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From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: CBS "MasterSound" Records
Message-ID: <194@olivej.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jul-84 18:38:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: olivej.194
Posted: Tue Jul 24 18:38:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 05:48:13 EDT
Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 37


The CBS "MasterSound" series is, in terms of packaging,
one of the most gussied-up, gaudy series on the market.
A gold sticker with an ornate design proclaims that the
recordings are digital and there are extensive notes 
about the supposedly superb quality of the master and
the pressing.  The price tag is also premium.

I have yet to hear a good one.  My most recent annoyance
was in attempting to get a good copy of the performance
conducted by Michael Tilsson Thomas of Debussy's "La Mer"
with the Philharmonia Orchestra.  Each of my defective
copies let me hear enough to know that the performance
and the playing were extraordinary.  None of them were
listenable.  I'm not talking about "golden ears" standards
of listenability, but the fact that each copy was either
too badly warped to track or, in several cases, had small drops 
of goop (looked like glue) on the record ("Columbia
Factory Sealed") which caused it to stick.

The fact that this, and others in the series, are being
issued in CD format leads me to a horrible suspicion.
Are companies deliberately sabotaging their own analogue
product in order to firmly establish the superiority of
the digital?  Certainly if you compare one of these
pressings with the CD equivalent, the vinyl record comes
off sounding terrible.  Is this supposed to be proof
that a CD sounds great and an analogue LP sounds awful?
All it proves is that it is possible to make a truly
horrible analogue LP, something that will not surprise
the staunchest defender of analogue recordings.  It
certainly does not prove that the CD is superior to
a good analogue pressing.

	- Greg Paley