stuff of dreams....3000 classical records inbound.
- Thread starter Mike Lavigne
- Start date
You guys are amateurs.
Try storing all that PLUS 3k laserdiscs, lol.
"Where will we put them?"
"To good use!"
Well, I doubt you've seen 1.5 million records. Thomas Chandler had a few warehouses filled with records on shelves, row after row, 8 feet high. His short lived store (premature death) had I assume 150,000 records, maybe 300,000, I didn't try to count them. 3,000 laserdiscs, I have about 300 but also about 200 R2Rs and 200+ original recordings of mine. I know I have too many CDs and LPs. The 7,000 78s include about 800 ethnic recordings which I will never want to part from. I don't have time to transfer them all.
I didn't mention Michael Lane who had 250,000 only mint 78s in Hollywood then Vista, CA. Unbelievably superior pressings/condition records. Former Cal-Tech engineer who helped develop the Burwen noise reduction system, had 30-35 stylii, built his own equipment. Listening to him play a 1903 Grieg 78 sounded like a mono LP (with restricted frequency of course). Playing a Remington LP known for their inferior surfaces sounded like a modern LP pressing. Phenomenal experience being at one of his music soirees.
Last edited:
so i'm in the 'B's, about half way through Bach, actually C.P.E. Bach right now. lots of Baroque music, and as i read these jacket covers and listen i'm becoming a big fan. i've enjoyed it prior, but now i'm 'getting' it. about 20 or so straight Baroque pressings in a row has me connecting and in a sense understanding what is going on. it's irresistible. delightful and effervescent.
right now one pressing in particular has captured me. it's a 1983 Philips pressing that initially i suspected might be a digital source, and i still don't know for sure, but as i listen.....unlikely. it's Ton Koopman "Concerto for Harpsichord in A" (Philips 6514 249). the tone, tension and liquidity of the music is perfect. there is a fire and sparkle in the playing. this one i'm playing on the CS Port linear tracker with the Audio Technica MC-2022. sounds real, sounds live. side one especially. side two a step less magical.
yes; i'm excited about a harpsichord recording. very!
right now one pressing in particular has captured me. it's a 1983 Philips pressing that initially i suspected might be a digital source, and i still don't know for sure, but as i listen.....unlikely. it's Ton Koopman "Concerto for Harpsichord in A" (Philips 6514 249). the tone, tension and liquidity of the music is perfect. there is a fire and sparkle in the playing. this one i'm playing on the CS Port linear tracker with the Audio Technica MC-2022. sounds real, sounds live. side one especially. side two a step less magical.
yes; i'm excited about a harpsichord recording. very!
Last edited:
so i'm in the 'B's, about half way through Bach, actually C.P.E. Bach right now. lots of Baroque music, and as i read these jacket covers and listen i'm becoming a big fan. i've enjoyed it prior, but now i'm 'getting' it. about 20 or so straight Baroque pressings in a row has me connecting and in a sense understanding what is going on. it's irresistible. delightful and effervescent.
right now one pressing in particular has captured me. it's a 1983 Philips pressing that initially i suspected might be a digital source, and i still don't know for sure, but as i listen.....unlikely. it's Ton Koopman "Concerto for Harpsichord in A" (Philips 6514 249). the tone, tension and liquidity of the music is perfect. there is a fire and sparkle in the playing. this one i'm playing on the CS Port linear tracker with the Audio Technica MC-2022. sounds real, sounds live. side one especially. side two a step less magical.
yes; i'm excited about a harpsichord recording. very!
View attachment 133816
There does not appear to be a CD release of this, so hard to understand if it is a digital recording.
Is there a recording date?
both the pressing and jacket show 1983. i don't see a CD release for this recording; but i do own a few Ton Koopman recordings and they are all digital.
at that date, mostly you find a digital source, but not 100%. more than a handful of late 70's/early 80's recordings are digitally recorded but without a CD. it happens.
1983.
For Baroque, I also really enjoy Vivaldi, Corelli, Rameau, Couperin, Scarlatti, Handel and of course Bach.
Baroque music was rooted in dance and the body. Baroque period also started to free up composers to express themselves and not create solely for the church. Musical instruments flourished in the Baroque periods - especially all the innovations in keyboard instruments.
Many musicians learned each other's compositions by hand copying since publishing was limited. They got a chance to analyze while copying. Ideas and styles started to migrate and morph.
And then there's Bach (JS). Wow. He wrote from such a cellular organic level - artistry wrapped around form. It's fun learning his keyboard works. One hand at a time just to be able to read and play it and then integrating hands together. The Brandenburg Concertos and the Orchestral Suites are really fantastic. The Well Tempered Clavier, Cello Suites and Violin Partitas and Sonatas are also superb. And then there's the keyboard concertos, organ music and of course the cantatas. So much Bach.
I favor original or period instruments for the orchestral music, modern piano or harpsichord for keyboard music.
Last edited:
very well. completed about 60 pressings (almost done with Bach
) in the last 2 weeks or so. switched the water twice. things are looking and sounding good. contemplating adding a Degritter MKII to have a secondary stage (more pure water) while not slowing down my process. i review each one upstairs, and stage them downstairs. clean and listen (new pressing sleeve + plastic jacket cover) at the same time, the cleaning in the hallway outside the listening room. window with natural light behind the KLAudio. listening/sampling/reading at least a half side for each pressing prior to deciding to add the pressing. so far i've kept each one brought downstairs that i've cleaned. sometimes i'll listen to the whole pressing so the cleaned one's stack up. no hurry. right now i have a dozen cleaned stacked up waiting to be heard.this collection is uniformly mint/excellent, looking/sounding un-played, and without anything but light dust. so more touch up than serious cleaning issues. no mold or any such things i've yet seen. so far about 10-15% digitally sourced which i'm setting aside.
in the back of my mind is a more serious deeper cleaning process. i do have a kitchenette space and lots of counterspace where i could do it if i decide to go there. not ruled it out, but pretty happy with where i'm at with this group of pressings.
Last edited:
today i cleaned, listened to, and put away the very last of approximately 1800 individual classic stereo pressings from this collection. in 7 weeks. done. fini. whew. i had planned to spread this out over 6 months, or a couple of years. but being retired the project sucked me in and i could not resist.
i want to thank KLAudio for the quality of my RCM. it has been flawless. dependable. a workhorse. just add distilled water. frankly it's 10 years old and i expected it to crash and burn at some point during this push, but it never did. Peter lives locally and i could likely get it fixed, but so far no worries. visually and sonically the last pressings i did were as clean as the first.
my body and head are a bit strung out. each clean and dry takes 6 minutes, so i did listen to every pressing briefly and read the notes on every Lp sleave between the cycles. about 80% in i started batching the listening part. as it got too mentally taxing (my energy was waning) to keep up the pace of both together. easier to collect a bunch of one composer cleaned and listen more quickly. my aim was to sample, read, get a feel for the composer, and tease myself to return later for a deep dive. make sure no noise or any other issue.
out of the 3000 pressing collection i purchased in Nov 21', approximately 350 were digitally sourced and they went to Half Priced Books and got sold. 150 were Mono's which i did clean about 100 of selectively. mostly the smaller groupings. another 600 are box sets which for now i have not cleaned. looking forward to wading into those box sets.
any with noise or any sort of issue got thrown away. maybe 25-30 total.
the quality of the music and the pressings was awesome. zero spindle marks. maybe 5 pressings had them. zero scratches. i'd say pretty much un-played. all of these sounded very good, but many were amazing. tons of early music; and the care and meticulous production of this music, and the enthusiasm of the musicians with original instruments continued to impress me. my system responds to acoustical recordings.....and this experience was so rich. i am excited to go back and luxuriate into this music.
sure; the war horses here are not first pressings, but mostly at this point that is not my focus. and i suppose some might prefer 200 expensive elite pressings instead of these 1800 + 600 box sets. i have opened up a door into new music worlds and look forward to my travels. and i know they are very clean and ready for me.
i don't think 10 years ago i was ready to accept this music as desirable, and can understand that others might not see the value here. but for me it's exactly right and i'm hungry to dive in. exploring classical through streaming has been fun, but what my system with vinyl does for this music sucks me in so much more, more tasty and embracing. easier to relate to the humanity of it. really an experience.
i want to thank KLAudio for the quality of my RCM. it has been flawless. dependable. a workhorse. just add distilled water. frankly it's 10 years old and i expected it to crash and burn at some point during this push, but it never did. Peter lives locally and i could likely get it fixed, but so far no worries. visually and sonically the last pressings i did were as clean as the first.
my body and head are a bit strung out. each clean and dry takes 6 minutes, so i did listen to every pressing briefly and read the notes on every Lp sleave between the cycles. about 80% in i started batching the listening part. as it got too mentally taxing (my energy was waning) to keep up the pace of both together. easier to collect a bunch of one composer cleaned and listen more quickly. my aim was to sample, read, get a feel for the composer, and tease myself to return later for a deep dive. make sure no noise or any other issue.
out of the 3000 pressing collection i purchased in Nov 21', approximately 350 were digitally sourced and they went to Half Priced Books and got sold. 150 were Mono's which i did clean about 100 of selectively. mostly the smaller groupings. another 600 are box sets which for now i have not cleaned. looking forward to wading into those box sets.
any with noise or any sort of issue got thrown away. maybe 25-30 total.
the quality of the music and the pressings was awesome. zero spindle marks. maybe 5 pressings had them. zero scratches. i'd say pretty much un-played. all of these sounded very good, but many were amazing. tons of early music; and the care and meticulous production of this music, and the enthusiasm of the musicians with original instruments continued to impress me. my system responds to acoustical recordings.....and this experience was so rich. i am excited to go back and luxuriate into this music.
sure; the war horses here are not first pressings, but mostly at this point that is not my focus. and i suppose some might prefer 200 expensive elite pressings instead of these 1800 + 600 box sets. i have opened up a door into new music worlds and look forward to my travels. and i know they are very clean and ready for me.
i don't think 10 years ago i was ready to accept this music as desirable, and can understand that others might not see the value here. but for me it's exactly right and i'm hungry to dive in. exploring classical through streaming has been fun, but what my system with vinyl does for this music sucks me in so much more, more tasty and embracing. easier to relate to the humanity of it. really an experience.
Last edited:
I purchased an 1100 LP collection in April consisting of 250 45 rpm Jazz, mostly Analogue Productions (or same team), 500+ Japanese pressed Jazz and the balance a mish mosh of rock and pop Japanese pressed LPs from 70s through 90s. Most of the Japanese LPs jazz sound great. All are mint, maybe one side played once. All the 45 rpm LPs are sealed unplayed. I am just wondering whether to keep the 45s or sell them for a huge profit on line (cost $3.50/LP sell for $50 to $100/LP on line below competition). I have some of them on CD and they generally sound great in that format so why bother with short sided LPs of the same. If those of you who are jazz aficionados and audiophiles could direct me as to which 45 LPs are worth listening to and keeping I would appreciate it. So many reviews on reissues are glowing and my experience with Classic Records Classical LPs have been negative (their gold CDs are so much better). I'm the listener with 31,100 LPs and 16,300 CDs so I love both analog and digital formats (now after acquiring the Lampizator Poseidon/Jay's Audio CDt3 Mk3 to rival my analog).
My KL Audio record cleaner is now about 8 years old and has flawlessly cleaned several thousand records. As I pull out records previously cleaned on a VPI, they get cleaned again with the KL Audio. Amazing machine - solidly built.
As for early music - I have collected a lot on Archiv, EMI Reflexe, Harmonia Mundi (France and Germany), Das Alte Werke (Telefunken), L'Oiseau-Lyre. It is a lot of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque on original instruments and following period performance practice and style. And I agree, much of it very joyful to listen to. Some of the recordings are performed in the venues of first performance. The original issue German Harmonia Mundi pressings are amazing. Very high quality performance, recording and pressing.
Last edited:
If you are referring to the Analogue Productions Blue Note, Fantasy and Verve 45 rpm reissues - they are all superb. My best guess is that they would get a good price as a complete set. After selling them, you could then acquire the jazz performances you are interested in.
Which are worth listening to ... depends on your tastes and interests. That would be hard to make a recommendation, especially with the various jazz styles and performers. Maybe start with the Bill Evans recordings.
I have many of the Classic Records 45 rpm classical reissues and they are really good. There was only one in the bunch that was noisy, and I quickly got a replacement.
Yes they are plus about 2 dozen Impulse. Just great recordings of which I have about 3 dozen on CD already sounding great. As to Classic Records, I have heard about a dozen of their 33 rpm classical reissues and they are not good at all. Funny that their gold CD classical reissues are generally superb. I heard that their Classic Jazz LPs are good too. They improved their pressings with their 45 rpm LPs, I think Bernie Grundman did the upgrades.
Any composer you had not known that you now want to pursue?
That's so awesome that you're having that much fun with this Mike.
It's always fun to have a new audio project and then have a sense of accomplishment when completed - especially one on such a massive scale as this one.
Although I don't do vinyl, I've enjoyed reading your journey with these.
Similar threads
