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

[No Regrets]

Great news.... I had sent my Berlioz back to Amazon (that was scratched at the pressing plant) on Wednesday. Today, I received an email from Amazon saying my replacement Berlioz is on it's way to me Here's hoping it comes defect free

Best wishes,
Don

Well, unfortunately my so called "Great News" has turned out to be disappointing yet again

To Amazon's credit, I had sent back my original Berlioz that had arrived with scratches on it last Wednesday for a replacement. On Friday, they sent me an email saying my new copy has been shipped. I received it on Sunday! I thought that was incredibly fast and was very impressed by their speed

That was indeed great news, but unfortunately, the disappointment came last night when I tried to play the replacement copy. Yep, you guessed it... it has come with a scratch right at the beginning of side one. About a 1/2 inch long which is a lot of revolutions of loud pops

This leads me to start thinking...

1. Is anyone else experiencing quality control issues on this Berlioz besides me? The record came to me sealed, so I have to believe these scratches are happening at the pressing plant or where ever they initially package the new record into it's sleeve.

2. Or, do they just dump all the rejects to Amazon to be sold? I hate to think that way, but two copies in a row of the same record has come to me with scratches.

What do you think I should do? Simply return this record and forget about having it, or return and ask for a replacement yet again for the second time?

I don't mind paying a high price for records, but when they are new... am I wrong to expect that they come to me without scratches on them???

I know that with everything that is going on both here in the US with weekly mass shootings and the wars abroad, receiving a scratched record is nothing to get mad about... but it is still disappointing when you were excited to receive a new highly praised recording and it comes defected.

I would love to hear your thoughts...

Best wishes,
Don

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Well, unfortunately my so called "Great News" has turned out to be disappointing yet again

To Amazon's credit, I had sent back my original Berlioz that had arrived with scratches on it last Wednesday for a replacement. On Friday, they sent me an email saying my new copy has been shipped. I received it on Sunday! I thought that was incredibly fast and was very impressed by their speed

That was indeed great news, but unfortunately, the disappointment came last night when I tried to play the replacement copy. Yep, you guessed it... it has come with a scratch right at the beginning of side one. About a 1/2 inch long which is a lot of revolutions of loud pops

This leads me to start thinking...

1. Is anyone else experiencing quality control issues on this Berlioz besides me? The record came to me sealed, so I have to believe these scratches are happening at the pressing plant or where ever they initially package the new record into it's sleeve.

2. Or, do they just dump all the rejects to Amazon to be sold? I hate to think that way, but two copies in a row of the same record has come to me with scratches.

What do you think I should do? Simply return this record and forget about having it, or return and ask for a replacement yet again for the second time?

I don't mind paying a high price for records, but when they are new... am I wrong to expect that they come to me without scratches on them???

I know that with everything that is going on both here in the US with weekly mass shootings and the wars abroad, receiving a scratched record is nothing to get mad about... but it is still disappointing when you were excited to receive a new highly praised recording and it comes defected.

I would love to hear your thoughts...

Best wishes,
Don

Hi Don,
FYI; All of the current batches of the TOS LP's I have bought direct from DG have been top notch and definitely no scratches etc.
In fact I can say they are one the best quality set of LPs I have ever bought !

If I was you, I would send it straight back to Amazon and ask for your money back and then order one direct from DG !

 

[Kjetil]

Is it your copy numbered, Don?

 

[ssfas]

I listened again to the Gulda Mozart piano concerto No. 27 yesterday, followed by a tape of the Clifford Curzon recording of the same concerto on Decca. My tape is a copy from a Decca production master. Interestingly, Sir Clifford did not approve the recording, and it was only released after his death. I think the performance is superb. It is unclear what his objections were. The recording was made in the Maltings at Snape by Kenneth Wilkinson. This concert hall was commissioned by Benjamin Britten for the Aldeburgh Festival and is considered a top ranked concert hall acoustically. The DGG recording sounds more reverberant, probably because of the two extra quadraphonic channels. However, I prefer the sound of the Decca. It has very good instrumental separation, great soundstaging, and the sound of the piano is more realistic than the DGG. The note articulation sounds clearer. Both performances are excellent but different. According to Discog, the recording has only been reissued as an LP by Esoteric, but the original release is plentiful and inexpensive. Being released in 1982, it was most likely pressed in Holland.

Snape Malting was an old building converted by Britten/Pears as a permanent base for the Aldeburgh Festival. It's a lovely place to listen to music. Was last there in early September, fish and chips on the beach at Aldeburgh, a nice walk in on the fens, some music and a light dinner. Numerous famous recording done there over the years, one of the recent best is this.

 

[Michael S.]

Sad to hear this bad news Don.

All my copys of the series are without any defects.

 

[tony22]

@No Regrets, my copy (Number 03xx) plays without the problems you've had (sorry to hear). Only very light infrequent ticks.

 

[No Regrets]

If I was you, I would send it straight back to Amazon and ask for your money back and then order one direct from DG !

Hi Bonesy!

I'm in the U.S. and if I remember correctly, the shipping to me would be quite expensive when ordering directly from DG.

Typically, when I purchase new LP's I'll order from either Music Direct, Elusive Disc, or Acoustic Sounds. If you order a certain amount, the shipping costs are free. I've always had good luck via those three online suppliers.

However, there was recent talk on the forum of members ordering this TOS series from Amazon. So I thought I'd give it a try. I had bought three of the series from Amazon and had good luck. (Also, with Amazon the shipping is free, even if you only purchased 1 record.... a major plus). For some reason though, with the Berlioz my luck turned bad. Both copies having scratches

To Amazon's credit, they made the returns simple, quick and easy. The first return, they quickly sent me a replacement copy. Today, I tried to return that defective record for a replacement but for some reason they would only accept it as a return and not issue me a replacement.

Both Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct did not have it in stock so I placed a new order with Amazon this morning. Hopefully, this third time will be the charm

I have ordered many of the records from The Original Source Series from various online stores and all of my records came without defects and I've been very happy with them. However, for some reason I've received two copies of the Berlioz that came with defects.

I will update you all with the condition of the third copy once I receive it.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[No Regrets]

Is it your copy numbered, Don?

Hi Kjetil,

I honestly cannot remember. I do remember it had the Original Source Series hype sticker on the front of the outer plastic cover as well as the Made in Germany sticker on the back of the outer plastic cover.

I have already sent the record back today, so I no longer have it to look at. I guess I just assumed it would have the number on it, because they were only planning on pressing 1 limited edition run.

Are you thinking that I may have received a bootleg copy of some sort?

Best wishes,
Don

 

[No Regrets]

@No Regrets, my copy (Number 03xx) plays without the problems you've had (sorry to hear). Only very light infrequent ticks.

I'm glad you received a good copy. It gives me hope that my third copy will come thru without any scratches.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[No Regrets]

Sad to hear this bad news Don.

All my copys of the series are without any defects.

Hi Michael,
Did you happen to order the Berlioz?

 

[tony22]

I'm glad you received a good copy. It gives me hope that my third copy will come thru without any scratches.

Best wishes,
Don

And oh, I bought mine from Amazon. I was quite surprised at getting such a low copy number.

 

[oldvinyl]

All my copys of the series are without any defects.

The copy of Smetana Ma Vlast had a repeating skip on side 2. I played it again and it skipped just once, but played through to the end. Then, a single skip appeared on side 4.

I cleaned the record again (it was cleaned before first play) and this time no skips.

This was the only record with any issue.

I think it is maybe because "My Fatherland" should be Pa Vlast. "My Motherland" should be Ma Vlast ....

 

[No Regrets]

The copy of Smetana Ma Vlast had a repeating skip on side 2. I played it again and it skipped just once, but played through to the end. Then, a single skip appeared on side 4.

I cleaned the record again (it was cleaned before first play) and this time no skips.

This was the only record with any issue.

I think it is maybe because "My Fatherland" should be Pa Vlast. "My Motherland" should be Ma Vlast ....

I've run into this similarly with some new records I've bought. I think that sometimes there can be dirt/debris left in the grooves from the pressing process and I have found that my VPI Vacuum Record Cleaning Machine will oftentimes take care of that, thankfully.

Unfortunately, with both copies of my Berlioz, this was not the case. They both came with visible scratches that won't be cleaned away with any machine

Fingers crossed that when my 3rd copy comes, it will be scratch-free.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[Kjetil]

Hi Kjetil,

I honestly cannot remember. I do remember it had the Original Source Series hype sticker on the front of the outer plastic cover as well as the Made in Germany sticker on the back of the outer plastic cover.

I have already sent the record back today, so I no longer have it to look at. I guess I just assumed it would have the number on it, because they were only planning on pressing 1 limited edition run.

Are you thinking that I may have received a bootleg copy of some sort?

Best wishes,
Don

That was a thought. I'm more inclined to think that it was a suboptimal day at Optimal (pressing plant) QC. Human error, alas.
I hope your third will be to standard.
My only QC gripe on the seven albums I've received so far is a missing inlay on the Verdi.

Anyway. Spinning:

 

[No Regrets]

I'm more inclined to think that it was a suboptimal day at Optimal (pressing plant) QC. Human error, alas.

I would have to agree... we are all human and as such, we will have good days and bad days. Here's hoping that my third copy wasn't done on the same day as the first two

Best wishes,
Don

 

[ssfas]

That was a thought. I'm more inclined to think that it was a suboptimal day at Optimal (pressing plant) QC. Human error, alas.
I hope your third will be to standard.
My only QC gripe on the seven albums I've received so far is a missing inlay on the Verdi.

Anyway. Spinning:
View attachment 119106

Someone mentioned the book of Ozawa's discussions with Murakami. There's a discussion of his three recordings of this piece at pages 131 to 137: an early version in Toronto, this one as a permanent conductor (albeit newly appointed), full of detail, plus the fact that it was one of the early DGG USA recordings intended to impress, and a much later Saito Kinen recording hampered by injury.

I'm not a great fan of classical re-releases, I've got about 3 in total, but I've preordered the Steinberg set with the Hindemith Mathis Der Maler. I think those were the first ones, save one, and DGG sent their top recording engineer, who worked with most of their biggest stars including Karajan. They sent some other guy for this one. Seems odd given Ozawa's period in Berlin with Karajan before New York.

I was surprised to see that the very first DGG BSO release of this series was of two pieces by Ives and Ruggles under Tilson Tomas. The sound quality was noted even when reviewed in 1971:

 

[Mike Lavigne]

finally got my TOS Karajan/Verdi from Amazon (by way of Japan) today, on side 2 so far. sounds glorious! impressed by the degree of ambience in this recording. a true halo deck experience.

no issues so far.

still waiting for the TOS Gilels/Brahms and Gilels/Beethoven, both suppose to ship this month.

 

[ssfas]

I’m curious, I ordered the Steinberg box set and it had a release date of 1/12/2024. Does anyone know if that’s an American or British style date? Can I expect it in January or December next year?

I must admit I’m idly curious about how good these are, because the Hindemith in particular, I’ve listened to quite a few times from a ripped CD. I struggle to relate to recordings by people I haven’t heard live. I’ve never even heard the Verdi Requiem, although I’ve been to quite a few of Verdi operas and fairly frequently. Of these early American recordings, there were two by Tilson Thomas (in addition to Steinberg and Ozawa), one of which I found in a small pile I retained when I sold most of my classical vinyl some years ago. When they chose the famous Rousseau painting, presumably because of the flute solo in the prelude on side B, I suspect 50 years ago they didn’t think whether it would be acceptable to use a picture of a flute being played by gorilla. I wonder what the flautist thought about it at the time. I think I’ll give it a spin.

 

[Kjetil]

It’s January 12th. Patience.

 

[ssfas]

It’s January 12th. Patience.

I'm OK with slow. I took the train from Oslo to Bergen and back in the snow, and it doesn't get much slower than that. Enjoyed a couple of shows at your magnificent iceberg of a concert hall/opera house, one of the few halls that is able to do both equally effectively.