Disc Quality
W. R. Kane's letter in the December issue presents a valid complaint regarding the miserable state of phonograph disc quality. It is painfully obvious that the quality of disc pressings has been declining while that of the hardware used in recording and reproducing the information found on discs now approaches perfection. This fact is especially irritating as there are a number of techniques which the record industry could practice in order to increase the quality of its product.
These include the use of top-quality vinyl and the prompt replacement of worn pressing masters. I understand that such techniques are inexpensive in relation to the final con sumer cost of a disc. Perhaps the industry could produce two lines of each recording and charge accordingly for the quality differences.
At least some consumer choice is warranted in the matter.
Do you have any suggestions as to what effective action concerned disc-purchasers might take to help remedy this problem? I suggest that the FTC establish standards for disc quality as it has done for so many other consumer products.
CARL G. BORDEN; Piedmont, Calif.
For a discussion of the points raised by reader Borden, see this month's "Editorially Speaking," page 4.
I have been told by clerks at major New York record stores that they are charged for returning defective records. If this is true, I think it is disgraceful! Retailers who are charged for returning defective merchandise which customers have returned to them should boycott those record companies maintaining such a policy, particularly when it seems to be the policy of many of them to produce faulty merchandise to begin with.
THOMAS P. LEWIS; White Plains, N.Y.
The Editor replies: It is not true, though it is easy to understand why some hard-pressed clerk might have recourse to such a fiction remember that he has to deal with much more defective merchandise than any individual customer. Return rules at most record shops are standard: an unopened (shrink-wrapped) disc may be returned for anything of equal value (a lot of gift records go this route); an opened defective disc may be exchanged, but only for another copy of the same (the reason for this is that far too many naughty youngsters buy a record, take it home and tape it, re turn it as "defective," exchange it for another disc which they take home and tape, and so on); in some cases the store will permit re placement with a different disc if you pay a premium of 500 or so (that has now gone up in most cases to a dollar, and naughty youngsters may have had something to do with that too).
It's been said so many times lately that everyone is no doubt tired of hearing it, but rec ord quality in general stinks. I recently purchased a Linda Ronstadt album on Asylum. I couldn't hear the pops and crackles because the stylus wouldn't stay in any one groove long enough. At the record store we opened three more copies, but all were badly warped.
To get rid of me they talked me into taking an album of Queen instead. I quickly tired of its snap, crackle, pop, so I turned on my AM receiver. I spent the evening listening to my neighbor's CB.
ROD SWEETLAND; Sacramento, Calif.
CB Interference
As an audiophile and CB enthusiast and an owner of a communications shop, I have a few comments to make on Ralph Hodges' "Audio Basics" column on CB interference (January). There are certainly a lot more people who own and operate stereo equipment than there are those who own and operate CB equipment. As a rule of thumb, most CBer's operating base stations (where CB RFI comes from) are surrounded in their area by those owning stereo equipment. Yet, in a given area of, say, one square block, the CBer will throw RFI on only one or two receivers. (I am speaking of the CB operator who complies with the FCC standards of four-watt output.) This would suggest that the RFI received by the stereo enthusiast is a result of some dysfunction in his audio receiver and not because of the CB station.
In the instance of the CBer who is running illegal power output, I agree that he is to be held responsible for RFI as well as TVI, CB "bleed-over," and numerous other types of interference. The FCC already has the necessary laws to handle such cases but not the manpower to enforce the regulations.
R. E. ROCKWELL; Monrovia, Calif.
Ralph Hodges replies: It wasn't-and isn't my purpose to wage a vendetta against CB, but merely to describe the controversy and its implications. However, I think reader Rock well misses an important point. If a sound buff disturbs your sleep at nights, you can (in most communities) call the police and have him shut down. If he continues to annoy you, you can gather evidence, hale him into court, and very often win your case. In the future it is very likely that your powers to pull his plug will in crease, since it has been the recent tendency of law to restrict the activities of noise makers (especially nonessential ones) more and more.
However, if CB gets into my audio system I cannot look to the police or the courts for assistance, since the law is mute on the subject except to guarantee the CBer his right to broadcast. Nor can I successfully take the manufacturer of my equipment to court, be cause the law at present finds no fault in his equipment's being r. f.-sensitive. If the new law goes into effect, the audio manufacturer will have to design his equipment to pass the FCC's interference tests, and I will have to help pay the manufacturer's costs by paying more for my equipment. And if I then still have an r.f. problem (an entirely likely possibility, according to the FCC, since they don't anticipate that their test will or could be all-inclusive), I am right back where I started from.
The manufacturer cannot be held responsible;
after all, his equipment passes the tests.
Far from having an equal right to ply his hobby, the amateur radioist has, under the law, a much greater right than the audiophile at present. The law doesn't define any rights of the music listener in this context, and therefore it can be said that those rights, technically, do not exist. Also, I'm not sure I'd go along with the idea of equating rights in this way. Society might be inclined to condone the activities of the compulsive pyromaniac (who presumably derives pleasure from his arson) as readily as it does those of the birdwatcher, except that society has decided that the pyromaniac causes intolerable inconvenience to various other people. And that's the court in which the ball lies now. Other people-lots of them-are being seriously inconvenienced. You cannot expect them to keep quiet about it forever.
Guitar Rip-off
James Goodfriend's January 1977 column on musical rip-offs was well-written and to the point. Unfortunately, the impact of his message was, for me at least, substantially dissipated later on in the issue when Stephanie von Buchau fell prey to a bit of deception by John Williams and Columbia Records.
John Williams may indeed be a "technical wizard in every aspect of guitar playing." However, he did not transcribe the Chaconne from Bach's Violin Partita No. 2; his rendition, like others of this piece on the guitar, is nothing other than Johannes Brahms' arrangement for piano left-hand only (Studien fur Pianoforte Nr. 5). A careful listening to Williams' performance while following the Brahms arrangement will reveal only very slight differences, and those confined to one or two passages.
One might note in closing that Brahms entitled his work "Chaconne von J.S. Bach, fur die linke Hand allein bearbeitet," thus explicitly disclaiming any authorship of the work.
One can wish that modern performers would be equally modest.
CHAYIM HERZIG-MARX Evanston, Ill.
Christopher Parkening
Why did Stephanie von Buchau, in her article on classical guitar music, neglect Segovia's renowned student, premiere virtuoso guitarist Christopher Parkening? This is akin to writing about classical piano music and leaving out Horowitz or Rubinstein!
JOEL S. RICHMON; Piedmont, Calif.
The article was a roundup of fairly recent guitar recordings. At the time it was written Parkening had not made a new recording since 1971. His current release, "Parkening and the Guitar" (Angel S36053), was not received in time for inclusion.
Stylus Magnification
Julian Hirsch's phono cartridge article in January contains pictures of phonograph styli taken with the scanning electron microscope.
We have noticed that the captions supplied for Figure 2 and Figure 6 require small correc tions. Magnification in Figure 2 is more like 1000x because the groove shown is about 1.5 mils wide. This probably occurred during the process of reducing the size of a photograph from 8 x 10 inches to the published version.
The caption for Figure 6 should have read "With magnification of over 2000x a stylus does not appear smooth." Magnification in this shot is actually close to 5000x.
GEORGE ALEXANDROVICH; Stanton Magnetics, Inc. Plainview, N.Y.
Rubinstein's Petrouchka
In his January review of the new Weissenberg Petrouchka, Eric Salzman states that the set of piano pieces from this work was made for Artur Rubinstein who, he believes, never performed it. I was at Symphony Hall in Boston on February 17, 1952, when Petrouchka was performed to perfection by Mr. Rubin stein. The work was also part of the 1971 monumental series of recitals given by Mr. Rubinstein in Carnegie Hall. I believe these recitals were recorded by RCA but that only one disc of Debussy, Prokofiev, Villa-Lobos, and Szymanowski was released. Perhaps a set similar to RCA's Heifetz collection will be done for Artur Rubinstein.
JOSEPH BEAUDOIN; Stoughton, Mass.
Small Labels
Ira Mayer's article on small record labels in January was enjoyable even though obviously limited in scope and length. However, Mr. Mayer implied that issuing a record on a small scale was a relatively inexpensive operation. That still might apply to the single-artist folk disc, but not if you're trying to record a six-piece jazz band. Since our start just four years ago most costs have increased alarmingly. These rising costs force the small label to seek either higher prices for each disc, greater distribution, or a combination of the two.
Like it or not, our prices are compared to general pop labels, and we can't stray too far above those. There seems to be a psychological block among even the most devoted fans in this area.
PLATO SMITH; Land O' Jazz, New Orleans, La.
Manuguerra
I wholeheartedly concur with George Jellinek's high marks for Matteo Manuguerra's Baron Scarpia in his January review of Deutsche Grammophon's newly released Tosca. I hope Mr. Manuguerra will soon record a disc of tenor-baritone duets with Carlo Bergonzi.
Contrariwise, I deplore the sketch of Luciano Pavarotti (on page 132) dressed as Santa Claus and encircled by the words "Merry Christmas from the World's Greatest Tenor." Bah! Humbug! Mr. Pavarotti has yet to attain sainthood among tenors, and the gifts he brings us could all be placed in one small stocking!
THOMAS R. WILSON; Downers Grove, Ill.
Nothing New
In the December Equipment Test Reports you pointed out that electronic direct-drive turntables first appeared only a few years ago.
Not so. On page 524 of the April 1917 issue of Popular Mechanics there appeared a news item about a "slow-running electric motor that has been designed for operating phono graphs, the armature [being] part of the turn table," so there is at least one prior claim to the distinction of "first." RICHARD S. BENNETT' Falls Church, Va.
AM/FM
I would like to thank and congratulate Noel Coppage for expressing his views on FM radio in his November review of Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." I'm glad someone else agrees with me that there is a growing problem with FM adopting AM programming.
This may be the reason for the growing FM penetration in North America. Let's hope it doesn't get to the point of absurdity.
ROB EDISON Lakefield, Ont., Can.
Correction
The review of "Oba Koso" on page 120 of the December issue carried a misprint in its mailing information. The correct address from which to order this recording is: Traditional Music Documentation Project, 3740 Kanawha Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20015.
Also see:
Technics Linear Phase speakers
TAPE RECORDING--A professional shares his tips on how to do it right, JOHN WORAM
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING, WILLIAM ANDERSON