Yep, Australia. About right given the exchange rate!
Decca's ffrr even made it into Flanders and Swann's Song of Reproduction which shows how little the hobby has changed since 1957
"Users of wide-range playback equipment should compensate for the RIAA curve"
On a whim, I bought "Duke Ellington Presents ..." as an LP record from Presto. Well, it was half price and turned out to be mono. The sleeve has the title line printed on it and I am confused about what compensation means in this context.
Now the original recording was made in February 1956 and my copy is made in Czech by Bethlehem Records in 2022 and is described as High Fidelity.
The sleeve contains what could be original notes by one Joseph P Muranyi, immediately followed by compensation notice, then a list of similar recordings from Bethlehem.
There is a lot of treble energy on the record but that's expected because there’s four trumpets in the band! It sounds better than expected for 1956.
Surely Bethlehem in 2022 would have applied the RIAA curve reasonable correctly and only included the compensation warning for nostalgia? What am I missing?
Showing 4 responses by richardbrand
Thanks everyone! If the notice had said something like "This record was recorded using the RIAA curve" or even "... compensate by using the RIAA curve" I would have understood. This was a bit of an accidental purchase for me, as I try to broaden my very limited exposure to jazz and vinyl. @dwette and @secretguy: What gear do you have that allows you to change the curve applied during playback? The closest I could get is with an old Quad 34 pre-amp I am trying to mend! The last time I auditioned a turntable, my dealer used a Musical Fidelity M8X pre-amplifier feeding a McIntosh amplifier which seems like an odd combination? |
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of "Duke Ellington Presents ... " from Bethlehem. Sounds as if it could have been recorded yesterday except for the lack of soundstage. In the sleeve notes, Bethlehem lists 24 records as BCP-nn where nn goes from 41 to 64. Another list is the BCP-6000 series, with 7 records, plus a lone EXLP series. I am struck by the wide variety of the tracks - much more to my taste than Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. I remember the passionate debates you used to have on analog versus digital equalisation! |