faint precession of sound on vinyl

Shadorne: are you saying this is an intentional effort on the part of engineers?

Shadone...I am a professional musician and can tell you flat out that pre-echo should not be there. It is not natural and is sometimes a serious fault. I believe this is from the storage of the tape when a the adjacent layer picks up the magnetic energy from its neighbor. Usually it can be heard during a quiet passage just before a louder one. I have heard pre=echo on a CD version of an older performance as well.

Stringreen: I thought so. It is the only plausible scenario I have heard yet. I have heard so many weird explanations ranging from satanic conspiracies to the aforementioned theory of engineers adding 'richness'. I listen to so much quiet music that it can be a problem, however there is no substitute for vinyl, IMO.

Actually, you are totally right. I checked out and I heard it on an older recording of a Bach cantata on CD. It is not a vinyl thing after all. I guess much of the time they eliminate it from the master tape when they make a digital transfer, thus it is less frequent on CD.