Do you yearn for the good old days when you could read the liner notes on your recordings without a magnifying glass? Do you long to gaze at life-size portraits of the performers therein? Do you struggle to open cellophane-wrapped jewel boxes with a knife, putting your life, and those of your children, in danger? Do you abhor the clean, precise sound of digital recordings scanned with the cold and calculated accuracy of laser beams?
Well, frustrated listeners, you’re in luck!
The San Francisco Symphony is releasing a special limited edition 22-LP (that’s vinyl, my friends) box set of its Mahler symphonic cycle with Michael Tilson Thomas for the unbelievably low price of $749 including shipping. Each LP is pressed in 180g audiophile virgin vinyl and comes with its own luxuriously designed jacket. This set can be yours for just two easy payments of $75 (pre-order) and $674.
But wait, there’s more!
The first 250 customers will receive specially autographed editions signed by music director Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition, all purchasers of this limited edition set — numbered 1 through 1,000 — will get a bonus 45 rpm recording of Susan Graham singing Mahler songs accompanied on the piano by Tilson Thomas at no extra cost.
Don’t wait, click now!
(Your pre-order of $75 secures your copy. Release date expected in April, 2011. California residents are charged 9.5 percent sales tax when second payment is processed. If, in the event, pre-orders fail to reach 600 by Dec. 31, 2010, your $75 pre-order will be refunded in full. Offer not available in Delaware.)
Still can’t get enough vinyl?
Preservation Hall Recordings is releasing a special limited edition 78 rpm recording featuring Tom Waits and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Proceeds will benefit the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass. The first 100 records at the $200 level of donation will be accompanied by a custom designed 78 rpm record player. The remaining 404 78s come at the special low price of $50 and you’ll have to figure out how to play them on your own. Good luck!
(Available Nov. 19 at Preservation Hall and Nov. 20 for online purchase. No C.O.D’s please.)
Disclaimer: We love vinyl. Offer available in Delaware.
Classical Life 
I was soooo happy to get rid of my huge collection of LPs.
I ended up giving them to a local library. If they hadn’t taken them, they were going in the trash.
Digital is so much better there is no comparison.
I realize that is heresy to “vinyl lovers,” but no matter how carefully I maintained those things, after a dozen playings, they were barely listenable…pops and scratches, degraded sound. And I had a top-of-the-line turntable and arm.
Now, I throw a bunch of CDs on, listen to ’em as much as I like and the sound stays perfect.
This business of the “warm” sound of analog is nonsense…an addiction to harmonic distortion and attenuated high frequencies.
I am a happy convert to digital.
(ducking and running for cover)
I’m not sure that many people have all that strong an opinion on the subject these days, Bert. As for me, I prefer vinyl, but I wouldn’t get into an argument about it. CDs don’t exactly suck.
I must admit I overstated my case a bit, Tim, mostly to provoke (in fun) a response. There are some true fanaatics out there, and I fully expect to be lambasted by them.
They spend thousands of dollars on tube amplifiers and high precision turntables and arms. I must admit that I have never done an “A vs. B” comparison under controlled conditions, but the ease of handling and essentially infinite life of CDs are the deciders for me. I get GREAT pleasure from my CD collection. I think the sound is beautiful.
I am pretty sure that your tongue was firmly in your cheek with your comment:
“Do you abhor the clean, precise sound of digital recordings scanned with the cold and calculated accuracy of laser beams?”
The San Francisco Symphony is releasing a special limited edition 22-LP (that’s vinyl, my friends) box set of its Mahler symphonic cycle with Michael Tilson Thomas
My interest would be piqued if their performance had been recorded at Disney instead of their hall up north.
When the environment where the orchestra is playing can have the most significant effect on the sound quality, that seems just as — if not more — important to me than merely whether the music is preserved on CD or vinyl, or cassette, for that matter. Actually, in some ways, that may be just as crucial a factor than the caliber (within reason, of course) of the particular orchestra or music group that’s presenting its work for sale to the public.
The paradigm of truly good sound has to be divided between pre-2003 and post-2003. So perhaps the LAPO can generate some new revenues by allowing various groups to use their facility as a recording studio, sort of what occurred with this organization:
http://blogs.sacbee.com/ticket/archives/2008/12/the-era-of-reco.html