Our long-awaited laser-audio disc player (usually called the CD, for "Compact Disc") finally arrived, along with a real bonanza of software: two discs—a Polygram classical sampler of material from Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips, and a Japanese CBS recording of Bruckner's 4th Symphony, with Kubelik.
<B>ELVIS COSTELLO: <I>2½ Years</I></B><BR> Including: <I>My Aim Is True</I> (RCD 90271. Bazza, eng. TT: 60:22), <I>This Year's Model</I> (RCD 90272. TT: 52:46), <I>Armed Forces</I> (RCD 90273. TT: 63:29), all available separately, and <I>Live at El Mocambo</I><BR> Rykodisc RCD 90271/74 (4 CDs). TT: 3:45:33<BR> <I>All above (except as noted):</I> CD only. Nick Lowe, prod.; Roger Bechirian, eng. & re-mastering. AAD.
"Boy, that's flat!" I whistled. I was looking at a quasi-anechoic TDS response Avalon Acoustics' Charles Hansen had produced for his latest brainchild, the two-way Eclipse loudspeaker that he was setting up in my listening room.
What did you on your wedding night? I know what I did. All three times. But Casey McKee? He spent his wedding night at the end of October installing the new Lingo power supply on his Linn LP12. I know. I was there.
"Uhh! What is it?" I was being prodded on the arm. Admittedly it was gentle, almost polite prodding, but prodding it still was, a rude disturbance of the cocoon I had woven around myself in seat 31J of the American Airlines MD-11 winging its way across the North Atlantic. I pushed Pause on the Discman, insensitively not waiting for an opportune cadence in the Brahms Piano Quintet that had been my erstwhile virtual reality.
<B>GILBERT & SULLIVAN: <I>H.M.S. Pinafore</I></B><BR> Richard Suart, The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B.; Thomas Allen, Captain Corcoran; Michael Schade, Ralph Rackstraw; Rebecca Evans, Josephine; Felicity Palmer, Little Buttercup; Donald Adams, Dick Deadeye; Richard Van Allan, Bill Bobstay; Welsh National Opera Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Charles Mackerras<BR> Telarc CD-80374 (CD only). James Mallinson, prod.; Jack Renner, eng. DDD. TT: 73:42
<I>Nothing quite new is perfect.</I> —Marcus Tullius Cicero, <I>Brutus</I>
<B>WAGNER: <I>Siegfried</I></B><BR> Teldec 4509-94193-2 (4 CDs only). TT: 4:00:09<BR> <B>WAGNER: <I>Götterdämmerung</I></B><BR> Teldec 4509-94194-2 (4 CDs only). TT: 4:27:03<BR> Siegfried Jerusalem, Siegfried; Anne Evans, Brünnhilde; John Tomlinson, Wanderer; Günter von Kannen, Alberich; Graham Clark, Mime; Philip Kang, Fafner, Hagen; Bodo Brinkmann, Gunther; Waltraud Meier, Waltraute; Birgitta Svendén, Erda, First Norn; Eva-Maria Bundschuh, Gutrune; Hilde Leidland, Forest Bird, Woglinde; others; 1991 Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus, Daniel Barenboim<BR> <I>Both:</I> John Mordler, prod.; Gernot R. Westhäuser, eng. DDD.
For a while, I've been hearing rumors that the record-club editions of popular compact discs differ from the original versions produced by the record companies. I've met listeners who claim their club versions are compressed in dynamics, and some have reduced bass. Perhaps the clubs, in their infinite wisdom, think the typical member has a lower-class stereo system (in fact, the opposite may be true). Maybe these lower classes could benefit from some judicious dynamic compression, equalization, and digital remastering.