2. analog
  3. 1284407717

Anybody own any direct-to-disc LP's?

.
I remember in the mid 70's direct-to-disc LP's were being touted. As I can remember, the concept sure sounded like a good idea. I was in college and had just bought my first receiver back then and could barely afford cut-outs or promotional LP's from my local record store. No way could I afford the premium prices for the direct to disc LP's. Decades later when I eventually found my way to high end audio, direct-to-disc had long vanished. Were they that good?
.
128x128mitch4t
beavis
272 posts
 
Compared to LPs on present equipment, IMO, no! Of course, Direct to Disc may have been worth it on equipment I couldn't afford.
Post removed 
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Were they that good?
Yes, in many cases.

I have many of the Sheffield Labs d-to-d releases, both popular and classical, and one of the M&K Realtime releases (the organ recording "The Power and the Glory," which is spectacular).

Some of the Sheffield classical releases were mic'd a bit too closely, resulting in an overly bright string sound, and somewhat dry acoustics. But in all other ways they were very special.

Many of the Sheffield's have been re-released on cd. I own two of the cd re-releases, and in both cases I also own the original d-to-d vinyl releases.

I was reasonably pleased with the cd version of Volume I of "The Sheffield/Leinsdorf Sessions," containing Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," Debussy's "Afternoon of a Faun," and Wagner's "Forest Murmers." I would not recommend it, though, to anyone with a system that tends towards excessive brightness, for the reason I mentioned above.

I was very displeased with the cd re-release of "The Sheffield Track and Drum Record." The original d-to-d release of "The Sheffield Track Record" had been proclaimed by Harry Pearson, at the time of its release in 1982, to be "absolutely the best sounding rock and roll record ever made." The cd re-release, however, I found to sound dull, dark, closed in, and completely lacking the magic of the original vinyl release. I was not particularly astonished to subsequently read in the liner notes that the cd was mastered by "playing back the analog disk with a Technics SP-15 turntable and a Shure V15 Type V assembly attached to a SME 3012R arm."

Best regards,
-- Al
More to discover