Danny Tan wrote: >I understand that these are historic recordings. Since some of those conductors have been dead for between thirty and forty years, you understand correctly. >Anyone has any comments about these performances? The Boult Shostakovich are certainly worthwhile. >I bought these at "above" full prices. Because I was told that they are >audiophile discs utilising super bit mapping technology and thus is 20 >bits instead of the usual 16 bits in CDs. Can you tell the difference? I can't. In fact, the technology you mention is used for mastering the originals to CD. In fact these were analogue recordings. SBM is pretty commonplace now. >I was even told that the word "PROMOTIONAL" splashed across the CDs means >that these discs are the first few off the mould and has the best sound >quality! Goodness knows I'm no expert, but surely since a CD's information is digital the ten millionth CD of the machine will be absolutely identical in quality to the first. This was one of the USPs of CDs when they first came in. >But I saw some list members mentioning about getting some Beethoven's >complete works at "promotional" prices. Does this mean that such discs >are sold at discount or "even given free!" in the US? There are other nationalities here than American. >The sound quality of these discs I had is certainly noticeably much better >than the normal CDs. If anyone has an Everest CD, hope that you can give >some infomation about this record label.Thanks. The original Everest label dates back to the late1950s and early 1960s where the above recordings originate. They were recorded on 35mm film rather than normal audio tape and used three channels for their stereo image taken from three microphones only. They were considered to be audiophile - *in their day*. Subsequent LP re-issues tended to be of less good quality and it's only now with CD that they have returned to the original films to get at the best sound and used the latest mastering technology. Here in the UK they tend to sell at medium price, sometimes less. If you were charged full price, or even higher, I think you were unfortunate. Purchaser beware. Tony Duggan, England. Mahler recordings survey: http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/