[78-L] DD metal parts

[Chris Zwarg]

At 18:18 13.10.2008, you wrote:
>Aren't some of the Diamond Cut Edison CDs from metal, or are they all from
>test pressings?
>
>Dave W.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
>[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of joe at salerno.com
>Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 11:18 AM
>To: 78-L Mail List
>Subject: Re: [78-L] DD metal parts
>
>I was just curious to hear a DD Xfer from a metal part, or for that 
>matter, any acoustical from metal. I've heard plenty electricals and 
>knowe they can sound great, I've just never encountered an acoustic yet. 
>I would like to hear the recorded sound quality where surface noise is 
>not an issue.
>
>recommendations? Anything available on the net?
>
>joe salerno

I could send you unfiltered MP3s of various vinyl pressings from acoustics, but the only two acoustic metal "mothers" I ever transferred (one Mikhailova G&T, one Caruso Victor) were too corroded to sound better than a mint shellac pressing, so I can't tell you whether a good metal would be much better than a vinyl. An Australian RCA LP set of Melba's Victor recordings, transferred from metals according to the liner notes, is so narrowly bandfiltered to excise the last bit of remaining surface noise as to be worthless for judging the sound (or for listening...).

Most vinyl pressings of acoustics still have a higher background hiss than later electricals (although it's about 10-15dB lower than on shellacs) and rarely have mirror-like surfaces - both features due to the graphite dust which was used in the early years to make the wax electrically conductive for the metal plating process. At some point, the graphite was subseded by a chemical compound that deposited pure silver on the wax surface and made much quieter pressings possible. This is probably the "New Process" that Columbia and some other companies advertised in the early 1920's, some years before electrical recording was introduced. On vinyl pressings from good acoustic recordings, very often sibilants and upper harmonics up to 5000 Hz can be (faintly) heard and restored to their natural level by careful digital processing.

A digitally declicked and equalized (but not denoised) transfer from a vinyl pressing of one of Adelina Patti's 1905 recordings is here:

http://www.truesoundtransfers.de/sounds/300010.mp3

Chris Zwarg