Quote:
Originally posted by Audio Redneck
Eeyssjr: Another thing you will want to keep in mind when buying classical music - the label makes a difference.
...
Mercury Living Presence re-issues are usually great performances, but the sound is 50/50. |
Actually, some of the finest audiophile recordings ever made are on Mercury Living Presence.
The CD flavor of the brand started off as a tribute to a great sound engineer who had mastered the originals in the 50's-60's. They were EXTREMELY well-made transfers of terrific recordings of fine performances. The first wave of MLP CDs included items that, in the early 90's, could bring collectors $100 per original LP! (see articles/reviews in
The Abso!ute Sound magazine around that time).
Personally, I thought then that these sounded
better than
any Telarc, or any other labels in the early 90's. They started the wave of audiophile-oriented CDs....with performances mastered in the 50's, ferchryssake!
Since then, some specialist labels (e.g., Pope, Reference Recordings, Chesky) have equalled or exceeded the sonic merits of MLP. More recently, Deutche Grammophone captured some grand performances from vinyl on well-transferred CDs. They have NOT improved on the combination of sound and performance values.
J. Gordon Holt's Law states, "Performance Quality times Sonic Quality = a constant". I don't think he was entirely kidding. Telarc performances tend to be as dull as LaserLight sound. But there have been exceptions; and MLP captured more of those exceptions than others in the business.