There is a wesite called "the skeptical audiophile" , on here they highly rate the Decca series "The World of the Great Classics", i suspect these are obviously reissues as a similar spine message regarding stereo playable mono on the Eclipse series is on them as well. Skeptical Audiophile claim the records in this series on blue label Decca have all been remastered and highlight a handful of copies as best buy alternatives to the originals, many of which are very expensive to get hold of these days. I decided to pick up a few of these as they are only a few pounds each and i will be very interested to hear how they sound.
I have a PhD in acoustics, and small amount of recording experience - I think from the explanation of the mono - fake stereo processing, the levels on the stereo audacity recording should have been the same. Perhaps it was the cable or balance causing the level discrepancy, might be worth viewing some other records as comparison, very interesting video. (Try swapping the left right phonos out on the cable?)
The Gold and Oranges LXTs are often beat up but even the ones in good condition often need a dedicated 1mm mono needle in a mono cartridge to sit in the correct position in the groove to give authentic and pleasant sound. Only enthusiasts like myself will go these lengths but usually the later orange and silver monos sound great with just a standard stereo cartridge plus some form of mono switch. I have several reprocessed eclipses they sound ok certainly not stereo more a pleasantly mildly out of phase sound. I do find that for smaller scale music like the fiendishly expensive Campoli Homage to Kreisler using instead a mono switch on the reprocessed eclipse versiontotally resets it back to the original mono which is what I want. Sadly this trick is less effective on the large scale pieces so I avoid them and only buy them if I’m having a dozey day!
I do indeed wish I had a mono switch on my amplifier. Thanks for the info about the 1mm needle. Yes the silver on orange LXTs sound very impressive on a standard cartridge even with no mono switch.
@@LPCLASSICAL I think the orange/silvers LXT’s are often amazingly good value. Far more likely to be left behind on the charity shop shelves, better looked after, fraction of the price of SXL’s and with the early pressings from the late fifties you can get the much prized tubey sound without the distortion during loud passages near the label. Fortunately for me hardly anyone else agrees!
I've read that ECS543 (Ansermet/Rimsky Korsakov) features one side of electronically reprocessed stereo on side 1 (Le Coq D'or), but side 2 is true stereo (Symphony 2, Antar), even though the label indicates it's reprocessed. Do you know anything about this and can you comment on this particular release?
Thanks for a great insightful video. I used to regard the Decca fake stereos with disdain, until I actually listened to 2 of them: Munchinger's Brandenburg and Dvorak's Cello concerto. Certainly they sound clean and enjoyable. I am not a true audiophile by any means, but I am presently kicking myself for passing over a few of the fake stereo Eclipses.
Thanks, that was very informative.
There is a wesite called "the skeptical audiophile" , on here they highly rate the Decca series "The World of the Great Classics", i suspect these are obviously reissues as a similar spine message regarding stereo playable mono on the Eclipse series is on them as well. Skeptical Audiophile claim the records in this series on blue label Decca have all been remastered and highlight a handful of copies as best buy alternatives to the originals, many of which are very expensive to get hold of these days. I decided to pick up a few of these as they are only a few pounds each and i will be very interested to hear how they sound.
I have a PhD in acoustics, and small amount of recording experience - I think from the explanation of the mono - fake stereo processing, the levels on the stereo audacity recording should have been the same. Perhaps it was the cable or balance causing the level discrepancy, might be worth viewing some other records as comparison, very interesting video. (Try swapping the left right phonos out on the cable?)
The input is by 1 jack plug. So is the output via the headphone socket on amp. I will check the levels on the amp.
If you have a phd in acoustics - how do you explain a primitive format like vinyl being preferred over CD and streaming?
The Gold and Oranges LXTs are often beat up but even the ones in good condition often need a dedicated 1mm mono needle in a mono cartridge to sit in the correct position in the groove to give authentic and pleasant sound. Only enthusiasts like myself will go these lengths but usually the later orange and silver monos sound great with just a standard stereo cartridge plus some form of mono switch. I have several reprocessed eclipses they sound ok certainly not stereo more a pleasantly mildly out of phase sound. I do find that for smaller scale music like the fiendishly expensive Campoli Homage to Kreisler using instead a mono switch on the reprocessed eclipse versiontotally resets it back to the original mono which is what I want. Sadly this trick is less effective on the large scale pieces so I avoid them and only buy them if I’m having a dozey day!
I do indeed wish I had a mono switch on my amplifier. Thanks for the info about the 1mm needle. Yes the silver on orange LXTs sound very impressive on a standard cartridge even with no mono switch.
@@LPCLASSICAL I think the orange/silvers LXT’s are often amazingly good value. Far more likely to be left behind on the charity shop shelves, better looked after, fraction of the price of SXL’s and with the early pressings from the late fifties you can get the much prized tubey sound without the distortion during loud passages near the label. Fortunately for me hardly anyone else agrees!
I've read that ECS543 (Ansermet/Rimsky Korsakov) features one side of electronically reprocessed stereo on side 1 (Le Coq D'or), but side 2 is true stereo (Symphony 2, Antar), even though the label indicates it's reprocessed. Do you know anything about this and can you comment on this particular release?
Thanks for a great insightful video. I used to regard the Decca fake stereos with disdain, until I actually listened to 2 of them: Munchinger's Brandenburg and Dvorak's Cello concerto. Certainly they sound clean and enjoyable. I am not a true audiophile by any means, but I am presently kicking myself for passing over a few of the fake stereo Eclipses.
Thanks glad you found it useful.
Here's a fake stereo Eclipse compared with the original mono and the fake stereo played as mono. ruclips.net/video/imkSsLuHURs/видео.html