Red Seal Shaded Dog Question

[Charles Turner]

I just listened to an old lp I found at a thrift store - Bolero - RCA Red Seal LM-1984 - Charles Munch, Boston Symphony and I'm truely amazed...I didn't know an old mono recording could sound so wonderful.

It has a white dog with a shaded maroon background on a red label. The cover is pristen and the vinyl appears unplayed. Is this the sound of the coveted "shaded dog"? Do all the old red seal recordings (in good condition)sound this good or did I just stumble onto an exception?

This is one I would recommend looking for in the garage sales.

[Deang]

<snore>ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz</snore>

Sorry, but this old metalhead can't relate.

[Charles Turner]

That's ok..."by the way, which one's pink?"

[lynnm]

Many old mono vinyl recordings sound wonderful - Some are crapola - It has been my experience that as a general rule old mono vinyls sound better than their stereo counterparts but exceptions exist. I have "Alley Cat" by Bent Fabric and on my system the mono version is vastly sonically superior to the stereo version but I have heard other pairings where the reverse is true. I think this can be explained on two fronts:

Assuming that we are speaking about recordings made at very beginnings of the stereo era then we are talking about recordings being recorded by engineers that usually had one hello of a lot of experience in recording monophonically but who did not necessarily understand that there was more to stereophonic recording than a left channel and a right channel. It was generally believed that one would need only record a left channel and a right channel

- mix'em together and one would have a stereo recording.

Lest anyone smell audiophilic snobbery here - I was around before the advent of stereo recordings and would have bought that idea without question at the time. Then again I am a sound freak and not an expert. I suspect that some - possibly most - recording engineers of the time understood that there is more to it than what I described above and would have miked the recordings and mixed the tracks accordingly and achieved superior results.

The second reason is that many of the old mono recordings were pressed onto heavier blanks which tended to be less prone to media issues such as rumble -If for no other reason than they were thicker and less prone to transferring rumble and those thicker disks were also less inclined to induce subsonics via warping.

Those subsonics cannot be directly heard but since every note creates harmonics that are above and below the fundamental those very low frequency subharmonics will in fact create harmonics that are within the audible range which will alter the sound character by adding harmonics of notes that did not actually exist in the original performance.

In the end it is safe to say that Excellent Performers aided by Excellent Engineers using Excellent Equipment and guided by Excellent Producers will Provide Excellent results. That formula was true in the days of mono and remains true today.

[synthfreek]

I learned a little bit about this after a recent acquisition of classical titles. After Nipper was dropped from the label I think RCA started using a vastly inferior vinyl so those may be sketchy. One thing to look for is the pressing. You can find the edition by looking on the runout groove and see what number is before the "S". Hopefully(but not likely) you'll see a "1S" which means a first pressing and the most desirable. Most of the Living Stereo series I've heard are really good and there are plent of sites to clue you in on the ones to hunt down. In the same vein is the Mercury Living Presence series. A lot of folks like those even more.

[dkbks]

The RCA "shaded dog" LPs are famous in the world of vinyl collectors. Even better then the mono recordings are the early stereo ones - usually marked "Living Stereo". Avoid the later RCA records, especially those marked DYNAGROOVE, which was a process meant to make records sound better on the cheap players of the time. Some of the stereo 'dogs' in mint condition are worth some real bucks. Do a google search for RCA shaded dog & you'll turn up some good material.

[Charles Turner]

Thanks for the info on mono vs stereo and first pressings. I'm beginning to develop a new respect for these old mono recordings...I confess I always believed you needed two channels to hear a detailed soundstage and easily identify the individual instruments.

Turns out a few of these are also first releases. I doubt I would ever sell them but it's nice to know they might have value to someone other than myself.