There seem to be lots of theories around about why the Karajan DDD recordings are so iffy. As well as the ‘misguided meddling from someone no-one could say No to’ reason (which I find believable from the famously vain egomaniac), I’ve also seen these:
the BPO moved into their new hall, the Philharmonie, in the early 60s and the acoustics of the building were a bit odd. After the acoustically lovely Jesus-Christus Kirche, which the BPO recorded in after the war until the new building was ready, a lot of the Philharmonie recordings sound lacklustre by comparison, even as late as the 80s. As evidence for this, Karajan’s 1980s VPO recordings in the Musikverein sound much better than his BPO ones.
there was a tendency for DG to over-mike and to close mike orchestral recordings which Karajan probably added to or exacerbated. In particular, putting lots of mikes above the strings means you get an over-emphasis on high frequencies which, in a concert hall, the audience only hear after they’ve been softened by reflection. Odd high frequencies in these recordings are often blamed on the early digital systems used, but (for example) Telarc’s digital recordings from the same time sound great, partly because they under-miked in a similar way to the classic 1950s Mercury Living Presence recordings.
As so often, it’s probably a mixture of all these reasons!
I have not been able to find any good recording from Toto. To me, most of their music is crap anyway, but some tracks are great. at least these should be well-recorded - but no.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned Born to Run yet. Such a great albumn that desparately needs remixing. Bruce however is adamant that that is how he intended it to sound and does not want to change it.
There are a number of versions out there, but I really liked this one as ‘a best of a poor selection’ copy.
There is another new remaster available at the moment for between £25 & £30 depending on retailer. I might try one from Amazon or HMV or even my local guy🤷🏻♂️ Update Edit
Dave the Vinyl guy thinks he has a copy or two. He thinks he has an Original, but we all know how appalling the SQ on that is🤦🏻♂️
Most of the songs (they’re very good) lack anything describable as bass. The guy who who
most of the songs was Don Galluci, who played on the original version of Louie Louie while still a school and even more puzzling was the Producer of the Stooges Fun House, which is magic in every way.
So Touch was his band, and as above its featured great songs (see below). The other thing is that it was released in 1969, and it sounds like an Album made by a pre-Yes.
You beat me to it. If I could assign a number to the difference between the music and the sound quality on every record I own, my copy of Born To Run would take the prize.
Me too, that’s my go to to see if a system grabs me… it never did not matter what I tried it on. Never use that as test anymore, more a curiosity to see if anything can make that album sound good! Tried vinyl and CD
You know, I’ve always wondered if the reason so many audiophiles are into Jazz is just because it’s easy to find good recordings to “listen to their hifi”.
