I’m no longer a fully-fledged vinyl junkie, since I discovered 5 channel sound. My large record collection, mainly of jazz, dates back to my teenage years in the 60s and the years when before becoming a full-time History teacher, I worked part time in a specialist Jazz record shop. My first love is 1960s jazz although taste has broadened. I still collect vinyl from car boot sales and charity shops, and if I can bear to, I sell or trade it on. Since I retired from teaching, I do voluntary work in my local Oxfam and Cancer Research UK shops sorting and pricing records.

My interest in HiFi stereo goes back to the days when the BBC transmitted an hour of stereo music a week on Saturday mornings in the late 1950s with one channel via the radio and the other via the TV. It got me interested in ways to hear the music better. About 25 years ago I realised that although I had expensive tastes in HiFi, they were beyond the means of a teacher, and anyway better equipment meant less to spend on music. I was happy enough to compromise with a Rega, a Creek 4040 and a pair of old Leak Mini-Sandwiches.

Then the revelations: at a Heathrow show I heard a Garrard 301, a Croft Micro, a rebuilt Leak Stereo 20 and a pair of Quad ESLs. I realised I was hearing and feeling the music so much better, and I began to look around for equipment like this. At the show I also came across the long-defunct semi-underground magazine  “Audio Conversions” with a glorious series by Eric Stubbes “Memoirs of a DIY HiFi Nut” which would have reduced Heath Robinson to hysterics. It detailed a system which began with a Connoisseur BD1 turntable floating on an inner-tube filled with oil and ended in homemade concrete speakers. This was a route to HiFi that looked affordable and fun.

Soon afterwards another jazz collector introduced me to the London Live DIY HiFi Circle and I began to learn and build and modify and tweak and drive my wife mad. We gather in a pub once a month, swap and pool experience and information. We also meet every few months in each other’s houses to show off what we’ve put together. There are some awesome systems: I’ve seen French widows flex by over an inch when one member showed off his subwoofers (15 inch drivers in 15 foot transmission line enclosures made from the cardboard tubes used to cast concrete pillars to hold up office blocks). I’ve also heard exquisite music from vinyl and some digital sources of a quality easily equalling high-priced high-end systems, but at a fraction of the cost.

When I took early retirement a few years ago with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease,  I thought my DIY days were over. Wrong – even if my soldering has got a lot worse and I’ve given up trying to learn electronics and I don’t even think about attempting anything involving live H.T.  That still leaves speakers, turntables and cables. I can still do things which get me closer to the music.

Analogue:
Garrard 301, Origin Live Rega RB250 arm, Shure V15v cartridge (retipped by Expert Stylus). I had thought that the intermittent hand tremor from Parkinson’s would gradually rule out vinyl.  In practice I can’t use sprung turntables, but I can use and enjoy a tweaked Garrard 301 without writing off a cartridge cantilever. At the moment I am about to rebuild it in an experimental plinth involving layers of MDF and lead on a slate base. When I work out how to attach it to a wall securely… 
I’ve had a Pink Triangle PT Too, and a Michell Gyro converted to battery /DC motor drive. Both were too bouncy for me.  I miss the Michell’s imaging, but the 301 plays rhythm (i.e.swings) better, very important in jazz listening.
Phono is from a design by Morgan Jones using the 5842 valve.

Digital:

1. Denon DVD5000 – a heavyweight (18kg ) vintage DVD player that I use solely as a CD transport.
2. a tweaked Pioneer DVD 575 for other formats, inc 5 channel audio.
3. Chris Found’s V-DAC 4 built from a kit. This combination makes digital very listenable and even pleasurable – though it isn’t as musical as analogue.

Previously I used a charity-shop Marantz CD63 as a transport, modded by damping the mechanism and case with bitumen, Bluetak and Plasticene. And yes – there are big differences between the sounds of different transports used with the same DAC; we tried out a number at a meeting.

Preamp:
recently a friend in the DIY Circle came round with a prototype and a bag of old triodes. After hearing half a dozen different types he lashed up some 10Y directly heated triodes. The 1963 Miles Davis band were suddenly there in the room. I now have the one he built for me. Pure magic.

Amplifiers:
at another Circle member’s I heard what could be done with Chinese valve amps bought on Ebay. I fell in love with the sound of single ended 300Bs. A week later, by getting up at 4am, I managed to get a Music Angel 2A3/300B 9W per channel amp for just over £100 by a last-second bid. Delivery cost nearly twice that. It needed re-valving with better quality valves (up early again.) and a lot of tweaking, and is theoretically incapable of driving my speakers in my room, but watts from valves seem to obey different laws of physics than watts from solid state and it sounds quite nice now. When using 5 channel, I drag in a couple of Leak Stereo 20s.

Speakers:
Some years ago I heard a pair of homemade speakers using the Jordan JX92, a 5 inch aluminium-coned full-range driver from veteran Ted Jordan which is used in a number of commercial designs. They were amazingly clear and detailed and had ridiculous bass extension. On the web there are lots of DIY designs using them, and I started with a 7 litre mini-monitor designed by Jim Griffin of Tennessee. I managed to make cabinets which sandwiched lead sheet between layers of MDF and 20mm of Iroko salvaged off discarded lab worktops at the school I was teaching at.

Later I came across a design by Greg Montford on diyaudio.com for a 48inch MLTL (mass loaded transmission line  - it looks like a slender, ported bass reflex design but isn’t). Borrowing on the maths of Greg’s design and remembering the deep impact of the tall, thin pentagonal Pentachord speakers heard many years ago, I decided to build the MLTLs in pentagonal cabinets of my own design.  I figured that I simply(!) needed to keep the same line length and cross sectional area as Greg’s design.

Ignorance soon ceased to be bliss. Pentagonal panels have different internal and external dimensions varying with the thickness of the wood. It took a week of re-visiting O Level Geometry to devise a pentagon with suitable angles that could be cut with a bench saw and another to construct a spreadsheet that did all the calculations. Assembling the pieces involved vertiginously steep learning curves and many mistakes, but I got there eventually. I even managed to add ribbon tweeters using a crossover based on another Jim Griffin’s design. They go down to 35Hz and I use them with a REL Storm subwoofer.

Cables:
are largely homemade, and are mainly what the jewellery trade calls Fine Silver (which at 99.9% is purer than ‘Sterling’). It’s solid core wire, available in various diameters, threaded down PTFE tube and twisted or woven: there are several different configurations on the internet. It sees off anything in the same price range and compares very well with much more expensive commercial cable. Both the silver and the tubing are easily available on the internet.

Earlier in the year, after reading Paul Messenger’s recent pieces and revisiting Ben Duncan’s series in HiFi News, I put in a dedicated spur for the system (I got it professionally connected to the consumer unit). It made a big improvement for the outlay.

Is it any good? Well naturally I think so, and to my ears it compares well with high-end systems I have heard at the shows. Overall it’s a bit like living with a vintage sports car: it involves tweaking, cosseting, repairing, coaxing and cursing. It is fun, though and the feeling of achievement when my system really sings is priceless.

My favourite records

Miles Davis 1963 Concert My Funny Valentine (remastered CD is excellent)
Miles Davis In a Silent Way (Awesome in deleted SACD multichannel)
John Coltrane Ballads
Bill Evans Waltz for Debby (Beware of European vinyl versions)
Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop (just reissued on vinyl)
Keith Jarrett Standards vol 1
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (vinyl or Multichannel)
Beethoven Sonatas for piano & cello :Wispelwey & Ladic, Channel Classics Hybrid Multichannel
Britten War Requiem 1963 Decca (Original vinyl relatively easy to find, remastered CD excellent)
Ian Carr Old Heartland

GF 1
CHOOSIN’ WITH THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET:
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions of 1956.
Cookin’ Workin’ Relaxin’ Steamin’:  in The Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series. (4 separate CD titles)
Miles Davis (trumpet) John Coltrane (tenor sax) Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums)  Mono recordings 1955/6.
Originally recorded and mastered by Rudy Van Gelder. “Legendary Prestige Sessions” remastered in 24 bit by Joe Tarentino (2006). Individual titles remastered in 24 bit by Van Gelder (2006)
In order to fulfil a contract with Prestige Records as quickly as possible, Miles Davis took his mid 1950s Quintet into the studio of Rudy Van Gelder  and recorded enough material on 2 days in 1956 to produce 4 LPs entitled Cookin’ Workin’ Relaxin’ and Steamin’.

Many readers will know this material already. Put simply, these records are musical and sonic masterpieces. The musicians are on top form, relaxed and confident. However, I don’t intend to deal here with the musical aspects, and I refer you to Ian Carr’s superb musical biography “Miles Davis: the Definitive Biography”. Instead I will focus on the sonic aspects and the question of which of the available versions of this material has the best sound.

The Van Gelder studio at this time was the large living room of his parents’ suburban house, which had been built to his father’s plan and had a glass fronted control room. Van Gelder himself was an optometrist who had begun recording jazz as a hobby and he had built much of his equipment himself. He was much sought after by the jazz labels because he captured the sound and immediacy of the instruments like few other engineers. He was respected and admired by the musicians was the engineer of choice for the Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse labels, for which he recorded an unrivalled body of work. As Dr Rudolph Van Gelder he also recorded and mastered classical recordings for the Vox label.

Moreover Van Gelder preserved the sound he captured by mastering and cutting his own lacquers, which he signed with a trademark RVG (later switching to a stamp) in the run out grooves.  When you got a Van Gelder piece of vinyl you got his sound, not someone else’s idea of how it should be processed, equalised or cut. Van Gelder recorded only in mono at this time: he thought stereo imaging was a distraction from the sound of the instruments.

His recordings have the kind of presence and immediacy that often comes from a very simple technical setup. (cf the Decca Tree, or the 3 – miked orchestral recordings in the Mercury Living Presence series). In their original vinyl issues these 4 LPs are stunning: I’ve had incredulous visitors refuse to accept that 50 year old mono can sound like that,  especially when I tell them it was recorded in someone’s suburban living room. The recordings will really test any digital or vinyl system: Miles plays muted trumpet with the mute very close to the microphone, yet properly reproduced his sound is sweet or skittish or spiky by turns. If there is any harshness or distortion in his tone, then something’s wrong somewhere in the equipment.

I had long owned these 4 titles on vinyl and  later had picked up 20-bit CD versions in the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) Series from Fantasy (now part of the Concord Group of labels) who own the original tapes from the Prestige label. When the 24-bit Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions 4 CD set appeared in the summer of 2006 I bought it because it: a) put all  the material from the 2 days in 1956 into chronological order of recording (throwing a new light on it);  b) included the earlier LP recorded by the Quintet in 1955; c) threw in a bonus CD of Radio broadcast; d) had a nice booklet and e) cost only £30. And yes, f) because I’m a bit of an anorak where Miles is concerned.

Recently I found that Rudy Van Gelder has remastered his 50 year old recordings of the 4 LPs in 24-bit. Now over 80, he has been working for some years on CD reissues of his classic sessions for Blue Note and has now started to work through the Prestige catalogue. Relaxin’ and Workin’ are already released and by the time you read this they should all be out.  His remasters are replacing the OJC 20-bit issues and cost about £8 each. (I even found them for £6 each at HMV in London’s Oxford Street, so shop around).

Van Gelder has claimed in interviews that he is now able to get the sound he wanted to get in his original recording sessions and also says on the sleeves that he remembers well his discussions with the musicians about the sound they wanted and now feel (50 years on) that he can achieve it. Fellow anoraks will probably sigh and reach for the credit card, but anyone who hasn’t got this music, or wants to improve on 20-bit versions, will be wondering which version to buy, and just to complicate things, there’s also a Hybrid SACD of Relaxin’ available for under £18 to take into account.

Note: The original 50 year old master tapes are beginning to show signs of wear – hardly surprising with all those reissues - and recent versions are beginning to show “dropout”, where the magnetic coating carrying the signal has fallen off, producing a fragmentary gap in the music. Be warned that this is much more noticeable through headphones than speakers.

Comparing digital versions of Relaxin’

I have Relaxin’ in 4 digital versions (the old 20-bit version; on Joe Tarantino’s Legendary Quintet set in 24-bit; remastered by Van Gelder in 24-bit and on the SACD Hybrid). I had thought that the 24-bit Tarantino set was going to be hard to beat, with its sweeter high frequencies and clarity putting it way ahead of the now superseded 20-bit issues. I had been quite happy with it, but could just not resist a Van Gelder remastered copy going for £6.

When I first put on the Van Gelder I immediately noticed tape hiss, which was all but absent from the Tarantino issue.  My initial reaction was that it sounded somehow “grainy” - less clear, less etched, less extended. Then I heard the drum sound and realised that the RVG was reproducing timbres in instrumental tone that were absent from the other issue. The “grain” was the quite different tone of the metal rivets in the cymbal: these now had a metallic edge as they rose and fell with the strokes of the stick. There was more detail on the RVG: Coltrane’s entry on “I Could Write a Book” sounded quite different - more breath, more harmonic resonance to the saxophone notes. Paul Chambers’ bass had more wood in its sound, and Miles’ harmon mute wasn’t as pure – but you could hear air moving through it and it was more natural. Oddly, the piano sounded duller and a little muffled in comparison with the Tarantino set. There was also a difference in levels, with the RVG noticeably louder.

I then went in for extended comparison,  with and without an upsampling DAC, and carefully adjusting the levels using an SPL meter. I found the RVG the more involving and listenable of the two 24-bit versions, a view that was confirmed when I moved on to the material on Workin’. The Tarantino set now sounded artificial and too clean, while the RVG sounded more like real horns, real metal cymbals and a wooden double bass.

I can only conjecture that whatever processing had removed the tape hiss in the Tarantino version had also removed other fine detail (including some of the harmonics that produce timbre) to an extent that wasn’t apparent until Van Gelder’s remastering. Could the processing have also brightened the piano sound, and what I was hearing  on the RVG was the way the studio piano really sounded? I can see that for some listeners the Tarantino might be preferable. It swings, it has extended and sweet higher frequencies and it sounds clean and clear, but it doesn’t have the rich, natural instrumental sound of the RVG.

The Relaxin’ SACD (on Fantasy) is also a Tarantino master and bears many of the characteristics of his 24-bit version, but has a much sweeter, airier top end and much of the missing instrumental timbre is back. Comparing the SACD with the two 24-bit issues was tricky: using a Marantz CD63 KI Signature and a modded Sony SCD 940, the SACD was a clear winner. However when I fed the Marantz into an upsampling DAC (Chris Found’s kit V-DAC4) the difference was considerably less, and the RVG issue sounded very close in quality to the SACD, while keeping its own characteristics and having a more controlled and natural sound in the bass. So I suppose the decision on the SACD may depend on whether you have an upsampling DAC: if so, you probably aren’t going to miss a lot if you stick with the Van Gelders.

Vinyl

You can get these titles on 45 rpm vinyl sets  for an arm and a leg each. I haven’t heard these, but they are supposed to be superb. I admit I did think about it, but I have a modded Gyrodec that can’t play 45s at the moment. I do have a fine 180gm Analogue Productions version of Cookin’  and have seen it around on stalls at Hifi Shows. It sounds very nice indeed.

You may come across Fantasy/OJC vinyl versions of these titles in some shops, on stalls and in catalogues for around £10. Beware. The US editions of this whole series -  not just these 4 titles – are of superb sound quality and a great bargain. However you need to make sure they are the US editions. A few years ago versions appeared which were pressed in Europe, easily identified by having the addresses of one or other European record companies on the back of the sleeve near the bottom. These are made from different masters and the ones I’ve heard are of noticeably inferior to the US issues. I’ve seen both versions side-by-side in dealers’ racks at the same prices.

In the second hand market, the 1970/80s Fantasy double LPs are reasonably easy to get, and are good value. They don’t sound as good as the US-pressed OJC vinyl issues but they are still very enjoyable.

Needless to say, original RVG signed Prestige issues fetch very high prices on Ebay. However it is possible to find genuine RVGs at reasonable prices in the UK. Until about 1965, the Prestige label was issued in the UK by Esquire Records, a small London-based label. Esquire imported lacquers made and signed by Van Gelder himself. These were then used to make the UK stampers, and the records were pressed in the UK. The quality of these UK pressings in the late 50s and early 60s was extremely high - much higher in fact than those of the US Prestige label, which skimped on pressing quality. If you find Esquires for sale at a reasonable price they are a wonderful bargain, and the same holds for some issues on the French Barclay label: look for the RVG in the run-out near the label. I have 3 of the Miles Davis Quintet LPs on Esquire, and no digital version comes near them.

end

GF 2:  ‘PRESSING MATTERS  -  DECCA STEREO’
By George Foster © George Foster 26/01/2007

‘A cheapskate’s guide to vinyl from car boot sales and charity shops’

Some superb sounding new or reissued vinyl is available but choice is very limited, and it’s expensive. This guide to buying on the cheap concentrates on the label which was renowned for good sound and is widely available second-hand – Decca.

"Your playback system is only as valuable to you as your recordings, for its function is to reveal them." Laura Dearborn, Good Sound.

The first link in the chain of vinyl reproduction isn't the turntable or the cartridge - it's the record. Start off with a poor record and however well your system reproduces it, you will be missing immediacy and presence. No system can add what isn't there on the disc  - although many have tried. Consider the chain of electronics and mechanics involved in turning a performance into a record:- miking, mixing, recording, mastering, pressing, reproducing – most of which use amplification equipment. In concentrating on the reproduction of what’s on the disk, we tend to take the others on trust, and in the case of miking, mixing and recording you have to like it or lump it. However you can exercise some control over the quality of the mastering/pressing you play on your system if you know what to look out for when buying.  I do the bulk of my vinyl buying in car boot sales and charity shops and there are still amazing musical and sonic bargains to be had for as little as 50p a title. (If you feel particularly pleased with a charity shop bargain, you can always give them a donation.)

I have 2 vinyl copies of the 1963 Decca recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, both mastered and pressed by Decca. On one pressing, bought in the late 80s, the sound is impressive. On the other, picked up for £1.99 from an Oxfam shop when I knew what to look out for, the sound is far superior: it feels like there is an extra octave in there; the brass has a biting, metallic sound; the timpani strokes are clearly audible as separate events; the individual voices in the chorus are separate and identifiable. If these differences in sound were brought about by the change or tweaking of a component, it would classify as a substantial improvement to the system. Knowing which copies of a record are likely to sound better becomes important to musical enjoyment - which is what we're all about, isn't it?

WHY THE VARIATION IN VINYL QUALITY?
A mastering engineer uses what should be the original master tape but often isn't. The reasons why the tape may not be the original are numerous. In the case of US recordings, copies of the tape are often sent to overseas branches of the company. These then send copies of these copies to their mastering people. This means that the mastering may be from a third generation copy passed through diverse pieces of electronics. At this stage it is common to get the stereo channels reversed. Some companies even ran tape and cutting lathes at high speed to save time. In the days of digital masters the quality may not degrade too much, but with pre-digital age recordings the degradation in sound can be ruinous.
Records are pressed by a mechanical stamping process: the engineer uses a cutting lathe to make a master (known also as a lacquer). These are metal records covered with a soft lacquer into which the groove is cut.  The record you buy is a copy of this master. The master is used to make metal stampers by an electroplating process, involving intermediate stages of positive and negative mouldings which add several generations of distance in the manufacture of the end product.

Thus the record you play is minimum five generations away from the tape used by the engineer, and often seven or more from the original master tape, so you might be buying something very far removed from the original. The sound has been affected by being passed through several chains of electronics sometimes of variable quality and quite different sound characteristics, not to mention the chemical and mechanical processes involved and the judgements and shortcuts made by producers, engineers and technicians.

WHY EARLY PRESSINGS OFTEN SOUND BEST
(N.B. I have used terms loosely in the rest of this piece since collectors talk about masters and matrices when they really mean mothers, and anyway refer to the whole lot as pressings.)
Early stereo equipment for miking, mixing, recording and mastering was valve equipment with simple linear circuitry at each stage of the chain leading to a more direct and natural sound. The equipment was often designed, built or modified by the people who used it, with a high degree of craft skill going into the process. The acknowledged UK masters of this craft in the 50s and 60s worked for Decca. Like other early stereo mastering engineers, they used the original master tapes on cutting lathes driven by simple valve amps which had the same sonic characteristics as the company's recording amps. The pressings were also done on hand-operated machines, where the skilled operator could pass judgement on the quality of the pressing being produced.  In a nutshell, this is why early stereo pressings often sound so good, especially when played on valve equipment. These early pressings (i.e. those with short and carefully controlled chains between the original recording session and the vinyl) can now fetch very high prices. People are willing to pay handsomely for the far superior sound quality as much as for the collectors' interest in the record equivalent of the first edition of a book. However do not despair! You can find decent mastering and pressings in second-hand and charity shops and in car boot sales if you know what to look for.
Between 1958 and the early 1970s Decca were recording, mastering and pressing a consistently high standard of stereo vinyl. They did this not only for their own labels but also handled UK releases of RCA, Vox, Atlantic and several other labels. In most cases even if the original recording was done in the USA, they seem to have managed to get hold of the original master tapes. Decca pressings for other labels are easily recognised because they usually say so on the sleeve or label.. The typefaces on the sleeves (also printed by Decca) are also easily recognisable.

Here's how to check whether any Decca pressings you come across are early (cut using valve equipment and sounding far superior) or late (after the company had replaced its cutting machines with transistor-driven lathes which sometimes give a veiled and thin aspect to the sound).

WIDE-BAND LABELS

Start by looking at the label. Older issues can immediately be distinguished by:
a) a silver band about 1/2 inch wide across the label, just touching the hole and containing the words Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound. The width of the band is important, as this identifies early stereo copies. The later issues have a much narrower band higher up the label, and the Decca name is in a rectangular logo. Dealers refer to them as wide-band and narrow-band copies. Wide-banders usually have superb sound and are sought-after. Narrow-banders need further investigation, as detailed later.
b) a circle the size of a 5p piece with the letters FFSS above the Decca name.
c) early stereo sleeves have an inverted triangular logo with "Decca Stereophonic". Rarest of all are sleeves with a blue border on the back containing the words "Full Frequency Range Recording + Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound ". These   issues of classical music can be quite valuable.
d) the weight and flexibility of the vinyl - heavier and stiffer = earlier. The oil crisis of the early 70s also meant that vinyl became more expensive and records were therefore pressed on thinner vinyl. As a rule of thumb, the heavier the better.
e) the earliest cutting lathes used discs which result in a noticeable concentric groove under the label.

The earliest wide band pressings of a title (First Editions, if you like) have the words “Original Recording by Decca” on the edge of the upper left of the label. Later re-pressings have “Made in England” but sonically there is usually little difference. If you find a wide-band Decca, it will probably be an early and good-sounding pressing even if the master numbers - as described in the next paragraph - are high.

MASTERING NUMBERS

Wide-band labels were dropped during the late 1960s but the company still continued to use stampers made from the original early masters for the subsequent production runs until they had worn out and had to be re-cut. Consequently if you can identify the master by its manufacturing code numbers, you can still check if the pressing is liable to be a good early one even if it doesn't have a wide band.

Look at the number stamped neatly on the vinyl in the run-out groove, usually called the master or matrix number. It is not the same as the issue number appearing on the sleeve and label, since the issue number identifies the whole record, whereas the master number identifies the manufacturing master used for each side of the record.

Take as an example a record stamped ZAL-6125 1W.

Side two of this LP would normally be coded ZAL 6126 1W. The ZAL is an internal company code, and the 6125 is the file number for the master (or more accurately the mother made from it) used to make that side of the record. The important bit for our purposes is the last bit - 1W - where the number identifies the sequence of masters made from the original master tape, and the letter is the identifying code of the engineer who mastered it (W was a superb craftsman called Harry Fisher, E was another - Stan Goodall). This master was used to make metal stampers until it became too worn, when another master and mother would have been made coded ZAL 6125-2W. So our example record was made using the first master to be made up from the original master tape by the engineer Harry Fisher.
The first run of pressings – the First Edition if you like – normally had
Our example, if it has a narrow-band label might be listed by a dealer as "n/b 1W/1W" (i.e. it may not have the wide band but it comes from the earliest master made from this particular master tape). So even without the wide band favoured by collectors, this is going to be an early and therefore good-sounding pressing. If it were listed "w/b 1W/1W" or "Blue border 1W/1W", it would be more valuable to a collector but not necessarily better-sounding.

With wide-banders, the master numbers are usually not too relevant in terms of sound quality. Generally in the of case pre-1970 recordings on narrow-band labels, masters numbered 1-3 are the earliest and usually have the best sound. This is a very rough guide and of course there are exceptions, but numbers higher than 3 normally indicate later, and usually poorer quality masterings made after the company had switched to solid-state cutting lathes and automatic pressing machines. It depends on how many were pressed in total, since as the masters of popular items wore out more quickly and more had to be produced. The system isn't entirely accurate as mishaps with masters often throw the sequence slightly i.e. if 1W was rejected as faulty, damaged or wore out, the LP may be made up of 1W/2W or 1W/3W.

NARROW BANDS

Decca phased out wide band labels in 1969-70 and issued everything with narrow bands, so you need to rely on the numbers, not the label.

If in doubt, my basic principle with narrow-band labels is to go for matrix numbers up to 3 as these will usually be from earlier and better-sounding production runs.

This coding was used for all Decca labels, including their reissue series, and for other labels pressed by Decca until they closed down their UK pressing plant in the 1979. Other pointers to sound quality you can use include looking at the space between the last track and the label.  Dynamic compression and lacquer-cutting by automated machines which (unlike the engineers don’t actually listen to what they are cutting)  usually produce uniform shading on the grooves and a wide gap between grooves and label: on a good pressing you can often see the modulations in volume.

STAMPER NUMBERS
You can even identify the sequence of stampers made from the mother. Hold the record so that the master number is at 6 o'clock to the centre of the label, and at 3 o'clock to the centre and you should be able to make out 1 or 2 letters stamped faintly on the vinyl. Decca coded their stampers using the letters of the word BUCKINGHAM to stand in for the digits 1-10 (B=1, U=2, C=3 etc. BB=11, BU=12). This code shows how early the stamper was, and therefore how early this copy was pressed in the production run. Theoretically this should be important information, since an early stamper comes from a mother with not much wear. However in practice this does not have a predictable bearing on sound quality as there is no way of knowing whether your stamper was at the start or near the end of its useful life when it pressed your copy. Master numbers are a better guide. File under "Fascinating but ultimately useless information".

DECCA REISSUE SERIES
The wide-band / narrow-band label distinction only applies to original Decca issues on their own label. But besides these original issues, Decca had several cheap reissue labels which use the Decca master numbering system, but don't have bands across the label. The “Ace of Clubs” series is the most common.
These reissues sometimes use the same masters and mothers as the original issues and always go back to the original master tapes if they have been re-mastered for compilations. The sound can be superb. "The World of the Great Classics" series can produce stunners. "Danse Macabre" on this label is relatively common and is in fact the famous Audiophile collectors' item "Witches Brew" with an extra track. Any of the “World of…” series featuring military bands is worth having (Well OK one example of this series is worth having) because they are superb recordings. Decca Eclipse is another source of early reissues, but read the sleeve and label carefully - Decca issued a lot of re-channelled monos on the Eclipse label.
The company also issued blues and rock material on the Decca (e.g. The Sones, John Mayall) and Deram (e.g. The Moody Blues) labels, and a wide range of popular artists like Val Doonican and Tom Jones.
You can use the master numbering system to assess the parentage of any record, on any label, pressed in the UK by Decca.

DECCA RCAs
Most RCA issues (including the Victrola label) in the UK were by Decca, but check the stamp on the vinyl carefully - Polydor took them over in the MID 1970s, and their far inferior pressings have a hand-scratched identification code on the vinyl. I've come across some RCAs from the superb "Living Stereo" series pressed by Decca which appear to have the original RCA numbering system. Unlike the scratched numbers on Polydor pressings the RCA numbers resemble the Deccas. The sleeves of Decca pressings usually say so, or resemble Deccas in their typefaces. I avoid Polydor RCA issues.

DUTCH DECCAs
Decca was itself sold to Polydor in the late 70s and the UK pressing plant at New Malden was closed down. The pressings were then done in Holland. I find these of very variable quality with the sound of the re-mastered items often veiled and thin. You can identify them by the very thin nature of the vinyl and the different style of code number stamped on the vinyl. The Dutch one is longer and follows the curve of the label, unlike the UK Deccas where the number is straight. I have heard some stunning Dutch Deccas, but I don't yet know how to identify them from the labelling codes!

DYNAGROOVE
The superb-sounding RCA Living Stereo series came to an end when RCA introduced Dynagroove process in 1963, which eliminated the tendency of cheaper styli to mistrack by compressing the dynamics of the music at the cutting stage. The result was usually a great deterioration in sound quality. However, despite using the US cover designs with the Dynagroove logo, the Decca plants in England mastered the records without the dynamic compression process. The result is that the Decca Dynagrooves have far better sound than the US Dynagrooves.

1. Get some records in varying conditions from your collection. Take them outside on a bright day and have a look at them in sunlight. Because we're used to seeing LPs indoors in low lighting levels, it can be a shock to see them in the high-candle-power light outdoors. You can then judge the levels of wear you may see on carboot sale records more accurately.
2. Look for spindle marks the label near the hole. If it's got a lot of them and they go all over the label, the disc was probably played on the kind of autochanger radiogram you had to bend down to load properly.
3. If a mark on a record isn’t visible in the vinyl on the blank section between tracks, it is much less likely to be audible.
4. At the prices you are likely to pay you can afford to take risks on the quality of both music and sound.

End

GF 3:    MUSIC REVIEW
KEITH JARRETT: RECENT RELEASES
TOKYO SOLO (2002) Multichannel video 110 mins ECM DVD 987 3186
CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT (2005)    2 CDs             ECM 1989/90

By George Foster

Pianist Keith Jarrett is phenomenally gifted. His solo concerts, spanning 35 years, are legendary feats of improvisation: he goes on stage not knowing what he will play and waits for the music to emerge. Their intensity can be exhausting for him and challenging for the listener.

A few years ago, however, following a lengthy absence from the concert stage caused by ME, he changed his approach: instead of one long wide-ranging improvisation, he began to divide his concerts into pieces of varying length, saying he had gotten into the bad habit of filling in between ideas. Now he waits silently between pieces for the music to come spontaneously. It makes his music more accessible, but without any feeling of compromise or dumbing down.
 
In these two concerts he mixes Bach, Shostakovich (both of whose works he has recorded), bebop, boogie, calypso, gospel, funk, the Great American Songbook and a lot more. The essence of Jarrett is that all the musical styles in his performance are seen as equally important, and he switches seamlessly between them in a way that sounds perfectly logical and natural, mixing passion and humour, invention, love of good tunes and respect for jazz history.

Jarrett constantly surprises: he can distil the beauty from a familiar tune by simplicity (like “Danny Boy” in Tokyo) so it seems you’re hearing it for the first time. I have heard him stun a Royal Festival Hall audience with a deceptively simple version of  “Too Young to go Steady”  which most of them knew only as a syrupy 50s period piece. Jarrett made them listen to it afresh and recognise its fragile melodic beauty.

“Old Man River” from Tokyo shows his musical range and his gifts. It begins with a slow, simple, intense statement of the melody, gradually gathering weight and force as the left hand underpins it. It gains speed slightly and, as you realise the debt the melody owes to Spirituals, subtly evolves into funky Gospel.  Soon a repeated phrase transforms with what seems utter logic into a Bach fugue, which in turn metamorphoses into good old low-down Ray Charles funk. The striking thing about this six- minute piece is that there is no coy artifice about it, no sense of Jarrett being rehearsed in switching styles. The piece itself appears to be following a logical, organic development in which each disparate element grows naturally from the one before to form a unity. It’s moving, surprising, exhilarating and witty. It alone is worth the price of the DVD.

Jarrett’s improvised melodies also feel fresh and familiar at the same time. You think you recognise them, as if they are variations on tunes you’ve known forever - but there’s no hint of pastiche. When he plays a song-like melody, as in Part VII of Carnegie Hall, you wonder why you’ve forgotten the lyrics.

Carnegie Hall was his first New York solo concert in 25 years, and is in 10 parts plus 5 encores. His love of Shostakovich is everywhere apparent. The intriguing Part IX begins like Nancarrow and somehow ends like  Lennie Tristano crossed with Gershwin.. Part I recalls Charles Ives’ piano pieces, while the 4th encore invokes Pinetop Smith. This superb concert is one of his very best recorded performances. Highly recommended.

The Carnegie Hall CDs have excellent, if slightly echoing, sound capturing the piano’s full range and the ambience of the crowded, ecstatic hall well. Both concerts also capture Jarrett’s intense playing mannerisms: he stands up, taps his feet and writhes while singing under his breath as he plays, oblivious to anything but the music. It’s more reminiscent of Little Richard than Glenn Gould.

You can watch him in full flight on the beautifully shot Tokyo DVD. Parts of this concert were released on CD as Radiance a couple of years ago, but here’s the full performance and 3 encores, totalling nearly 2 hours. The sound is excellent, with a choice of Dolby 2 channel, Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1. I found that the DTS option gave impressive body and depth to the piano sound, and three-dimensional solidity to the soundstage. (I’m often surprised at music lovers with good stereos who have never heard what multichannel can do with solo piano or small chamber recordings.  I’ve seen an astonished group of hardened audiophiles sit bolt upright at the first notes of  Wispelwey & Lazic’s magnificent Beethoven Sonatas on Channel Classics multichannel SACD.) The Tokyo Concert does not quite reach the heights of Carnegie Hall, but “Old Man River” and the DTS 5.1 sound easily make up for it. Highly recommended again. And you can always turn the picture off.

© George Foster 6th February 2007

GF 4 :   Book review

This Is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession

by Daniel Levitin   Atlantic Books 2007  
ISBN 978 1 84354 715 0   (322pp)

One of my most vivid memories is of standing, aged 16, in a used record shop, one Saturday afternoon in 1962. At my request they were playing Miles Davis’s 1958 "On Green Dolphin Street". which I had found in the rack and was curious about. I thought Miles’ opening solo was fantastic, and then the hair on my neck rose as John Coltrane played the opening phrase of his solo, and my whole world changed.  I’d heard jazz on the radio but nothing like this! Getting to hear more of this music and finding a good way to listen to it became driving forces in my life.

Many music lovers say they have experiences like that, but how do I account for what happened that afternoon? If you had asked me why I fell for this music I could give you a range of reasons, but I don’t think any of them would really have explained what hit me. Now I’ve found a book that has led me to the first real explanation of those 10 minutes:  that experience, my subsequent tastes in music and my urge to reproduce it well – my obsessions – have been given a context they never had before and I understand what triggered it.

Daniel Levitin is a Cognitive Neuroscientist – an academic, not an MD  -  who came to his subject as a mature student after being a session musician, recording engineer and record producer. Cognitive Neuroscience concentrates on how the brain handles things like memory, information processing and emotion. It often uses special MRI scans to see which part of the brain is used in a particular activity, and what connections it makes to other areas of the brain while doing this. Moreover Levitin is based at McGill University in Montreal, home of  the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT)

Levitin explains the relationships between the functioning of the brain and the activity of listening in clear language, with examples from all kinds of music (some of which are on a special website). He describes recent discoveries concerning the way our brains work and relates these to questions such as how we keep track of timing and pitch; why we can recognise the same melody through changes of tempo, speed and key and do so for hundreds of different tunes; why we can identify a favourite piece of music from two or three notes. Any technical word or new concept is explained with great clarity. The style is extremely readable and accessible, but without dumbing down. The whole book is backed by impeccably scholarly but non-intrusive references to research published in peer-review academic magazines, some of it available on the Internet. In fact the US under-title was more scholarly :“the Science of a Human Obsession” rather than the “Understanding” used in the UK edition.

Although he doesn’t specifically address issues of HiFi sound reproduction in this book, Levitin (who was the keynote speaker at the US AES Conference in October 2007)  provides enough thought provoking material about the experience of listening to give any HiFi nut a lot of things to think about. I found that I understood what I was listening out for, and what I was listening to, much more clearly.  It has extended the range of concepts and insights I can bring to bear on my listening, re-assessing the things I do now and will be looking for in equipment.

He explains what was happening physiologically and psychologically in my adolescent brain that day in 1962. It certainly doesn't diminish the emotional aspect of the event to know that there is a "scientific" explanation of what happened to me - it enriches my understanding of my self. I now have a frame of reference for my reaction to that particular music at that point in my life; why I can replay, accurately in timbre and timing, those first notes of Trane’s solo in my head and how my tastes have developed since. Nor is it just a book about the brain – en route there are musical insights of great interest in all genres, ranging from why Mahler’s 5th is difficult listening to why Jaco Pastorius was the only suitable bassist for Joni Mitchell .

Levitin’s own research has demonstrated that by listening, especially to rhythmic music, and enjoying it, you increase the brain's production of Dopamine, a powerful chemical messenger, in an area of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens, which happens also to be an area of the brain which is known to react in the same way to “recreational” drugs and during sexual activity. He has, in short, found the physiological link between Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll!

I read it well into the early hours, unable to put it down. It was riveting, and I’ll bet you can’t say that about many books on Neuroscience.  Essential reading for music lovers.

George Foster

GF 5  George follows up the Daniel Levitin book review:

My explanation based on what I learned from the various chapters of Daniel Levitin’s book.

It was a time, (as the late poet Philip Larkin put it) “between the Lady Chatterley Trial and the Beatles’ first LP “(1963) and I was in the sixth form (now called Year 12) trying to find my place in the world. My group of friends had intellectual and cultural pretensions. We went to coffee bars, had all read “Catch 22”  and one of the most sophisticated pieces of popular music we knew was Dave Brubeck’s hit “Take Five”, which had entered the UK Top Ten in late 1961. We liked this and I had read about Brubeck: like most teenagers I was looking for enviable novelties I could use to impress my friends – sophisticated, “cool” music. During my reading I must have come across the name of Miles Davis, and this shop visit was my first chance to hear his music. I could even afford the ten shillings they were asking if I liked it..

 “On Green Dolphin Street” is an American “standard” tune of the kind my father liked, and I already knew it and had it stored in my brain in a form which would allow me to recognise the tune by either its melody or its harmonic chord structure (both quite distinctive and easy to recognise), even when played in a different style. By chance I had a built-in navigational aid for this tune to use when the musicians began to improvise around it.

Miles Davis’s solo, on muted trumpet, had a light delicate feel, and was close to the original tune but different enough to be gripping. Coltrane entered at full throttle, playing in a louder, frenzied style. He seemed to ignore the beat, and barely alluded to the melody, implying it in his first phrase, then going on to impassioned variations but keeping the harmonic structure. When I realised he was playing still somehow fit the rhythms and harmonies of the tune stored in my brain, I was spellbound.  Miles’s solo had given me the pleasure of recognition of the familiar in a new form and I enjoyed the interplay between his ability to play wistful variations and mine to recognise them. With Coltrane’s urgent tenor sax, I was being taken on a magical mystery tour to places that were exotic and wonderful but beginning in and eventually returning to the familia placesr.

Then came contrast: Cannonball Adderley’s alto sax lightly dancing across the harmonic structure of the tune, and pianist Bill Evans, very different and introspective, playing with what Miles called “quiet fire”. Compared to the others I recognised that he was showing  a different but complementary set of emotions.. Meanwhile that fantastic, foot -tapping rhythm section were stimulating Dopamine production, sending messages of pleasure throughout my brain and body. I was on a high and I liked it! This was addictive! At the time I couldn’t explain any of this, only experience it, and little bits of knowledge added over the years have only partly clarified things for me. It has taken this book to bring all this together for me.

Luckily my particular cochlear hearing system and brain were hardwired in a way that could accommodate what, in 1962, were perceived as dissonances in Coltrane’s playing (which to many, including my father, sounded like tuneless screeching). In fact my brain liked the stimulation of recognising familiar tunes when played in this way.

The brain builds a reference structure of memories and experiences, which it consolidates in the mid/late teens. My brain was just at the right point in its development to take this performance in: it had a combination of the right musical memories, experience and the facility to process, recognise and store what it saw as an exhilarating new event which it would like to repeat. It made a schema (a sort of template) based on the event, which it still references to classify new listening experiences – which is why this particular memory is vivid, because of constant replaying. It will be stored deep in the complex structures of my brain, and is so embedded that it will be among the last to go if my memories start to disappear – probably even after the one concerning the Garrard 301/Leak Stereo 20/Quad ESL system. Now I wonder if his next book…..

I still have and regularly listen to that LP “Jazz Track” on the Fontana label. Whenever I tweak and tinker and make changes to the sound system, if Miles’ band from that period doesn’t enthral me, I reverse them.

GF 6:    on the   THE LONDON DIY HIFI CIRCLE

ABOUT US

The Circle was inspired by a long-defunct  magazine called Audio Conversions, and among founder members was Eric Stubbes whose series "Memoirs of a DiY HiFi Nut" still makes  a great read. We have a newsletter and an active newsgroup on Yahoo. Some of us meet once a month informally in a central London pub to exchange information and socialize. Four or five times a year we try to hold a full day meeting at the home of a member.

We have a membership of over 40, mainly in the London area and from a range of backgrounds and interests: architects, builders, plumbers, teachers, musicians, IT specialists, a seismologist (specialising in subwoofers) and several people active in the Hifi industry.

A number have their own websites. Between them members have some interesting (not to say seriously over-the-top) DIY systems, some using leading edge technologies and others vintage gear they have revived and modified.

To whet your appetite have a look at this S London member's system: http://jgbouska.tripod.com/audio/#StereoComponents

Hearing it is an unforgettable experience! I watched a pair of PVC French windows buckle by an inch or more when Jack ran a test tone through his subwoofers. Two well-known  industry professionals who had been invited were gobsmacked, and one has just built his own version of them.

Take my own experience of the Circle as an example: I am a recently-retired History teacher and I joined the Circle over ten years ago with very little knowledge - just a desire to get more from the jazz records I collected. I had come across a copy of Audio Conversions at a Heathrow HiFi Show and turned up at an informal pub meeting.

I now have a system comprising: Gyrodec running off lead acid batteries; modded CD, SACD & DVD players; a kit DAC; valve preamp and various power amps; several varieties of home -made cabling and home-made tall, slim mass-loaded tranmission lines in pentagonal cabinets using Jordan JX92s & Fountek ribbons. I'm still playing with xovers on these.

I will be trying to clone a Teres high-end turntable using a couple of chopping boards, a Rega bearing, a floppy disk drive motor and some lead shot. My wife thinks I'm somewhere along the scale running from obsessional to just plain nuts but admits it does sound nice.

Projects demonstrated at previous meetings and written up in our newsletters include:-
DIY electrostatics (several members)
Air bearing turntable and arm
Modded SACD & CD players
Lots of different cable recipes
Spherical speaker enclosures
A Rega rebuilt in steel
Open baffles, loads of transmission lines, line arrays and horns
Lots of amps & preamps inc digital power amps
Sand boxes and innertubes under equipment
Digital room correction
Cushions used as room treatments
Accounts of building kits
High quality sound from 78s

INFORMAL MEETINGS

The DIY Hifi Circle has changed the pub, since the wonderfully named Grouse & Claret has closed down.

For those interested  visit  Audio Circle where they can apply for more details?

We now tend to gather in the Horse and Groom, Groom Place SW1X 7BA.

Enter the postcode in www.streetmap.co.uk or in Transport For London's  Journey Planner at Journey Planner where you can enter your own postcode too.

The pub is tucked away in a cobbled mews.  It's handy for those living in West or South London. and for the Piccadilly or District Lines. The Victoria Line provides a very fast link to Kings X and Euston (10 mins). Paddington is a bit more awkward - about 15 mins on the Circle Line. The Oxford Bus Service stops very close. There is plenty of parking and you can park free on meters or in most residents' bays after 6.30, but beware that some of the spaces are reserved for Embassies. The mews itself has some parking but the streets looked a better bet.

Coming from Victoria : It is just over 5 mins walk from Victoria station or 2 bus stops on Grosvenor Place, which has lots of Northbound bus routes (2, 8, 16, 36, 38, 52, 73, 82, 148, 436).
Coming from Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Line) it's easier to walk because of the one way system around the Wellington Monument. Turn right after the ticket barrier and take the Grosvenor Place exit. Turn right after the steps up. The sculpture of the artillery (!) should be to your left as you go down Grosvenor Place.

The Horse & Groom (Shepherd Neames)