Crappy sounding "audiophile" LP's?


Hi,
Now that my system configuration is stable (for the time being, anyway) I've been dusting off music I haven't played in awhile, or in some cases, bought years ago but rarely or even never played. In the latter category are a group of audiophile LP's I bought in the mid to late 1980's, usually because TAS raved about them, they weren't that expensive back then, and I didn't know any better. :-)
So I finally listened to the Chesky LP reissue of "Scheherezade" by Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, and to the Chesky LP of a Sibelius Symphony (can't remember which one right now). These two, plus an LP on the Lyrita label of a composition by the British composer William Allwyn ("The Magic Island," I think) sound glorious, i.e., equal to the TAS hype. Great performances, too, of course.
I then dusted off a Sheffield Labs direct-to-disc LP called "Tower Of Power Direct." To my ears, it sounds lousy: bright, congealed, airless sound.
So I'm wondering if you folks have encountered "audiophile" recordings that didn't sound good to your ears, either.
rebbi

Showing 1 response by lowrider57

Rebbi ... First of all, Chesky is top of the line as u have found.
Secondly, I have been taken in too many times by these "new" audiophile records and will never fall for their sales pitch again. These newly pressed records are not up to the quality of earlier pressed vinyl.