Why recordings made before 1965 sound better.

Good point @cleeds. The dynamic element in Dolby makes it more difficult to pull of perfectly than does the static RIAA. I was speaking in terms of the boosting and cutting of frequency bands, used in both Dolby and RIAA filters.

When I bought my first Revox A77 in 1973 (a Mk.3), I bought an Advent 100A stand-alone Dolby unit, but found the Revox quiet enough (I had my dealer---Walter Davies, later known for his LAST record preservative---bias the deck with the reel of Maxell tape I provided him with) so as to make Dolby unnecessary.

I bought myself a pair of the small-capsule condenser mics J. Gordon Holt had very positively reviewed in Stereophile, along with the little Sony mixer he himself used for his live recordings (he was a good engineer), and made live recordings myself. It was shocking to hear how much better they sounded than did almost all my LP’s!

I just popped onto the ttbl the first ? James Taylor vinyl , The Original Flying Machine.  Circa 1967.  I think tubes, no dolby, no fancy mixing multi track consoles all are part of it.  This vinyl sounds like it was recorded in a real place, not a sound booth, and if I were a musician I could tell you if the geetars had gut or steel strings.  How big the kick drum is.  I have been digging thu hundreds of vinyls from around the world.  It is amazing what is on some of them before SS consoles.  Quality vinyl helps.  Not reground vinyl.  Mastering for AM radio certainly lowered the bar. Mastering for CD changed the bar, but did not really raise it back up too high.  Some CDs are great tho.  Any opera fans, I recommend any CD from Inessa Galante.  Chansons Yiddish Tendresses et Rage on Ocora / Harmonia Mundi CD or Harm Mund LP.  Back to LP, John Mayall live in a cafe famous The Turning Point 1a stamper is justifiably famous.  Probably w/o ss console.  Elektra LP there is a photo of the studio and mikes on the back of Theodore Bikel Sings Jewish Folk Songs.  I don't know the brand names but these are the great mikes that Elektra, Jac Holzman, Fred Hellerman, recorded with.  Have fun!

to cd3181  Old vinyl has a lot more detail that we can retrieve now that we couldn't  10 or 20 yrs ago unless maybe with $50K of equip. Today a ttbl for a few thou, arm the same, cartridge too, we or at least me can hear lots of music not heard before.  And yes good engineers using proper equip helps too.   If you read Pete Townsends autobiography "Who I Am" he goes thru a lot of equipment development that he did to record for The Who.   I read interview with Jim Messina who recorded and engineered some Buff Spring and POCO etc.  Poco 1st album. Picking Up the Pieces, sounds lousy. Tthe next one just title Poco sounds great.  He did it.  When vocalist is recorded separately in a sound booth, the ambience is all gone and you can tell he is not singing with the band. 

Old vinyl has a lot more detail that we can retrieve now that we couldn’t 10 or 20 yrs ago unless maybe with $50K of equip. Today a ttbl for a few thou, arm the same, cartridge too, we or at least me can hear lots of music not heard before.

 

Not true.

Best turntables, tonearms and cartridges from 80x can compete with any gear of today.

For example, Micro Seiki 5000, 8000, Yamaha 2000, Technics sp10mk3, EMT 950,... turntables. Fidelity Research tonearm.

The same story with more affordable gear.

@rvpiano Great post. I was listening to Dave Brubeck's 'Time Out' vinyl album (Columbia CS8192) which I believe is from 1961 and likely cost a couple dollars back then.  The 1st cut on side 1 (Blue Rondo a La Turk) is so lifelike you swear the musicians are in the room performing for you. I've never heard instruments sound so real such as the bell of the cymbal used extensively on this song. That's a sound not captured correctly on most current recordings.

Everyone's comments about the process and equipment to record back in the 50's & 60's being so different than today's recordings is likely why no current recordings I'm aware of have the same lifelike sound qualities.