Musical Heritage Society CDs Issued Under License

Praetorius

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Jan 6, 2011, 8:08:30 PM1/6/11

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Is there any difference sonically (or otherwise, e.g quality of the
CD media) between an MHS issue of, say, a Chandos recording
and the Chandos label CD? I would imagine Mark Stenroos
should be able to answer this (assuming that he ran MHS while
it was issuing CDs).

Paul

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Jan 7, 2011, 10:59:33 AM1/7/11

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Frank - I have no direct knowledge about this, but Mark Stenroos has
stated here in the past that the MHS issues were bit for bit identical
to the original issues by Chandos, EMI, etc. That is consistent with
what my ears tell me.

John Wiser

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Jan 7, 2011, 11:32:55 AM1/7/11

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"Praetorius" <praetor...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:ig5p24$3om$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

I have sampled many parallel issues between MHS and Bis, Chandos,
Erato, Hanssler, Decca, Philips and various smaller labels,
and not once have I detected a aural difference between the original issue
and the MHS issue, even when, as usual, the pressing plant is entirely
different.
Very often even the packaging is comparable in quality.
There is a popular perception that MHS issues are inferior, but it just
isn't so.
The last time I had a problem with MHS it was well back in the LP era,
ca. 1966, when I found their LPs of Gulda's and Riefling's Beethoven
sonatas to be afflicted with lathe noise. They redid them promptly.

John Wiser
Jicotea Used Books
PO Box 136
Howells NY 10932-0136 USA
http://www.amazon.com/shops/ceeclef
cee...@gmail.com

Alan Cooper

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Jan 7, 2011, 11:41:47 AM1/7/11

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"John Wiser" <cee...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:cfHVo.23194$Zf2....@newsfe17.iad:

> "Praetorius" <praetor...@verizon.net> wrote in message
> news:ig5p24$3om$1...@speranza.aioe.org...
>> Is there any difference sonically (or otherwise, e.g quality of
>> the CD media) between an MHS issue of, say, a Chandos recording
>> and the Chandos label CD? I would imagine Mark Stenroos
>> should be able to answer this (assuming that he ran MHS while
>> it was issuing CDs).
> I have sampled many parallel issues between MHS and Bis,
> Chandos,
> Erato, Hanssler, Decca, Philips and various smaller labels,
> and not once have I detected a aural difference between the
> original issue and the MHS issue, even when, as usual, the
> pressing plant is entirely different.
> Very often even the packaging is comparable in quality.
> There is a popular perception that MHS issues are inferior, but
> it just
> isn't so.
> The last time I had a problem with MHS it was well back in the
> LP era, ca. 1966, when I found their LPs of Gulda's and
> Riefling's Beethoven sonatas to be afflicted with lathe noise.
> They redid them promptly.

I suspect that the notion that there is a difference between original-label CD
issues and MHS counterparts goes back to the non-halcyon days of LP when the
differences were audible (and sometimes painful). On the other hand, I do have
fond memories of MHS's periodic inventory reduction sales: 5 records for 10 bucks
and the like. Outstanding VFM irrespective of surface noise.

AC

Norman Schwartz

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Jan 7, 2011, 1:20:18 PM1/7/11

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Alan Cooper wrote:
> "John Wiser" <cee...@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:cfHVo.23194$Zf2....@newsfe17.iad:
>
>> "Praetorius" <praetor...@verizon.net> wrote in message
>> news:ig5p24$3om$1...@speranza.aioe.org...
>>> Is there any difference sonically (or otherwise, e.g quality of
>>> the CD media) between an MHS issue of, say, a Chandos recording
>>> and the Chandos label CD? I would imagine Mark Stenroos
>>> should be able to answer this (assuming that he ran MHS while
>>> it was issuing CDs).
>> I have sampled many parallel issues between MHS and Bis,
>> Chandos,
>> Erato, Hanssler, Decca, Philips and various smaller labels,
>> and not once have I detected a aural difference between the
>> original issue and the MHS issue, even when, as usual, the
>> pressing plant is entirely different.
>> Very often even the packaging is comparable in quality.
>> There is a popular perception that MHS issues are inferior, but
>> it just
>> isn't so.

We both detect no aural difference. However maybe back then I was already
too old to hear it.

> I suspect that the notion that there is a difference between
> original-label CD issues and MHS counterparts goes back to the
> non-halcyon days of LP

IIRC in one of audiophile rags (probably Stereophile in this case) there
were reports of audible differences between club releases (Columbia House,
BMG) and those of the original label (Philips, Sony etc.). Perhaps the cause
was differences in the felt tipped markers or green ink used on those CDs.

> AC

Bob Lombard

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Jan 7, 2011, 1:48:51 PM1/7/11

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Norman Schwartz wrote:

>
> IIRC in one of audiophile rags (probably Stereophile in this case) there
> were reports of audible differences between club releases (Columbia House,
> BMG) and those of the original label (Philips, Sony etc.). Perhaps the cause
> was differences in the felt tipped markers or green ink used on those CDs.
>

Green ink was applied to compensate for the differences. Both the depth
and the shade of green were also significant in the final estimate of
audio quality. the words 'perceived' and/or 'perception' were removed
from the reports by the editor-in-chief because they 'introduced ambiguity'.

bl

Praetorius

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Jan 7, 2011, 1:50:27 PM1/7/11

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"Norman Schwartz" wrote:
> "Alan Cooper" wrote:

>> "John Wiser" wrote:
>>> "Praetorius" wrote:

Thank you all for your responses. I suspected that there are no differences
but am happy to see that confirmed.

Frank Decolvenaere
To reply by e-mail, replace NMBR with 1612.

"You are no bigger than
the things that annoy you."
Jerry Bundsen

William Sommerwerck

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Jan 7, 2011, 2:18:05 PM1/7/11

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>> I suspect that the notion that there is a difference between
>> original-label CD issues and MHS counterparts goes back
>> to the non-halcyon days of LP

> IIRC in one of audiophile rags (probably Stereophile in this case)
> there were reports of audible differences between club releases
> (Columbia House, BMG) and those of the original label (Philips,

> Sony etc).

Some people believe that copying a CD to a hard drive, then burning the
files back to a CD-R, "improves" the sound because the burned disk delivers
a cleaner waveform. I have serious doubts.

Allen

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Jan 7, 2011, 2:24:35 PM1/7/11

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On 1/7/2011 12:20 PM, Norman Schwartz wrote:
<snip>

>
>> I suspect that the notion that there is a difference between
>> original-label CD issues and MHS counterparts goes back to the
>> non-halcyon days of LP
>

<snip>

More likely, it was caused by not using oxygen-free copper in cables (as
big a hoax as the green marker thing).
Allen
>
>

O

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Jan 7, 2011, 2:49:50 PM1/7/11

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In article <ig7oth$vq$1...@news.eternal-september.org>, William
Sommerwerck <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote:

Conceivably, if the CD source was prone to produce errors on the
reading mechanism (scratches, whatever) or the playback reader has
mechanical problems that generate read errors, then using something
that will read the source multiple times until it finds a non-error
read from the source, saving this to a hard disk, and then generating a
new CD-R, using the faulty mechanism that will then be used for
playback, might improve the performance on that particular drive.

But you're certainly right that as a general case, and the source was
able to read cleanly, there will be no difference.

-Owen

Randy Lane

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Jan 7, 2011, 3:36:22 PM1/7/11

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On Jan 7, 8:32 am, "John Wiser" <ceec...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Praetorius" <praetoriusN...@verizon.net> wrote in message

> ceec...@gmail.com

I bought several copies of single LPs of the MHS releases of the first
cycle of the Bach Organ Works by Marie Claire Alain. I never felt even
remotely satisfied with any of them. Poor frequency range, distorted
climaxes, minimal dynamic range, much more.
Then, hellelujah, I got lucky and found the original Erato LP set (you
may rememeber the set - it came in an elegant large blue box with a
slide out drawer) at the S.F. Amoeba last year. And for a reasonable
price too. In mint condition at that, like it sat on a collector's
shelf for many years without being touched..
Needless to say, even the best, most pristine MHS LPs sound utterly
dreadful when compared to the Erato originals.

Frank Berger

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Jan 7, 2011, 4:15:30 PM1/7/11

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"Alan Cooper" <amco...@NOSPAMoptonline.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9E66770BCF543am...@209.197.15.254...

I suspect that those who claim an aural difference between original-label
CDs and MHS counterparts are the same people who think that Lee Harvey
Oswald was not the sole killer of JFK.

Matthew B. Tepper

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Jan 8, 2011, 3:11:03 AM1/8/11

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Allen <all...@austin.rr.com> appears to have caused the following letters to
be typed in news:CZydnce4M-vq9brQ...@giganews.com:

How about the little bundles of stones in each corner of the listening room?
Or is that Feng Shui?

--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
Read about "Proty" here: http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/proty.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers