# New from dg



## Michael122 (Sep 16, 2021)

DG is now pressing what they call “Mastercut Edition” records expressly for vinyl.
Their website states,
“In the conventional record production process, the term "Mastercut" refers to a template disc from which the pressing stamper is derived and which is destroyed in that process. But in these editions, each and every record is the original Mastercut, hand-cut into a lacquer disc, directly from completely unedited 1:1 {1-to-1} copies of original tapes.”
Appears they only have 4 artist choices, 2 of which are “sold out”, and the best of which is probably Kleiber’s LVB 5th from 1974.
DG wants 377.00 Euros {$430.00} for them.
While this line may be an audiophile’s dream, given the high price tag, it is doubtful they’ll sell enough of these to expand the line.
What do you guys think?
Do you have one, know anyone who does, or have you had an opportunity to listen to one?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Some people buy $5000 bottles of scotch. Some buy cars costing more than a house. A few spend $100,000 on exotic vacuum tube audio systems. Others buy LPs costing 20 times what they should. If you've got the money to spare and really believe LPs sound better than digital, go for it.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

I will continue listening to DG _CDs_-- soon I will get a DG set of Brahms CDs from Amazon.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Michael122 said:


> What do you guys think?


I'm guessing someone justifying spending $430 for a vinyl pressing of something they can get for $12 as a CD on Amazon doesn't have a wife.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

A fool and his money... as the saying goes. It will never cease to amaze me how an objectively inferior medium for audio like vinyl persists into the age of an essentially flawless one like digital, and it amazes even more that it's sold as a luxury product to audiophiles!


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

If there's a market for it, I can't see the problem. After all, we're not communists.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Its kind of inevitable really. With the mass market gravitating towards streaming the big companies are always looking for a new angle to sell something which will give them a decent margin - this is an angle clearly aimed at a niche market which will probably love the exclusivity that will come with ownership. Free market - why shouldn't they?


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

To an extent the audio quality doesn't really matter - these are going to be sold as collectibles and possibly to either people who love collecting shiny things, or speculators who will put sealed copies on discogs for sale for an absurd amount of money. But record companies are transitioning to this model of physical media as luxury good foe a while now.



HenryPenfold said:


> If there's a market for it, I can't see the problem. After all, we're not communists.


Speak for yerself.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

HenryPenfold said:


> If there's a market for it, I can't see the problem. After all, we're not communists.


No, but vinyl presents a pretty good argument for why we should be.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Manxfeeder said:


> I'm guessing someone justifying spending $430 for a vinyl pressing of something they can get for $12 as a CD on Amazon doesn't have a wife.


I think you're right.

Overheard years ago in a record store:

Man: "There's a new recording of The Planets, and its apparently very good."
Woman: "Don't you already have like half a dozen recordings of that?"

Needless to say, no sale.:lol:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

HenryPenfold said:


> If there's a market for it, I can't see the problem. After all, we're not communists.


We have a saying, wat de gek er voor geeft meaning as much as something like: what the madman willing to pay


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

It's a niche market for people that have money. Some years ago (this may still be happening) another new niche market opened -- people that collected reel to reel tape of classical recordings. No company has produced them in years.

I just looked at a thread on classical music and age. This is one of the things that happens to people in ascending age who have money. Their tastes become so refined that when a new medium arrives that pleases them they will pay the long dollar for it, in part because of novelty, in part because of nostalgia, in part because of newness.

I have paid more than I ever dreamed i would for (usually deleted) recordings I want so rare only 1 or 2 exist in the world. I have the money and, when the product arrives, I'll pay it. There are still a few of these recordings left on my want list though none are on LP.


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## signaturemusic (12 mo ago)

*Vinyl vs. CD / SACD*

Well, if you compare the same recording on vinyl and CD, played with hifi equipment of the same quality, you will notice that vinyl sounds better than CD or SACD. Trust your ears, not the technical data of signal ratio or whatever. The reason why vinyl sounds better is not really the media itself, but ususally the mastering for the vinyl is much more carefully done than for the CD version. But even if the mastering processes for both vinyl and CD are done carefully, vinyl has a superior sound quality. People don´t spend so much money for vinyl because it´s hip but because it sounds better.


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## signaturemusic (12 mo ago)

The material of the Mastercut Edition is not vinyl but lacquer (acetate). The manufacturing process takes much more time than for a vinyl edition and is done manually, that´s why this edition is so expensive.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

signaturemusic said:


> Well, if you compare the same recording on vinyl and CD, played with hifi equipment of the same quality, you will notice that vinyl sounds better than CD or SACD. Trust your ears, not the technical data of signal ratio or whatever. The reason why vinyl sounds better is not really the media itself, but ususally the mastering for the vinyl is much more carefully done than for the CD version. But even if the mastering processes for both vinyl and CD are done carefully, vinyl has a superior sound quality. People don´t spend so much money for vinyl because it´s hip because it sounds better.


Good point, and first post, welcome to the site.


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## signaturemusic (12 mo ago)

Manxfeeder said:


> I'm guessing someone justifying spending $430 for a vinyl pressing of something they can get for $12 as a CD on Amazon doesn't have a wife.


The Mastercut Edition is not a vinyl, but a lacquer edition (acetate!). If you don´t care about sound quality, get the CD for 12$ on Amazon. Kleiber´s recording of Beethoven´s 5th is a milestone in recording history, so having the chance to get so close to the original version like the Mastercut edition, is amazing and it is surely for some audiophile gourmets a reason to pay a bit more than 12$. Those who can afford this edition, could probably afford more than one wife :lol:


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

signaturemusic said:


> Well, if you compare the same recording on vinyl and CD, played with hifi equipment of the same quality, you will notice that vinyl sounds better than CD or SACD. Trust your ears, not the technical data of signal ratio or whatever. The reason why vinyl sounds better is not really the media itself, but ususally the mastering for the vinyl is much more carefully done than for the CD version. But even if the mastering processes for both vinyl and CD are done carefully, vinyl has a superior sound quality. People don´t spend so much money for vinyl because it´s hip but because it sounds better.


I don't know about that. Several vinyl buyers I know play them on Crosley record players


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

signaturemusic said:


> The Mastercut Edition is not a vinyl, but a lacquer edition (acetate!). If you don´t care about sound quality, get the CD for 12$ on Amazon. Kleiber´s recording of Beethoven´s 5th is a milestone in recording history, so having the chance to get so close to the original version like the Mastercut edition, is amazing and it is surely for some audiophile gourmets a reason to pay a bit more than 12$. Those who can afford this edition, could probably afford more than one wife :lol:


If you care about audio quality get the CD. Vinyl is an objectively worse medium than digital and acetate is even worse because it wears faster.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I hate vinyl. There is a big niche market now with vinyl and it's adherents are like Zealots with Religion. It's the only path to (Sonic) Salvation, etc. So the true believers, just like people that give a lot of money to televangelists, can be duped into forking ever-increasing amounts of money for something special, limited edition, the same way that televangelists promise the first few big donors a spot in eternal paradise.
I love CDs, Blu Rays, etc and I have to stop sneering at the Vinylistas for now because I will admit that Have been induced to buy some Digital Equivalents of these special edition lps. The catch is, however, that with rare exceptions, they have sounded better than bog standard rebook CDs. For a while Japancd was selling "Blue Spec" CDs. These were CDs apparently made with some Blu Ray technologies, . I repurchased my Kurt Sanderling/Dresden Staatkapelle Brahms Symphony Cyle on "Blu Spec" and it blew away the RCA budget CDs. Why? Damned if I know, perhaps a different remastering that had nothing to do with the materials of the disc. The technology never caught on and seems to have disappeared


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Triplets said:


> I hate vinyl. There is a big niche market now with vinyl and it's adherents are like Zealots with Religion. It's the only path to (Sonic) Salvation, etc. So the true believers, just like people that give a lot of money to televangelists, can be duped into forking ever-increasing amounts of money for something special, limited edition, the same way that televangelists promise the first few big donors a spot in eternal paradise.
> I love CDs, Blu Rays, etc and I have to stop sneering at the Vinylistas for now because I will admit that Have been induced to buy some Digital Equivalents of these special edition lps. The catch is, however, that with rare exceptions, they have sounded better than bog standard rebook CDs. For a while Japancd was selling "Blue Spec" CDs. These were CDs apparently made with some Blu Ray technologies, . I repurchased my Kurt Sanderling/Dresden Staatkapelle Brahms Symphony Cyle on "Blu Spec" and it blew away the RCA budget CDs. Why? Damned if I know, *perhaps a different remastering that had nothing to do with the materials of the disc. *The technology never caught on and seems to have disappeared


Bingo. There also could've been some digital "sound cleaning" involved as there was on the Callas remasters. Redbook CD captures all the the frequency spectrum the human ear can hear and all the dynamic range that would ever be needed (and then some; a range of 96db is far more than any home theater system could even reproduce). Stuff like blue-spec is just marketing hype generated to attempt to get more money from the same products that people have already bought. For pop/rock albums remastering was a similar grift, though in this case worse because most remasters flattened dynamic range in order to make CDs louder. It's much easier for record companies to make money of their back catalog by introducing new formats and stuff like "remastered" than it is for them to actually make and promote new music.


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## Subutai (Feb 28, 2021)

I don't get it but I do remember that the first time I placed a needle on vinyl way back on the day, it sounded better then any CD I since owned. But afterwards it became a serious of snaps, crackles and pops so I'm grateful for digital technology. Funny thing is that I get why some people want to buy vinyl, yet I read recently read that apparently CASSETTES are also making a comeback! Sometimes the world stops making sense to me.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Subutai said:


> I don't get it but I do remember that the first time I placed a needle on vinyl way back on the day, it sounded better then any CD I since owned. But afterwards it became a serious of snaps, crackles and pops so I'm grateful for digital technology. Funny thing is that I get why some people want to buy vinyl, yet I read recently read that apparently *CASSETTES are *also making a comeback! Sometimes the world stops making sense to me.


Not so long ago there was a whole item about that on BBC TV, people talking about it wit the same love as people do about vinyl or cd .


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Upon reading the title, for a second I thought it meant "New from Dollar General"


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Subutai said:


> I don't get it but I do remember that the first time I placed a needle on vinyl way back on the day, it sounded better then any CD I since owned. But afterwards it became a serious of snaps, crackles and pops so I'm grateful for digital technology. Funny thing is that I get why some people want to buy vinyl, yet I read recently read that apparently CASSETTES are also making a comeback! Sometimes the world stops making sense to me.


People like Walkmans (Walkmen?) a lot. Something of a fashion statement to an extent, but I do miss devices which had the sole purpose of playing music! Feels like everything which got shunted to the smartphone got slightly worse in functionality, albeit a lot more convenient.


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