In article , Java Jive
wrote:

After some searching I've just found some AC recordings of tracks from
an album that I now have on CD, it's Barbara Dickson's seminal folk
album "From The Beggar's Banquet", 1970. The AC recordings were
originally made from a library copy of the LP, while the CD is a
re-issue of 5 or 6 years ago that I feel most fortunate to have
obtained. The difference between the two is utterly unmistakable.

Alas the LP and CD come into that if you're trying to assess AC.
Particularly if you've not heard the LP for a long time and become
habituated to the AC.

FWIW I also routinely find that an LP sounds different to a CD of the
'same' material. The problem being that this may be down to the two
versions being 'mastered' sic quite differently. Can tell you more about
the people cutting the LP or 'improving' sic again what they put on LP
than it does about the frequency response capabilities of either system.

All comes down to how much care and skill were applied when producing the
LP or CD, and to the replay systems.

A couple of days ago I made a digital copy of a 1960 LP of Schubert
symphonies conducted by Beecham. Early EMI stereo LP. The sound is lovely.
And with far fewer ticks and clicks than from later EMI LPs. On-center and
flat disc, too! Just a tragedy that as time passed EMI ceased to take care
when making either LPs *or* CDs and the results sounded worse as a result.
Bean counters were more interested in "Who cares about manufacturing
quality if we can sell them and they don't come back. How quickly and
cheaply can me make them?"

From the LPs I have I'd say that during the early 'stereo' years EMI did
make some great LPs with real care. But by the mid 1970s they simply turned
out 'product' and it was a matter of luck what you got. They relied on you
wanting to hear those artists and bits of music. The hifi mag pages
routinely carried letters bewailing the poor pressings, etc. Yet it
remained clear that a well-made LP could sound very good. Sadly, they got
harder to find!

Jim

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