I find those Sheffield recordings to be remarkable in how they portray the timbre of the instruments as well as their dynamics. I'm not bothered by the lack of a hall sound; in a way, I think many of today's classical recordings are focusing too much on that aspect of the sound.
By the way, I just played the Albeniz ORG record yesterday and was stunned at how much better it sounds than either the King or Speakers Corner reissues, which I thought were pretty good in their own right. Very similar in improvements to the Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture/Scottish Symphony 45 rpm reissue over the standard Speakers Corner reissue. Now if only you didn't have to get up every ten minutes to change records in a listening session to get that kind of sound (and don't tell me to get the Tape Project tapes, Joe, that's a bit beyond my current means!).
By the way, I just played the Albeniz ORG record yesterday and was stunned at how much better it sounds than either the King or Speakers Corner reissues, which I thought were pretty good in their own right. Very similar in improvements to the Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture/Scottish Symphony 45 rpm reissue over the standard Speakers Corner reissue. Now if only you didn't have to get up every ten minutes to change records in a listening session to get that kind of sound (and don't tell me to get the Tape Project tapes, Joe, that's a bit beyond my current means!).