RCA shaded dogs.

@palasr Thanks for your response.  I think I might pick up a couple of APs (hopefully warp free!) and give them a listen.

For perspective, I have owned (and played) over 4k LPs.  I have listened to most 2 or 3 times (some many times).

All of the aforementioned LP labels have some imperfect engineering/pressings. 

In my experience, Harmonia Mundi and Impex have the best quality control in the business (aside from ERC, which is Very expensive), though I have not hear every label.

The worst has be Columbia.  

In between these two:

Cheskey - excellent, with only one or two out of a dozen that was unacceptable (poorly engineered). 

AP - very good to outstanding, with many excellent titles, yet too many accentuate the upper-mids and I have had an occasional dog.

MoFi - excellent to outstanding, with many excellent titles, yet variable.  I love many, but hated the re-releases in which the original tapes were Dolby-A processed (Bless Their Hearts - what were they thinking?).

Angel 'Sonic-45' -usually outstanding  a real sleeper if you have not listened to them.

Mercury original pressings - great at times, but highly, highly variable.

RCA - very good, same as Mercury, but the best Mercury LPs are better than the best RCA.

London/Decca - excellent, Iove the natural sound, but newer releases seem to be below the old standards.

EMI/Angel - Excellent, highly variable.

Back to the OPs question - It is much more valuable to discuss specific releases, of specific titles, by the same performers...

@billstevenson 

holes that are not centered are real shortfalls of the medium

DS Audio has a device to correct this - the ES-001 Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer.

It seems incredibly expensive to me