Difference Decca / London records

Just to add another couple of points: My comments above strictly refer to original Decca/London pressings, not the more recent 200g, so called "audiophile" reissues. I generally tend to agree with Syntax's assertion concerning the Speaker's Corner remakes.

A few lines to Speakers Corner Reissues ...
For comparison:
Decca SXL and London: Peer Gynt
Decca SXL and London: Espana

The Reissues are wrong in the higher frequencies, they simply hurt and all the details from different musicians are gone. They are equalized to be sonic blockbusters, in a way they remember me to MFSL. Impressive wall of sound even on a 500$ Turntable, but they can't show you anything new when your Equipment gets better. It is always the same "Performance".
The originals have a ton more details, a total different tonal color and a much deeper, detailed soundstage. You can clearly hear the differences even among the mastering engineers (Wallace / Burkett for example).

Syntax +1

the london ffrr are a very consistent sound from record to record..not all are wonderful though.... but there are many that are excellent there musical, have color, proper tone of the instruments (performance aspects) and dynamics...I have several that are dogs but there are more excellent ones then bad ones..

I have said this before... get some good ones this is what should be used to setup/judge your system IMO

Lawrence
Fidelity Forward

Generally I think, the Decca/London/RCA books have to be re-written. Lots of those ratings are not true anymore (Sound, Performance for example). The majority was written in the 80's, beginning 90's, most of the time a Linn LP12 - which sounds definitely wrong and can't be used for classical recordings - or similar with limited Bandwidth was used for those "reviews".