I'm getting back into vinyl pretty seriously, and want to explore some of my favorite Frank Sinatra--namely, the 50's work with Nelson Riddle on Capitol. There are the old issues on Capitol, then a lot of the material was re-issued on vinyl in (I think) the early 80's--probably remastered, but I'm not sure. Then there is The Capitol Years boxed set, which appears to consist of EMI UK pressings, but they may be from digital masters (which may or may not matter), and then the material was remastered again fairly recently for CD, which may or may not sound better than even previous Lp issues (though I'm inclined to doubt it).
Many thanks to all of you recommenders. I was staring at the ceiling last night trying to go to sleep thinking, "you just spent $350 on a small stack of 25-year-old RECORDS??" But I'm sure there will be no regrets, in the end. (Compared to what I've dropped on some audio gear that's now collecting dust...like most of us, I'm sure...well, you know how it is...)
Tagyerit is right - if the records are in great shape, you got a wonderful buy.
One of the pluses of this set is the wealth of information in the liner notes. In addition to info on recording dates, a list of orchestral personnel is provided. Until I got this set, I didn't know that Felix and Eleanor Slatkin - founders of the Hollywood String Quartet (premiere American SQ of the 1940's/early 50's and parents of famous conductor Leonard Slatkin), were in the orchestra on many of the cuts. Players of that caliber account for the absolutely superb orchestral sound accompaning "The Voice" in this set.
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