Mercury Living Presence SR90172 Copland Dorati Mpls Symphony FR1 A1 TAS For Sale
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Mercury Living Presence SR90172 Copland Dorati Mpls Symphony FR1 A1 TAS:
$34.95
- Antal Dorati.
- Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.
- Aaron Copland.
- Rodeo · El Salon Mexico · Danzon Cubano.
- Mercury Living Presence SR90172.
- First Pressing (see matrix below) At RCA Indianapolis Plant.
- 100% Play Tested (see below).
Item Details
Manufactured in: USA
Recorded: December 21, 1957 At U of MN Northrop Auditorium, Mpls, MN
Lacquer Cut By: George Piros At Fine Recording Studios, NYC.
Pressing: By RCA at their Indiana plant regarded as their best for quality control.
Original Issue: 1959
This Issue: 1959
Label: Merury Living Presence SR90172
Awarded: "SPECIAL MERIT: Classical" By The Absolute Sound audiophile magazine (TAS)
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (stamp:) SR 90172 A FR1 I B2 (first Lacquer, second Mother, second Stamper)
Side 2: (stamp:) SR 90172 B FR1 A1 I (first Lacquer, first Mother, first Stamper)
According to the research I have done, Mercury had their records pressed at RCA's own plant when they first introduced the "Living Presence" series. Lacquer mastering was performed at Fine Recording Studios. Matrix numbers of records pressed at RCA plants had FR prefixes, and identified the actual RCA pressing plant such as "I" for the RCA Indiana plant (regarded as the best sounding pressings). The Mother/Stamper matrix codes were represented like "A1" (first mother, first stamper). RFR matrix prefixes indicated records pressed later on at Mercury's own plant.
Was bought used by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection (you have absolutely known provenance). While under my care it has had just a few plays only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with Voskhod Soviet matched tubes (see last photo).Track list
1: Buckaroo Holiday, Corral Nocturne, Saturday Night Waltz, Hoe-Down.2: El Salon Mexico, Danzon Cubano.I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Record grading by text characters is subjective and does not fully describe quality levels. Please see photos and my detailed descriptions below.Outer Jacket Inspection:
NM-/NM
The front jacket face is fully laminated with the laminate "folded back" around the edges of the rear jacket face. The rear face is known as a "color back" because it was originally printed in full color. The front face has no ring wear that I can detect but it does have some clarifoil de-lamination along the top and bottom spine edge and just a narrow 1" x 1/8" curve of it just above the woman's upper boot. Colors are bright and white areas are not faded. There is visible rubbing wear on the top two corners. The rear face is still brilliant white and I can't find a single flaw with it (best of all MLP records in my collection).Vinyl visual inspection:
Note the maroon colored labels with the "deep grooves" in them indicating a first edition. I usually applied the LAST vinyl wear preventative treatment to my records before my first play, so there is the LAST sticker. I went over and over both sides rotating and tilting without finding any reflective line, trace or abrasive marks on the vinyl. They looked near perfect.Play Testing:
NM/NM
Extensive play testing was performed after cleaning and visual inspection. I recorded the entire album to 192k/24-bit WAV files while listening on my headphone rig 100%. Continuous written notes were taken. Afterward I was able to go back in to Pro Tools and re-check all my written notes and check over some things more carefully than I could on the fly. Here is rundown of each side from my notes and digital playback.Side 1 Play
I could tell right off the bat that this side was cut to the very limits of the medium and the dynamic range was just incredible. After recently transferring many of my direct-disc and 12" 45RPM audiophile LPs to digital I was used to very high dynamic range and wide frequency response of those discs. So I just couldn't believe that this music was recorded back in 1957! I was also impressed with the pressing quality as I only heard a few random low energy ticks very seldomly. The character of the absolute noise floor in transition grooves was just smooth analog tape hiss. Once in a great while I heard 1-2 low level/frequency "thump" pressing artifacts during the quietest passages but they were widely isolated and had short intervals. That was the extent of pressing noise and it was heard on highly sensitive headphones. The instruments are so rich and clear with their full harmonics intact. They were also fully separated and my notes said" "I can hear everything!" The orchestral drums are the most spectacular I have heard yet with explosive levels so dramatic I don't know how they managed to get them into the grooves. I just love this interpretation of the Rodeo Suite by Dorati and the Mpls Symphony. I have heard concerts in this hall and I think the Mercury recording team did an outstanding job in it.Side 2 Play
The music on this side with its different instrument textures seemed to bring an even greater sense of hall depth and width than side 1. Just like side 1 when it gets loud it gets REALLY LOUD. And, there was "that drum again!" as my notes said. Track 2 was my favorite of the side. I thought Side 2, although very quiet considering the year in which it was made, had a slightly different noise floor character in isolated spots than Side 1. For example, At the beginning of T1 I could hear some repeating "swishing hiss" in one channel that slowly faded away by about 2:00 into that track. I also heard some of those little low frequency thumps at about 1:15 into the side lasting 4 revolutions, then going quiet. Random ticks were also low in energy but maybe there were a little more of them on this side or the greater amount of quiet passages just allowed me to hear a few more. Its been many decades since I last played this album but I do remember it was probably the favorite classical album in my whole collection. That was fully reaffirmed while play testing and I'm so glad I now have a high resolution digital copy to give me renewed enjoyment going forward. My thorough play testing correlating with visual inspection has convinced me that the audio quality is just superbly preserved. I'm also convinced that the small amount of vinyl artifacts I was able to sift out by play testing are endemic to the original pressing and not any results of handling or playing. Therefore I'm confident of my NM/NM play grading.Packaging
- Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
- Original inner sleeve is missing, I had changed it to VRP sleeve when I first acquired this LP.
- Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" sleeve. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
- Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
- Sent in good quality record mailer with cardboard will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
- A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
- If you do buy more than one LP on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.