This shootout has been many years in the making. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does. No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space.Natural tonality in the midrange - with all the instruments having the correct timbre.Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low.Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1963 The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing.The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space.What the Best Sides of This Reader’s Digest Release Have to Offer Is Not Hard to Hear Old records have it - not often, and certainly not always - but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds. If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for - this sound. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. This vintage pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. The horns are tubey and full-bodied and never screech through even the most difficult passages. The strings are clear and textured, yet rich and full-bodied. “The Second Symphony has retained an extraordinary popularity for its individualistic tonal language, dark wind coloring, muted string writing, simple folk-like themes, and distinctly “national” flavor that are all Sibelian to the core.”Ī truly extraordinary recording mastered beautifully but pressed on vinyl that has never been known for its quiescence (if I can get by with that ten-cent word).One listen to this famous Wilkinson recording and you’ll see why it’s one of the most lauded RDG titles in all of their illustrious canon.An outstanding copy of the best Sibelius Second Symphony on vinyl we know of – solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish.More of the music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
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