RCA Living Stereo SACD’s: still available?

[KJC]

I recently bought a couple of these SACD’s. the Reiner CSO Bartok disc and the Munch BSO Berlioz.

They sound superb - and I’m only listening to the CD quality layer ( a Uniti Core rip). They are dramatically better than the first CD issues of the same albums.
I found them second hand on-line, but can’t find any others anywhere else.
Anyone have any ideas where these SACD’s might be available to buy?

[jegreenwood]

No and Yes.

Those discs were issued in the aughts, and I’m not sure they are readily available. However, Analogue Productions has reissued a number of titles, which you can find at Acoustic Sounds.

I must admit I didn’t buy any of the AP releases as I bought all but one of the titles when they were first issued. However, reviews have compared the Analog Production releases favorably to the RCA releases.

Just noticed some of them are being closed out, so I ordered several.

Edit - I should add that you can probably find used copies of the old RCA discs at the usual places. There were about 55 titles. A few were two disc sets (e.g. operas).

[KJC]

Thanks a lot for this @jegreenwood. Very informative.
I hadn’t thought about the Analogue Productions versions. If they sound even better than these awesome BMG versions (remastered by John Newton at Soundmirror Inc.) then I’ll brave the cost and hassle of importing them from the U.S.
I note that the AP versions seem much less generously filled than the BMG’s though. The BMG Bartok Disc in particular has the Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta as well as the Hungarian Sketches.

74 minutes of music and every minute sounds riveting.
Thanks again.
Kevin

[jegreenwood]

True. Another reason I held off until today. The Analogue Production versions contain the music on the original LPs. In some cases, the RCA SACDs had two full LPs worth of music (e.g. Heifetz performing the Brahms and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos).