Mercury Living Presence SACD's

El, you're mixing up RCA and Mercury! Your point is well-taken, though. The Mercs, for example, all have the prevalent tape hiss, though I find it easy to listen through that. As for that low frequency rumble on the Chopin, it's not limited to old recordings. I find a number of Telarc recordings of the Atlanta Symphony have a prevalent rumble (low enough in frequency to make my stomach queazy!) that I can only guess is the air conditioning system.

Rcprince...You're right. I am talking about "Living Stereo" not "Living Presence". (Actually they are all dead). I think that some of the confusion (which is not limited to me) comes about because both series involve some 3-channel recordings, newly available through SACD.

AC rumble is a well known problem. Although not noticed in the live hall, it becomes evident when a recording is made and played back through a system with good LF response. The only real solution is to turn it off while recording, although filtering can be effective when the musical program does not have extreme LF to be lost.

Another success from Mercury Living Presence in the release of Respighi's Ancient Dances and Airs. The performance itself is classic. The sound is quite beautiful though a tiny bit closer (forward) in perspective as compared to the Stravinsky release.