Records & Recording-- A Few More for the Demo Shelf (Vol. 2, No. 3, Spring - Fall 1980)

Editor's Note: This column will survive our change to a biweekly newsletter format, but there will be only one record reviewed in each of the new Bulletins. We don't expect to run into more than 24 superbly recorded and carefully manufactured albums per year, anyway. The theory and practice of making good records will be covered in some detail in our forthcoming Handbook.

A Few More for the Demo Shelf

We don't want to call this ''A Discography for the Audio Purist'' anymore. That was beginning to sound too much like The 25 Great Records we believe discriminating audiophiles should take to their desert island retreat. Our idea was merely to provide some examples of what we consider excellent material for putting a stereo system through its paces. There's nothing unique about our choices; all we claim is that they actually deliver the audio quality that so many other audiophile-oriented records possess only by reputation or in their jacket blurbs. Unfortunately, great music performed by great artists seldom gets the kind of technical treatment we admire, but that's another subject altogether.

Our current selections below happen to be quite negligible musically.

You will also note that we still have nothing to recommend that has been digitally recorded; we're unaware of any such recordings that sound like music to our ears in the upper registers, stupendous bass and dynamic range not with standing. Again, we must repeat that it is nor the theory but the present-day implementation of digital recording that we keep complaining about.

Incidentally, if you've seen the article in the November 1980 High Fidelity about the digital vs. analog listening tests in which your Editor participated, you should be aware of an important consideration that was glossed over by the authors.

Neither the digital nor the analog recordings chosen for the tests were outstanding examples of their respective technologies. From our point of view, the comparisons were between various degrees of inadequacy in the equipment and techniques used to make the recordings, not between the digital and analog concepts.

Crystal Clear Records

Carlos Montoya: Flamenco Direct, Volume I and Volume II. Carlos Montoya, guitar. Crystal Clear Records CCS-6004 and CCS-6005 (made in 1980).

Carlos Montoya isn't quite our idea of the ultimate flamenco guitarist, but he certainly knows the idiom. The direct-to-disc recording is indeed ''crystal clear' and extremely dynamic; through a truly accurate chain of components you can hear a rather small but well-defined space around the guitarist, which collapses into an up-front, no space kind of presentation when a less accurate component is substituted somewhere along the signal path. When every thing in the system is properly trimmed in, you can close your eyes and obtain a fairly decent you-are-there illusion. It's difficult to ask for more realism than that, although we can imagine a lovelier, less metallic guitar sound-but then we weren't there and maybe that's how it sounded live.

An offbeat selection that attracted our attention is the Saeta on the first side of Volume II; it's a veritable tone poem, complete with percussive and other quasi-orchestral effects. But there's enough pure flamenco here, also, to meet all expectations.

M & K RealTime "'Encore''-Roger Wagner Chorale (live in concert). George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Medley; Negro spirituals; other en cores. Arranged by Roger Wagner for soloists, chorus and piano.

M & K RealTime RT-110 (made in 1978).

This is a live, on-location recording in a small college theater, with the microphones quite close and only a moderate amount of ambience pickup. The immediacy, impact and dynamic range of voices, piano and occasional percussive effects are quite stunning, though. The direct-to-disc cut is super clean; if you hear any distortion on this record, it's coming from your stereo system.

The Roger Wagner Chorale is, of course, a thoroughly professional and musicianly group, and they have great fun with Porgy and Bess and other staples. We can't imagine anyone not getting at least a small kick out of this well-made album.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Eric Clapton: Slow-hand (originally recorded in 1977). Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 1-030 (made in 1979).

Most rock-pop stars make us wince with their lack of musicianship and inability to play their chosen instrument with any degree of skill, but Eric Clapton is definitely an exception. He does what he does with a casual flair that's very appealing, and the rather conservative country-flavored rock he plays here is just about our speed.

What's more, the original RSO tracks were laid down with a surprising respect for clarity, and the processing is one of the early examples of Mobile Fidelity's ' 'second phase,' utilizing a considerably cleaned-up system with Ortofon cutter and other new goodies. The resulting sound is as clean, transparent and believable as we've ever heard on a rock record. We're almost tempted to say ''natural."" Why can't they all do it? Opus 3 Test Record I-Depth of image. A sampler of Opus 3 albums. Opus 3 No. 79-00. (Imported by Scandinavian Sounds, PO Box 3656, San Clemente, CA 92672.) Why should they know more in Sweden about making good tape-to-disc analog records than they do elsewhere? This is the second small Swedish label-the first was Proprius-to make us ask that question. The Opus 3 sound is quite different but in its own way just as impressive.

Opus 3 isn't absolutely committed to the purist technique of just two B & K omnis directly into the tape recorder and then hands off, a la Proprius, nor do they believe in unnecessary electronic processing, on the other hand. They'll do anything they know how in order to get what they consider a genuinely musical sound with ''depth of image' and a believable presence, and it seems that they succeed most of the time. Certainly their channels are much cleaner than those of Proprius, although we still prefer the utterly natural spatial perspective achieved by the latter.

This sampler presents 16 selections from as many albums, ranging from jazz to folk to classical. Particularly impressive are the Bach and Telemann transcriptions for guitar quartet and quintet, some of the jazz cuts, the sym phonic band, and the large South American bamboo pipes.

The performances range from so-so to pretty good, never great. A James Taylor copycat by the name of Bert Deivert is hilarious, probably unintentionally. But the sound is all very transparent, very clearly defined, wide in dynamic range, low in distortion and quite persuasive overall. Since this one album will introduce you to 16, why not give it a try?

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[adapted from TAC, Vol.2, No.3 ]

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Also see:

The Cartridge/Arm/Turntable Scene: Credible Improvements at Incredible Prices -- EON POD Disc Clamp, Fidelity Research MC-201, JMAS MIT-1 ; Platter Matter , Win Laboratories SDC-10, SDA-10, SDT-10-2 and SPG-10

Various audio and high-fidelity magazines