@wynpalmer4, thank you so much for sharing this information. It really is most valuable to get first hand confirmation that UK pressed SXL and CS labels were created equal by someone who was actually there!
But in your experience the SXL's are still often sonically superior. I'm sure this will delight the SXL fundamentalists, even if the reasons are unclear. In your case 'new versus used' might go along way to explain this. Another possible explanation could be that with each pressing run the first part was given the SXL label, while the latter got the CS label. In that case the slightly more used stampers for the CS labels might explain a slight sonic difference in favor of the SXL's. But this is pure speculation on my part and it's probably not very likely that Decca would stop halfway a pressing run to change labels. Having been there, can you shed any light on this?
I've never been able to detect any generic difference between UK pressed SXL and CS labels with the same lacquers and stamper codes. In some cases the SXL sounded better, in others the CS. Because all my copies are previously owned, I tend to attribute these small sonic differences to their past playing history. This will always remain 'the great unknown' in collecting used records.
But in your experience the SXL's are still often sonically superior. I'm sure this will delight the SXL fundamentalists, even if the reasons are unclear. In your case 'new versus used' might go along way to explain this. Another possible explanation could be that with each pressing run the first part was given the SXL label, while the latter got the CS label. In that case the slightly more used stampers for the CS labels might explain a slight sonic difference in favor of the SXL's. But this is pure speculation on my part and it's probably not very likely that Decca would stop halfway a pressing run to change labels. Having been there, can you shed any light on this?
I've never been able to detect any generic difference between UK pressed SXL and CS labels with the same lacquers and stamper codes. In some cases the SXL sounded better, in others the CS. Because all my copies are previously owned, I tend to attribute these small sonic differences to their past playing history. This will always remain 'the great unknown' in collecting used records.