[Bioman]

For the holidays my wife gifted me (with a little direction from me  ) two sets of the RCA Living Presence recordings (Set's I and III).  I had heard a few in the past (BMG) and liked them to a point, but man, these Sony remasters while not quite as good as most R.R. recordings offerings, are to my ears better than dozens of other modern recordings I have.  I paid on average $2.5 a disc, could not be more pleased.  What has your experience been? 

[S Clark]

Are you talking about the box CD sets? 

[Bioman]

Yes

[S Clark]

I have one of the sets, and agree, they are excellent quality.  I've also got probably half of them early pressing vinyl, which can be even better.  Their sound engineers really had developed a feel for how to mic the great halls that the various orchestras played in during the late 50's and 60's. 

[Bioman]

I need to correct the first post.  I meant RCA Living Stereo, but I think you figured that out anyway.   

Interestingly, I have a handful of these in vinyl (shaded dogs) as well as one (Leontyne Price) on 1/4" 7ips r to r.  Hope to someday do a comparison but not sure how to accurately match SPL levels as that can throw off perceptions. 


PS, if you know, can you comment on how the Mercury Living Presence CD's compared to the RCA Living Stereo and are there differences as with the BMG vs. Sony re-masterings?

[S Clark]

I do have one of the Mercury boxes as well. Over the years, I've developed impressions of the RCA sound vs. the Mercury sound.
I think Mercury does a better job of picking up the ambient sound of the hall.  RCA can be more dynamic and precisely imaged.  I've described it before as the difference between seats in the 10th row compared to seats in the 25th row.  Some like Mercury, some like RCA.  But I don't think there is any comparison in the actual vinyl pressings.  RCA's are cleaner, IMO.

[Bioman]

Just picked up this Mercury; not very impressive other than the Carillion bells on side two.  Wierd miking technique.  So far I prefer the RCA's overall.

[Bioman]

PS, what is with the photos; they are right side up in my files but turn 90 degrees when i UPLOAD THEM.

[Wind Chaser]

Fixed it. 

[Bioman]

Windchaser; how do I upload correctly?  Rotate photo 90 off-axis before upload?

[Wind Chaser]

That’s a good question because unlike so many others, I have never encountered that problem. And I should add that I’m using both a PC with WIN 10 and an iPad. 

[Tyson]

Go to your gallery here at AC and click on the picture.  It's likely sideways when you look at it in the gallery.  Click on the image itself and then there will be an "Edit this image" button on the lower right.  Then you can rotate it to make it straight.

[Bioman]

I will try that