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"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?

richardbrand
cleeds
6,276 posts
 

The warning was probably on the original pressing as well, a notice to distinguish the disc from competing compensation curves, such as from Decca or Columbia.

elliottbnewcombjr
5,971 posts
 

When competing solutions exist, prior to 'standardization', i.e. RIAA was the as yet undetermined but eventual standard, the specifics of which solution was used, they are telling you it was recorded using the RIAA eq, and you should therefore use RIAA Playback curve.

LP means Long Play. Bass had to be cut during recording to minimize the width needed for bass notes, to get more grooves closer together, to get more music on each side, i.e. Long Play. 

secretguy
1,861 posts
 

I can choose from a bunch of curves other than RIAA. It's interesting to hear the differences.

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