RCA Living Stereo Classical SACDs

Yes.

 

i almost have all of them then.. cool

 

I mentioned in another thread I have all but one - I just cannot imagine myself wanting to hear Mario Lanza doing Neopolitan songs or Rudolf Friml..

 

That site is so useless. No UPC numbers, so why bother? I can get more complete info from tower.com.

 

You know you can click on the individual SACD links to get all the UPC codes and a lot of other information..

That site has been invaluable to me over the years. Kudos to Stephen the person who created it and lovingly updates it...

 

I just have a couple of these titles and have always been meaning to get more. Thanks for the reminder and I think some of these will be going on my Christmas list!

 

It's the best site that exists for a certain type of format. It's very up-to-date and accurate. You can get additional info about the discs by following the shopping or label links.

I wish there were similar sites for vinyl.

 

I was never sure how many I'm missing, I have 52 - so if this is correct I'm just missing two.

The search begins.

 

So there are as many as 52 titles?

 

For those who are more schooled in classical, would you say this collection covers all the biggies?

 

I have 47. with my luck ill wait, and that will be the 7 that are most difficult to find

 

Yup, I got many of them as special priced packages from elusive disc but recall that one of the sets was missing a title that went temporarily out of print. My guess is I'm missing this one and one other title - will check the above link tomorrow to see what I'm missing.

 

No. It's extremely random.

 

I think it represents a pretty eclectic selections of music from the classical/romantic period. I bought these SACD's for their excellent remastering and SQ since I already have a collection that covers the Renaissance to early 20th century - some 800 years of western music. These selections alone would have been too narrowly focused for my taste.

 

The SACD mastering was done to match either the tapes or some effort to
brighten the recordings, that it what he meant by "forward sounding".
The SACDs match the dynamics of the old vinyl but rarely the tone.
The early 90's cd reissues w/ restored artwork actually matched the tone
of the old lps better.

Just because a tape (pre-mastering) sounds bright does not mean you have to
cut it to SACD than way. I was disappointed and gave up after about 8 discs.

So, in other words, RCAs ARE worth collecting . . . just not on SACD.

 

I own three and love the sound. It really shows that if the recording engineer really cares, he can still capture much on a great R2R machine. It is sad that SACD is mostly relegated to classical releases, but since I love classical music it is a good thing, but why anyone would rather have the conveniece of mp3s over an SACD is beyond me. Maybe if Sony had marketed an SACD Discman things might have been different. Portable SACD would have been nice.

 

I play MP3s and SACDs, there's no reason to choose one over the other. Both are useful for different purposes.

 

Definitely a strong opinion. I'll assume you own 0 Living Stereo XRCD's -- those are bright.

 

Yup. BTW, I had a chance to listen to some of the original tapes at SoundMirror and, on balance, they do not sound much different from the released SACDs. I can understand someone preferring the balance on the LPs but I think the SACDs are a better representation of the tapes. (I prefer them, too.)

 

Thats what i gathered. i wonder why they didnt choose a few more accessible titles?

 

Do you mean Pops-style music?

I can't see a non-accessible title among these 54.

 

maybe i need to visit the classical recordings threads....

 

I read somewhere that these are true flat transfers. No any additional compression, no any EQ'ing.

 

No I wouldn't say that, there's too much music in what we call "classical" now to be able to cover 'em in any series. You wouldn't run out of music, that's for sure! It can be argued though that this series could be a good "starting point" in some ways... but these SACDs are just a part of the original Living Stereo classical catalog, so something of a starting point for a starting point?

They sound bright to you? The Mercury Living Presence, I'd agree those certainly could be called bright, they always were by nature. But while the RCAs do vary they don't seem especially bright to me.

Anyway, I have a complete set of the Living Stereo series CDs (sans Opera titles) and in every applicable instance felt the SACDs to be superior. The LPs are distinct. The original LPs were the product of a system that included the old lathes. It'd be difficult to duplicate them and no reissues have or are likely to, for better or worse.

Some of them - Lt. Kije for instance - are closer to simulating the general tone and timbre of what one might hear at some (natural, unamplified) concerts as most recordings I've heard. The Chicago recordings do have a distinct soundstage etc reflecting its stage/layout and there is some effective compression involved (not in mastering) but whatever the process the results are often amazing.

Certainly.

That's the sense I get too.

 

What do you consider accessible?