Further to the recent comments on DG sound quality......

I have always been very fond of the Decca sound as one of the best
reproductions in terms of clarity and resonance (contradictory though those
may seem!) and so I was surprised to read somewhere on this list (I think)
someone deriding it as only really appreciable at full volume. Surely record
companies should be aiming at creating as lifelike a sonority as possible,
not something that is most suitable to be muted down as background muzak. I
don't know if anyone agrees with me on this, but this sound format certainly
makes you feel as if you are in the hall experiencing the music live, with a
real sense of occasion coming across.

Sam Kemp