There has been a fair bit of conversation, lately, in the HIFI press and on HIFI blogs and forums about the lost recordings. These recordings from the 1960s and 1970s have been restored using sophisticated analogue and digital techniques. I bought the digital
versions of the Sarah Vaughan, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson and Bill
Evans Trio albums - all about 17 Eur a piece. The Bill Evans digital recording was only available as a download from Fondamenta.
All of these artists are simply great and the recordings are
reproduced at a very high quality. Fondamenta are to be congratulated for tracing
these lost recordings and restoring them; but Resonance Records and Pristine
Classic are doing a similar job with similar results.
Why did I decide not to buy the limited edition LPs
distributed by Devialet? The LPs were transcribed from 24 bit/176.4 KHz digital
masters which originated from the restored analogue tapes. From a technical point of view, the LP format
sound quality cannot exceed that of the digital master tapes. Therefore, I am
not missing out, as far as high fidelity is concerned, provided that I use a good
quality DAC.
More to the point, however, why would I want to open my
wallet to spend £80 on the Bill Evans Trio “Live at Hilversum” LP, when I could
have bought the Resonance Records LP, “Another Time”, which was mastered from
the very same lost recordings, but for just £19? Perhaps, the price difference
is accounted for by the cost of promotion which involves Devialet hiring the
Royal Albert Hall and other prestigious locations to play and sell the analogue
nitrocellulose “acetates” to an admiring audience. By buying digital I am
saving lots and lots of money.
So, what about the nitrocellulose lacquer “acetates”? Some
of the younger contributors to the audio forums are making accusations that
these are the playthings of wealthy middle-aged audiophiles, who have got
nothing better to do with their money. In some sense they are right; the “acetates”
are used in the LP making process to produce the vinyl that enthusiasts really
want to listen to. Selling the “acetates” is therefore a bit of a gimmick. If I
were to go off my head and spend £6,300 on the set of “acetates” of the Sarah
Vaughan “Live at the Laren” performance then I would do so for investment
purposes only. And, I would not play the record only to destroy it immediately
unless a surfeit of Bollinger got the better of me.
The possession of the “acetates” has been likened to an
investment in fine wine: but not so. The nitrocellulose starts to deteriorate
in quality immediately. The “acetate” can only be played once or twice before
the sound medium is destroyed. Forget about it, unless pride of ownership gets
the better of you.
Fine wine from Bordeaux will improve with age and its
investment value will no doubt increase. £6,300 will buy you a case of 2009 Chateau Gruaud Larose, with
some spare change to spend on lots of records. But, if the bottom falls out of
the wine market you still have 12 bottles of great wine to drink with a good
meal and some good friends, who like listening to an Oscar Peterson lost
recording, of course, but from a digital file.
