Deutsche Grammophon on Analog Recording

[krabapple]

The audiophile idea of golden age is not entirely about interpretations or musicianship. From 50s onwards recordings are usually in stereo. And since the beginning of the 80s there is this dreaded thing called digital. Effectively the time window for audiophile accepted recordings is relatively narrow.

I will again point out that development of the dreaded digital that appeared in the 80s (actually a bit earlier, on LP) was pushed and championed by classical music recording engineers. They were very well acquainted with the deficiencies of analog.

Currently listening to the Reiner Pictures (on cd). From audiophile perspective it sounds perfectly fine but nothing special.

Which simply shows that sound isn't everything. It's a decent sound, but a great performance.

Similarly, I've a dozen recordings of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, some in pristine audio quality, but none sound as 'right' to me, performance-wise, as Reiner& the CSO's from 1958. (My final purchase of it was a 3-channel SACD made from the 3-track master tapes,I don't imagine there's any sonic upgrading left to do on it)