# Audiophile pressings by The Electric Recording Co.



## Arick

Has anyone purchased or heard anything by The Electric Recording Co?

They reissue highly sought after recordings in high quality lathed pressings on vintage equipment, including special papery and card stock for the inner and outer sleeves, a printer still able to print using letterpress hot metal methods, and a milliner able to produce ribbon to the required standards for part of the packaging.

LPs are not cheap, £300-£750 pounds.

They have some very fascinating films in their website showing their process and equipment.

https://electricrecordingco.com


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## Pugg

Arick said:


> Has anyone purchased or heard anything by The Electric Recording Co?
> 
> They reissue highly sought after recordings in high quality lathed pressings on vintage equipment, including special papery and card stock for the inner and outer sleeves, a printer still able to print using letterpress hot metal methods, and a milliner able to produce ribbon to the required standards for part of the packaging.
> 
> LPs are not cheap, £300-£750 pounds.
> 
> They have some very fascinating films in their website showing their process and equipment.
> 
> ]


Ridiculous pricing, can't be worth that much.


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## Triplets

Meant for the Far East consumers, probably


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

What sort of turntable would warrant those prices, I'd rather go and buy another turntable


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## Pugg

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> What sort of turntable would warrant those prices, I'd rather go and buy another turntable


Exactly, wild guess just a sort of plugger owning this company.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> Exactly, wild guess just a sort of plugger owning this company.


At least we don't have to fund it.


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## Pugg

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> At least we don't have to fund it.


Again spot on .


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## Admiral

For perspective, I just priced tickets for a concert this weekend - the ticket I wanted was $322, and that's a "go once and never hear it again" purchase.

Yes, prices are crazy high, so I won't be getting one. 

There are a couple of glowing reviews in Stereophile by Art Dudley on a violin sonata.

I'm sure my turntable (a VPI with a Dynavector cart) could easily resolve the value of this type of recording, but then again the most I've ever spent on an LP was probably $35.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I would suggest that their would be quite a few £_750 _ Turntables that could easily resolve such a disc......


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## 13hm13

Ref. article:
http://www.analogplanet.com/content...nservatore-orchestra-conduced-constantin-silv

I hope ERC also makes a CONCURRENT high-rez (DSD or 24/192) digital transfer. Vinyl is great, but there are aspects of music vinyl can't capture (bass, bass slam, dynamics). 
If you recall, back when Sheffield Lab did their d-2-d, they always ran a 15ips open reel deck concurrently. That's how Sheffield later was able to re-release material on CD (and those CDs are awesome, like the Drum Record).
Anyway, high-rez and DSD downloads are a great marketing opportunity, and companies like ERC can STILL do their limited-edition vinyl thing. Take this lesson from Chad and Acoustic Sounds.
Oh, BTW, the Kogan/Beethoven/Paris/Silvestri concerto was released on CD in Japan (Seraphim) and USA/Europe/world (EMI classic) in roughly 1994-96. As some have noted, full-length mvts are on YouTube. I'm sure the ERC lp sounds better 

Here's the cover of the 1996 EMI CD:


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Proof on why vinyl sounds better than cd's including measurments!! 

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2016/02/vinyl-vs-cd-vinyl-sounds-better.html?m=1


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## Pugg

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> At least we don't have to fund it.


O.P never been seen again.


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## bigshot

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Proof on why vinyl sounds better than cd's including measurments!!
> 
> http://www.monoandstereo.com/2016/02/vinyl-vs-cd-vinyl-sounds-better.html?m=1


Really fun obfuscation going on in that article! The funniest part is that he says he is getting audible differences from simply bumping a hires track down to redbook. It isn't hard to figure out why if you look at his measurements. Look at that frequency response in figure 1... holy cow! There is a massive amount of super audible frequency content in that file he's using. There is a huge peak around 25-30kHz. I have no idea what kind of music that represents... gamelan gongs or something. No typical recording has that kind of spike in the super audible range like that.

So he plays that file back and uses the measurements to subtract the 16/44.1 bounce down playback from. Wow! They look different in the audible range. Proof? Nope. The difference that he is getting in the subtraction is the harmonic noise generated by his equipment, which probably isn't designed to handle ultra high frequencies, much less a massive high volume spike of them like his sample file. Notice that the harmonic spikes are all in octaves relating to that spike between 25-30kHz... Hmmmm... could that be the cause? Could be!

However the bounce down was done without running a borked high frequency through a preamp not designed to handle it. The bounce down just lopped off all those ultra high frequencies cleanly, without any harmonic distortion. Those differences we're seeing in the subtraction figure are errors in the original sample, not the bounce down.

So now he has a problem. If he compares vinyl to that original high sampling rate file, he'll get those same screwy harmonic spikes in the original file. So he decides not to compare vinyl to the high sampling rate file like he did CD sound. He compares an LP of a *completely different recording* to the CD quality file *with no baseline master quality file* to compare them to... and determines the difference between them is more linear. Well duh! It doesn't have that super audible spike distorting your preamp any more. Then, without the aid of any baseline to compare to, he decides that the LP is more "precise" because the harmonic (distortion) is 6dB higher in amplitude. Again duh! Vinyl is chock full of harmonic (distortion) compared to CD. But you don't know if the harmonics are in the sample or if they are distortion artifacts because you don't have a baseline sample to compare to!

He sums it up with... "Certainly those are only estimates and not the final result, and for obtaining the final proof we would need a lot of equipment (CD and vinyl players) and a real laboratory." I would add to that "real science" too.

What kind of website is Mono Stereo? Why would anyone print stuff that is so obviously wrong headed. I didn't even have to parse out all of his obfuscated word salad to see the problem clearly. It's all right there in his charts and how he set up his comparisons.


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## bigshot

13hm13 said:


> If you recall, back when Sheffield Lab did their d-2-d, they always ran a 15ips open reel deck concurrently. That's how Sheffield later was able to re-release material on CD (and those CDs are awesome, like the Drum Record).


I have the original LP versions of most of the Sheffield Lab albums and the CD copies sound just as good if not better. The vinyl had a low continuous noise floor, but not like a CD, and it was still prone to clicks and pops. They kept short running times, but the inner grooves still had more distortion than the run in grooves. The CD format is just better, even with the intermediary step of a 15ips open reel in-between.

I remember when CDs first started Mayorga and Sax wrote a bunch of articles saying how their analogue system had a more accurate sound than digital. They were the ones who invented the old "stair step" myth I think. But Doug Sax was a pro and couldn't avoid digital forever, so he started using it reluctantly. As he learned how to use it, he realized he was completely wrong. Mayorga and Sax ended up retracting what they had said in the past and released CDs and gave up vinyl.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> O.P never been seen again.


spam............................


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## Pugg

13hm13 said:


> Ref. article:
> http://www.analogplanet.com/content...nservatore-orchestra-conduced-constantin-silv
> 
> I hope ERC also makes a CONCURRENT high-rez (DSD or 24/192) digital transfer. Vinyl is great, but there are aspects of music vinyl can't capture (bass, bass slam, dynamics).
> If you recall, back when Sheffield Lab did their d-2-d, they always ran a 15ips open reel deck concurrently. That's how Sheffield later was able to re-release material on CD (and those CDs are awesome, like the Drum Record).
> Anyway, high-rez and DSD downloads are a great marketing opportunity, and companies like ERC can STILL do their limited-edition vinyl thing. Take this lesson from Chad and Acoustic Sounds.
> Oh, BTW, the Kogan/Beethoven/Paris/Silvestri concerto was released on CD in Japan (Seraphim) and USA/Europe/world (EMI classic) in roughly 1994-96. As some have noted, full-length mvts are on YouTube. I'm sure the ERC lp sounds better
> 
> Here's the cover of the 1996 EMI CD:


Welcome at Talk Classical, hope to see more from you.


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## 13hm13

Does anyone have the CD version I noted in #10?









I think this is the non-ERC version (??), from an Asian YouTube vlogger (mvts 1-3):













I think the YouTube movements are sourced from CD (I can hear no vinyl artifacts). The recording quality AND performance are very good. But Beethoven needs to sound violent and "ballsy", too. And, unlike older recordings, more-modern recordings give you that.


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## 13hm13

Just wanted to clarify this a bit...



13hm13 said:


> I think the YouTube movements are sourced from CD (I can hear no vinyl artifacts). The recording quality AND performance are very good. But Beethoven needs to sound violent and "ballsy", too. And, unlike older recordings, more-modern recordings give you that.


It's not just analog vs. digital or vinyl vs. CD/files. It' improvements and changes in all the other equipment (mikes, pre-amps, cables, etc.) as well as recording _techniques_ (= lessons learned).
Example: compare the 1959 Kogan/Silvestri to this recent Joshua Bell recording:





or this 2007 Arabella Steinbacher:





I hope I saved some vinyl addict some $


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## 13hm13

*Japan Seraphim/EMI (1994) CD release of Kogan/Silvestri/Paris Conserv./Beethoven*

This is a 1994 Japan/Toshiba/EMI/Seraphim CD of the same 1959 Kogan/Beethoven recording. I've seen eBay prices as high as $100!!. Good news is that if it's fairly clean (compared to ERC), then Tidal or other full-rez streamer may one day offer it.
To help the streamers' program directors out (!!) I'll show them the Japan CD images:


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## pcnog11

Arick said:


> Has anyone purchased or heard anything by The Electric Recording Co?
> 
> They reissue highly sought after recordings in high quality lathed pressings on vintage equipment, including special papery and card stock for the inner and outer sleeves, a printer still able to print using letterpress hot metal methods, and a milliner able to produce ribbon to the required standards for part of the packaging.
> 
> LPs are not cheap, £300-£750 pounds.
> 
> They have some very fascinating films in their website showing their process and equipment.
> 
> https://electricrecordingco.com


How much incremental gain above the original issue would you have if you pay prices like these?


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## pcnog11

Do not get me wrong, I but SACD, HQCD and vinyl CD (from Hong Kong) but not at prices like these. Could it be a scam?


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## 13hm13

*Too rich for my blood*

Hard to believe ...
http://www.analogplanet.com/content/kurt-kogan-kontinues

Brahms Violin Concerto In D Major; Leonid Kogan, The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted to Kyril Kondrashin








... the Electric Recording Co's limited (now sold-out) version: How collectible is this one? According to Popsike.com, a copy sold on February 6th, 2016 for *$3752. *

Both the Brahms and Beethoven VCs noted in this thread (released by ERC) are on the aforementioned EMI 'artist profile' 2-CD set from 1993:










Psst....I'm listening to an EAC rip of the EMI CD set, in mp320 format, as I type this. A friend sent the file to me as a favor.


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## Jos

13hm13 said:


> Hard to believe ...
> http://www.analogplanet.com/content/kurt-kogan-kontinues
> 
> Brahms Violin Concerto In D Major; Leonid Kogan, The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted to Kyril Kondrashin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ... the Electric Recording Co's limited (now sold-out) version: How collectible is this one? According to Popsike.com, a copy sold on February 6th, 2016 for *$3752. *


And the funny thing is : you might, just might, find a copy at your local car booth sale. Don't hold your breath though. 
Classical music on vinyl is going into the direction of jazz.


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## Larkenfield

New link to the Kogen/Kondrashin Beethoven Violin Concerto that sounds like a mighty fine performance indeed.


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