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Discussion: Falla: Noches en los jardines de Espana; La Vida Breve; El sombrero de tres picos

Posts: 27
Page: 1 2 3 next

Post by rammiepie December 11, 2012 (1 of 27)
According to John Sunier's review at Audiophile Audition, this Praga stereo remaster was from a commercially duplicated London/Decca Open Reel 7 1/2 ips tape (much like the HDTT DVD~A variety).

Does anyone own this particular version and care to comment on the source material?

Post by Jonalogic December 12, 2012 (2 of 27)
Although it looks too good to be true, I could not -in all honesty - recommend this. It sounds drained of air and life:- just try the very opening of the Three Cornered Hat to see what I mean. The shimmering Decca presence and air that make this an audiophile classic has evaporated. The result is, sonically, flat and rather disappointing.

The Esoteric transfer of the two purely De Falla orchestral pieces is far superior, and that is, in turn, obliterated by the originals of course. A disappointment; I have heard half-decent orphan transfers by Praga, but regretfully this does not appear to be one of them.

Post by Claude December 12, 2012 (3 of 27)
Public domain reissues and audiophile quality don't go well together.

AFAIK commercial open reel releases were duplicated at higher speeds. The quality of the tape material was also inferior to studio tapes. And there is the issue of conservation. These tapes probably come from private collections, so storage and handling could have been less than optimal.

None of the HDTT releases I've sampled really convinced me. They sound more "vintage" (a lot of hiss, even some clicks, speed variations and other tape flaws) than official CD releases from the same era of the same labels, which is probably due to the source material.

IMHO, this is more like releasing vinyl rips on SACD.

Post by rammiepie December 12, 2012 (4 of 27)
Claude said:

Public domain reissues and audiophile quality don't go well together.

AFAIK commercial open reel releases were duplicated at higher speeds. The quality of the tape material was also inferior to studio tapes. And there is the issue of conservation. These tapes probably come from private collections, so storage and handling could have been less than optimal.

None of the HDTT releases I've sampled really convinced me. They sound more "vintage" (a lot of hiss, even some clicks, speed variations and other tape flaws) than official CD releases from the same era of the same labels, which is probably due to the source material.

IMHO, this is more like releasing vinyl rips on SACD.

At the budget pricing of $7.99 (bare bones w/o case/liner notes) a number of the HDTT DVD~R transfers from Open Reels, at least on my Meridian 808, sound pretty spectacular especially since I was an early Open Reel fanatic (Revox/Teac Quad Open Reels w/outboard Dolby b) and my tapes never sounded quite as convincing. But to charge the full SACD pricing for the same is deceptive, at best, especially after reading Jonalogic's disappointing assessment of the results (above).

At least the folks at HDTT will divulge the source material as a lot of their current releases are remastered from LPs and their state of the art facilities are pretty adept at eliciting surprising fidelity from commercially duplicated Open Reel tapes, at least on my playback equipment.

There is NO substitute, however, for SACDs mastered from original analogue master tapes and I'm sure we're all in agreement on that.

Post by Claude April 14, 2013 (5 of 27)

Post by canonical April 14, 2013 (6 of 27)
Thanks for that. For once, I agree with David Hurwitz:

"Everything about this dishonestly packaged disc, and the series of which it is a part, fails to pass the smell test as far as I am concerned. Harmonia Mundi should not be distributing it, and I frankly don’t believe anyone should buy it."

Such a dubious label. I don't touch them anymore.

Post by sylvian April 15, 2013 (7 of 27)
canonical said:

Thanks for that. For once, I agree with David Hurwitz:

"Everything about this dishonestly packaged disc, and the series of which it is a part, fails to pass the smell test as far as I am concerned. Harmonia Mundi should not be distributing it, and I frankly don’t believe anyone should buy it."

Such a dubious label. I don't touch them anymore.

Praga Digital had done some marvellous work in camerata music territory. I simply do not undertsand their involvment in remastering older material from suspicious sources in order to fill the gaps in producing new recordings. They are destroying their reputation by doing this. I feel that Pons disc with HMU can hardly be surpassed.

Post by nucaleena April 15, 2013 (8 of 27)
sylvian said:

I feel that Pons disc with HMU can hardly be surpassed.

Firstly, does anyone have any comment on the recent Saint Saens disc with Gilels et al. Is it any good or is the sound poorer even than usual??

Secondly, what is HMU? (wee above)

Post by sylvian April 15, 2013 (9 of 27)
nucaleena said:

Secondly, what is HMU? (wee above)

HMU = Harmonia Mundi

Post by Euell Neverno April 15, 2013 (10 of 27)
canonical said:

Thanks for that. For once, I agree with David Hurwitz:


Such a dubious label. I don't touch them anymore.

Why do we care? Isn't that a problem for the copyright owner? And, if the holder of the copyright doesn't care enough to seek enforcement, why should we be concerned? In addition, I would respectfully suggest that if, as suggested above, these recordings were pirated from a Polygram company, their lawyers would be all over this like flies on honey. Much ado about nothing.

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