The new audiophile vinyl series The Original Source from Deutsche Grammophon (AAA)

[No Regrets]

Amazon will guarantee the price of the pre-order and refund the difference to you if the price goes lower -- only items marked as 'pre-order guarantee' have this feature. They will charge your card when they ship. As @Lxgreen notes, Amazon will give you 'free' shipping without a purchase threshold and they deliver quickly. Easy exchange if the record is damaged. Iirc, Amazon will pay for the return of a defective record whereas Elusive Disc makes the consumer pay -- its been a while, I think that is still their policy.

Are you assured of getting the records? Probably -- we're talking about the future -- I don't believe Amazon would advertise them without the intent of delivery. My experience finds them very good. The single problem I encountered with Amazon was on delivery. I ordered the Debussy/Abbado when it was nearly sold out. They shipped the order immediately, should have been 1-2 days for delivery. After 3 days I got a notice "your package may be lost." They gave me the opportunity to wait or cancel. I immediately canceled and re-ordered. Three days later the same $%# notice - your package may be lost. I did not cancel that; since I wanted a copy I ordered from DG with the crazy Euro shipping fees. 3 more days and my second Amazon Debussy arrived (hooray). I still have not received the order from DG.

A side note: the Amazon Web page for the Mozart Piano Concertos 25 & 27 says the performer is Arturo Michellangeli. The album cover shows and says Freidrich Gulda, which is correct.

​

A while back I had pre-ordered the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Beethoven Piano Sonatas 25-27, Smetana Ma Vlast and the Mozart Piano Concertos 25 & 27 from The Elusive Disc. I just now pre-ordered the last three from Amazon and kept my order for the Berlioz at Elusive because I didn't see it available on A'zon.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[bonzo75]

, Beethoven Piano Sonatas 25-27,

Sometimes I see you look at new turntables. Keep in mind you can put down a high end system cost trying to find the best of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas alone. It will be a far more interesting hobby to compare those.

i ordered the Gilels, if their job in this is good like Kleiber 7th symphony it will take on some expensive stalwarts

 

[No Regrets]

Sometimes I see you look at new turntables. Keep in mind you can put down a high end system cost trying to find the best of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas alone. It will be a far more interesting hobby to compare those.

i ordered the Gilels, if there job in this is good like Kleiber 7th symphony it will take on some expensive stalwarts

Absolutely, I agree 100%! I'm always trying to find the best recordings I can and truly enjoy comparing the various performances. As I have always said... I'm in this for the enjoyment of the music

Yes, it's true... I like to flirt with the idea of having a new table/arm combo... who doesn't, right? However, I have pumped the brakes on getting a new analog rig at the present moment. It appears that I may have to undergo a spinal surgery. They will have to basically reconstruct my cervical spine from C2 thru C6. They will have to remove all of the bone structures on the back of my cervical spine, which means I'll have titanium plates, rods and screws along with bone from my hip bone, along with that from cadavers to fuse that spine back together, as well as widen the circumference of my spinal canal and the foramen thrughout the cervical spine. I'll have to wear a stiff neck collar 24/7 (except for showers) for six months to protect my spine while we wait for the fusion to take hold and heal. It's going to be a very invasive and complex surgery. But, before we can do that, I have to have a blessing from my neurologist that I can go thru with the surgery, due to me having 5 major strokes over the last few years. So I have a lot going on. Plus, I want to make sure that I survive the surgery before spending a ton of cash on a new analog front end. It's always fun to dream thought, right?

Best wishes,
Don

 

[Al M.]

Absolutely, I agree 100%! I'm always trying to find the best recordings I can and truly enjoy comparing the various performances. As I have always said... I'm in this for the enjoyment of the music

Yes, it true... I like to flirt with the idea of having a new table/arm combo... who doesn't right? However, I have pumped the brakes on getting a new analog rig at the present moment. It appears that I may have to undergo a spinal surgery. They will have to basically reconstruct my cervical spine from C2 thru C6. They will have to remove all of the bone structures on the back of my cervical spine, which means I'll have titanium plates, rods and screws along with bone from my hip bone to fuse that spine back together, as well as widen the circumference of my spinal canal and foramen thru out the cervical spine. I'll have to wear a stiff neck collar 24/7 for six months to protect my spine while we wait for the fusion to take hold and heal. It's going to be a very invasive and complex surgery. But, before we can do that, I have to have a blessing from my neurologist that I can go thru with the surgery due to me having 5 major strokes over the last few years. So I have a lot going on. Plus, I want to make sure I survive the surgery before spending a ton of cash on a new analog front end. It's always fun to dream thought, right?

Best wishes,
Don

All the best with your surgery if you can go through with it, wishing you good health!
Al

 

[oldvinyl]

It appears that I may have to undergo a spinal surgery.

Don - wishing you well with the surgery. All the best to you.
I just had surgery for diverticulitis. Still recovering from that.

 

[oldvinyl]

Does anyone have any insight on the DG white label pressings?
While they should be test pressings, the DG store shows there will be 75 copies available. Is 75 normal for "test" pressings?

 

[No Regrets]

I just had surgery for diverticulitis. Still recovering from that.

Oh man, I bet that was painful! Wishing you a full and speedy recovery!

 

[Kjetil]

Another shot of that infamous Brahms Gilels side 3 runout. Tracks a charm here.

 

[John T]

Absolutely, I agree 100%! I'm always trying to find the best recordings I can and truly enjoy comparing the various performances. As I have always said... I'm in this for the enjoyment of the music

Yes, it's true... I like to flirt with the idea of having a new table/arm combo... who doesn't, right? However, I have pumped the brakes on getting a new analog rig at the present moment. It appears that I may have to undergo a spinal surgery. They will have to basically reconstruct my cervical spine from C2 thru C6. They will have to remove all of the bone structures on the back of my cervical spine, which means I'll have titanium plates, rods and screws along with bone from my hip bone, along with that from cadavers to fuse that spine back together, as well as widen the circumference of my spinal canal and the foramen thrughout the cervical spine. I'll have to wear a stiff neck collar 24/7 (except for showers) for six months to protect my spine while we wait for the fusion to take hold and heal. It's going to be a very invasive and complex surgery. But, before we can do that, I have to have a blessing from my neurologist that I can go thru with the surgery, due to me having 5 major strokes over the last few years. So I have a lot going on. Plus, I want to make sure that I survive the surgery before spending a ton of cash on a new analog front end. It's always fun to dream thought, right?

Best wishes,
Don

Wishing you all the best from my end Don...John

 

[No Regrets]

A big thank you to you all, for all the warm well wishes
Don

 

[No Regrets]

View attachment 117083
Another shot of that infamous Brahms Gilels side 3 runout. Tracks a charm here.

Cool pic I'm happy that you are not experiencing any tracking issues!

Best wishes,
Don

 

[tima]

A while back I had pre-ordered the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Beethoven Piano Sonatas 25-27, Smetana Ma Vlast and the Mozart Piano Concertos 25 & 27 from The Elusive Disc. I just now pre-ordered the last three from Amazon and kept my order for the Berlioz at Elusive because I didn't see it available on A'zon.

Best wishes,
Don

Now the Ozawa Berlioz is on Amazon ...

https://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-Symphonie-fantastique-Op-14/dp/B0C48F1L3R/ref=rtpb_sccl_2/143-3981307-4703013?pd_rd_w=ri5Dy&content-id=amzn1.sym.d12edb90-0e5b-498c-816a-9ba65872c34f&pf_rd_p=d12edb90-0e5b-498c-816a-9ba65872c34f&pf_rd_r=WHWM23PZ4BWGXENWG9ZM&pd_rd_wg=yZY54&pd_rd_r=931bb463-d340-4726-a22e-cf3ff97c9742&pd_rd_i=B0C48F1L3R&psc=1

 

[tima]

Does anyone have any insight on the DG white label pressings?
While they should be test pressings, the DG store shows there will be 75 copies available. Is 75 normal for "test" pressings?

I've always understood a test pressing to be a relatively limited run.

While white labels can be associated with test pressings, I did not understand DG to be saying their limited edition white label offerings to be test pressings.

For example:

Deutsche Grammophon Onlineshop

store.deutschegrammophon.com

 

[Kjetil]

^Best of luck to you, @No Regrets.

Presto Music in the UK has a 10% discount on the next batch (Mozart Gulda, Beethoven Gilels, Berlioz Ozawa and Smetana Kubelik) due for release at the end of this month. I've cherry picked the Berlioz and Smetana.

 

[iaxel]

I've always understood a test pressing to be a relatively limited run.

While white labels can be associated with test pressings, I did not understand DG to be saying their limited edition white label offerings to be test pressings.

For example:

Deutsche Grammophon Onlineshop

store.deutschegrammophon.com

It's not part of the original source series.
I've bought the Songs without Words 3LPs a few years ago.
It was OK, but nowhere near the level of the original source series.

 

[MadFloyd]

Are there any titles in this series that disappointed anyone in terms of sonics?

 

[Kjetil]

I find it ever so slightly disappointing that the sonics of the Schubert Trout gets better along the way. I’d prefer the first movement to sound as good as the last. But EBS is not to blame for that. Mic placement was done 50 years ago.

 

[oldvinyl]

I've always understood a test pressing to be a relatively limited run.

While white labels can be associated with test pressings, I did not understand DG to be saying their limited edition white label offerings to be test pressings.

@tima - thanks! I guess I got myself cornfused. My brain wanted to make a generalization and put these in a known category. I suppose they are more akin to promo copies (there it goes again). I have some white label pressings somewhere in my collection. If I recall correctly, they are promo copies and marked not for sale.

The test pressings that I have typically have a white label. That's probably why I lumped these limited editions with test pressings.

 

[No Regrets]

Now the Ozawa Berlioz is on Amazon ...

Hi Tima,

I don't know how you were able to find this on Amazon. Every time I type There oringal source vinyl, or variants of that into the search bar, I see the other Original Source Titles, but never the Berlioz. However, your link does work and bring it up. Do you think it's safe to order from the link that you provided?

I'm so sorry that I'm so technically challenged.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[Al M.]

Hi Tima,

I don't know how you were able to find this on Amazon. Every time I type There oringal source vinyl, or variants of that into the search bar, I see the other Original Source Titles, but never the Berlioz. However, your link does work and bring it up. Do you think it's safe to order from the link that you provided?

I'm so sorry that I'm so technically challenged.

Best wishes,
Don

Here is the short link (with just the Amazon product number). It seems legit. It's mislabeled under Charles Munch, conductor, but the "Description" checks out:

https://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-Symphonie-fantastique-Op-14/dp/B0C48F1L3R/

The LP cover also is the same as from the official DGG website:

Deutsche Grammophon Onlineshop

store.deutschegrammophon.com