EMI Family Labelography and Pressings, Part 1

This post has several purposes.  The first is to catalog the various emi pressings for the various sub-labels including SAX, SCX, SBO, PSAX, ASD, PSAD, CFP, SXLP, SXDW, HQS, CSD, ESD, SLS and SAN.  The second goal is to come up with abbreviated names that are easy to type and read so the various pressings may be discussed in the reviews on this site.  Finally, we hope this will serve as a guide for collectors when purchasing LP's based on label descriptions.

First up will be the ASD labels which will form the backbone for our naming of the other smaller sub-labels.

ASD:



Gold and Cream
aka White Gold

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 575
SLS 758 -  SLS 767 (opera box sets of ASD)

Years:
1958 - 1964

Engineering:
All tube recording and mastering chain

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Gold"



Semi-Circle
aka Black and Red

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 575, SLS 758 - SLS 767 (reissues)
ASD 576 - ASD 2477
SLS 768 - SLS 780

Years:
1964 - 1969

Engineering:
Likely hybrid tube/transistor quickly transitioning to transistor mastering chain.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Semi"



Color Postage Stamp
aka Color Stamp, 1st dog in stamp label
(image with dog looks like a postage stamp)

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 2477, SLS 758 - SLS 780 (reissues)
ASD 2488 - ASD 2806
SLS 781 - SLS 817

Years:
1969 - 1972

Engineering:
Discrete transistor mastering chain.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Color"

Black and White Postage Stamp
aka Black and White, 2nd dog in stamp label
Note: the black and white name comes from the black and white image in the stamp and also note the white ring around the outside

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 2806 (reissues)
ASD 2807 - ASD 3814
no SLS XXX (see other labels, SAN, CSD)
SLS 5001-5189

Years:  1972 - 1980

Engineering:
Integrated circuits start appearing in mastering chain.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Ring"  (a unique name from our site, but the presence of the ring on many of the EMI labels has telling sonic consequences, referred to as Ring pressings as a group)

Color Postage Stamp With Ring
aka 3rd dog in stamp label
(color stamp has white ring around label)

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 3814 (reissues)
ASD 3815 - ASD 4097
SLS reissues
SLS 5195 - SLS 5231

Years:
1980 - 1981

Engineering:
Intergrated circuits prevail in mastering chain.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Color Ring"

Large Dog
aka Big Dog

Releases:
ASD 251 - ASD 4097 (reissues)
ASD 4098 - ASD 4344
SLS reissues
SLS 5195 - SLS 5231

Years:
1981 - 1983 (later for reissues)

Engineering:
Intergrated circuits prevail in mastering chain. Lowest noise floor.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Dog"

Comments Thus Far:
We eventually will get into the whole SLS and SAN label craziness at the end.  The Dog and Color Ring pressings are used on many labels and will show up again in discussion below.  I show SLS with the ASD pressings above because most of them have individual ASD numbers for each record label. It gets better when SAN stuff is rereleased under SLS with the SAN numbers on the individual records.

Concert Classics:

The only complex wrinkle with the Concert Classics are the early covers.  The label stays the same, but some of the early, early SXLP have different covers from the slightly later ones (no idea if this makes a sonic difference at this point).

Chevrons
aka blue label with chevrons

Releases:
SXLP 20003-20112
SXLP 30002-30156

Years:
1967 - 1972

Engineering:
Often date from golden age SAX and ASD recording range (most are reissues of this material, but some are unreleased material).  20000 series have a very tube like character.  30000 Chevrons are discrete transistor.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Chevron"


Blue with Ring
aka blue label with ring

Releases:
SXLP 20003 - 20112 (reissues)
SXLP 30002 - 30156 (reissues)
SXLP 30157 - 30428

Years:
1972 - 1980

Engineering:
Integrated circuits start appearing in mastering chain.  Similar to Black and White dog and other Ring pressings.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Ring"  (same as ASD)


Color Postage Stamp With Ring
aka 3rd dog in stamp label
(color stamp has white ring around label)

Releases:
SXLP 20003 - 20112 (reissues)
SXLP 30002 - 30428 (reissues)
SXLP 30436 - 30526

Years:
1980 - 1981

Engineering:
Intergrated circuits prevail in mastering chain.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Color Ring" (same label as ASD at this time)


Large Dog
aka Big Dog

Releases:
SXLP 20003 - 20112 (reissues)
SXLP 30002 - 30526 (reissues)
SXLP 30529 and up

Years:
1981 - 1983 (later for reissues)

Engineering:
Intergrated circuits prevail in mastering chain. Lowest noise floor.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Dog" (same label as ASD at this time)


Regal:
For a time Regal put out some classical.  These actually predate even the Concert Classic SXLP 20000 series.  Regal was mainly a pop label and the covers show it.

Regal:

Regal

Releases:
SREG 1000s (various)
SREG 2000s (various)

Years:
1965 - 1967

Engineering:
Often date from golden age SAX and ASD recording range (most are reissues of this material).  Have a very tube like character.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Regal"



Classics for Pleasure:

Classics for Pleasure are also fairly simple.  Note how many of the label changes occur at the same time on the various sub-labels.  With later pressings this becomes obvious as almost all labels use the color ring and big dog labels.

Classics for Pleasure:

Black and White Box

Releases:
CFP 101 - 176
CFP 40001 - 40019

Years:  1970 - 1972

Engineering:
Often date from golden age SAX and ASD recording range (most are reissues of this material, but some are unreleased material). Discrete transistor.

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Box"

CFP Scroll

Releases:
CFP 101 - 176 (reissues)
CFP 40001 - 40019 (reissues)
CFP 40020 - and up

Years:  1972 - 1980

Engineering:
Often date from golden age SAX and ASD recording range (most are reissues of this material, but some are unreleased material). Integrated circuits start appearing in mastering chain. 

Miles To Mozart Acronym:
"Scroll"


Summary So Far:

The Classic for Pleasure does not revert to the ASD style labels later on or perhaps was replaced by the ESD Greensleeves.

We've covered the major reissue labels to this point.  Unfortunately, there are many more labels and some of them cursedly complex.  Part 2 to come, later.

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting this excellent, well researched resource! The quality of the different EMI pressings has been a point of interest among collectors for some time, and understanding the chronology as well as the characteristics of each pressing can give us some insight into the sound qualities of each pressing. I for one would find it useful to determine which pressing sounds the best for a particular ASD record (e.g. are later issues of Beecham recordings sonically superior to his first pressing Golds?), though I suspect that different people may have different answers.

    Looking forward to reading Part 2!

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  2. Hello
    What is the best sound for Kogan tchaikovsky, brahms and beethoven concertos: Classics for pleasure/HMV concert series or Testament records reissues?
    Thanks
    Best regards

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    Replies
    1. Well ERC reissues are probably the best, but most expensive.

      Just went Koganing on youtube and they have recording of CFP 40083 which is listenable (I'm upmixing stereo to Atmos system):
      https://youtu.be/1ZxOH2qDqlc

      https://youtu.be/iOl_3MIcJZI
      Tchaikovsky above in stereo sounds promising

      https://youtu.be/d2xYsk2jH6A
      Not emi, but decent stereo

      I've seen ebay listings with entire recordings of vintage LPs. Just ways to see if something is worth going after.

      I've not been overwhelmed by Testament, but the price is excellent:
      https://testament.co.uk/lp?p=1

      The three recordings you ask about are very, very expensive so don't think even aqlam has had the originals. I've got a world record club of Lalo: Symphonie Espagnol Kogan and I'd not be too happy if I paid $7500 for the original, for $50 with the exact same pressing numbers, i.e. the same basically, I'd rate the world record club pressing a must buy for those who want a taste of Kogan's EMI table scraps.

      Maybe some day someone will do these right at a reasonable price as the ERC pressings at over $500 each seem to be going up in price.

      Please let us know what you get and what you think.

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    2. Kogan's Espagnole mentioned above:
      https://youtu.be/Q7-ZiMcLQU0

      Time Life Records lol, but rather good.

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    3. Thanks for your question, and thanks, Meles, for your reply. The only Kogan SAX I have owned is the Tchaikovsky as a red semi-circle 2nd pressing, which I bought online from the UK about 15 years ago. I have always been very pleased with it and have not needed to "upgrade" to the blue/silver 1st pressing, which would be more challenging to afford. If you can find any of the red semi-circle pressings for not to expensive of a price, they are nice.

      I have the CFP of the Kogan Beethoven, and it has respectable sound. I've not heard the original for comparison, but frankly, I would never pay $10,000 for any record. The enjoyment to price ratio is far higher for a CFP, in my humble opinion.

      I have the Testament Kogan Brahms. It's decent and a nice filler for another super expensive recording. The cover art is nearly the same except that it says EMI in red rather than Columbia.

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  3. Thanks for all your answers.

    I'd be more keen on CFP/Classic series than Testament.

    So concerning sound:

    Brahms: HMV calssic series or Testament?
    Beethoven: CFP or Testament?
    Tchaikovsky: CFP or Testament?

    I have a Beethoven with Ferras WRC pressing that is nice sounding but when I bought a french Trianon pressing, the sound was much better (not as open but more warmth).

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    1. Wow. I've not heard a French pressing of EMI of any note. The nice thing I'm seeing with the handful of WRC I've acquired is they do often have the original EMI UK stamper numbers. I've never seen this before, but they do appear to be reusing the EMI stampers and not remastering in any way.

      So your Ferras WRC not being a reissue means it was pressed in 1966, discogs has no date for French Trianon pressing. Amazon review of CD states "Malcolm Sargent and the Royal Philharmonic join for the 1959 Beethoven VC" so I suspect Trianon pressings existed by 1960 and those would be valves through and through so no surprise the sound was good.

      I'd almost forgotten about Testament and now you've got me going as I do think I have one of their pressings...
      SAX2304 MOZART Violin Concerto No.3 in G, K.216
      PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.63

      I recognize the cover for this, but seem to have it misplaced it... you're causing a Smaug incident as I look for this treasure....wow, well I found my last missing treasure (Spain, Reiner classic reissue), but not this one. It may be I knew someone who owned it and had played it a few times. I've not seen the LP in a long time. All I can say is I did not buy more so perhaps Testament is not the most musical of reissues. Amazing as when Testament first reissued this in the US EMI was not on the radar in the audio mags as a great sounding label. I'd totally forgotten about that LP as not an EMI collector. $830 or so for the original the last time I tried to price that title.

      Interestingly was just with a minor collector of sorts tonight who told me of sale of some Hi-Q titles at the Elusive Disc online dealer for less than half price. The Hi-Q's are pressed by EMI and generally are rather interesting sounding DMM pressings, direct metal masters. Testament is done by EMI, but is their regular pressing option.

      Let me know how your CFP of the Kogan Tchaik goes. If you don't quite like the tone then maybe the newer EMI pressing (Testament) would be worth trying for direct comparison.

      Just had a brief impromptu comparison of La Clemencic Consort's Harmonia Mundi LP ces Anciennes de Hongrie. I've got the DMM German pressings and got to hear the French pressing for the first time tonight. The French one was excellent. The DMM had better bass and dmm clarity to the medieval string sounds. The French sounded much more real and musical for the upper tones to the strings. In a hurry, but we'll be comparing again and may have another title or two. Both great and yet amazingly different (this was on $20K plus Basis/Lyra Skala turntable rig, part of the Quadophile's ever evolving rig.) Brief listening to Barbirolli, Sibelius 4 on Hi-Q also promising.

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  4. I ordered a CFP "scroll" of Kogan's Tchaikovsky concerto. I keep you informed.
    Ben

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    Replies
    1. Ben are you more of a violin specialist in your collecting? I find Kogan collectors rather interesting in theory; you're the first one. And this is simply from the fascination with the insane prices these LPs fetch. Aqlam and I've mused before on the subject. Are these strictly audiophiles driving the price as who else would insist on an original copy. The originals are rare so that accounts for a lot of the price. I know music collectors who spend a fortune on equipment etc., but are very performance driven in their LP collection and don't thrive on getting the best copy of an LP and certainly don't crave vintage classical. A Chinese guy no less running tube equipment who frustrates me in ways given his connections to China, but total lack of interest in early EMI despite the Asian market driving the prices sky high. Yongrok Lee who hosts SAX site we link to was just commenting here and yet we have no answers on what drives these well healed collectors.

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  5. I recently discovered Kogan. I'm not a collector. I buy Lps for the music not for the value of the Lp. But I care for great sounding pressing.

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  6. Reason enough. I basically buy for best sound quality. Don't become a collector who gets more music than they'll ever listen to more than a few times. I have collector instincts and its akin to an addiction.

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  7. Thanks very much for this useful and interesting resource. However, I must query your mastering chain information above. Where did you get it? I'm not convinced that it is correct. As far as I know, EMI were using their tube recording and mastering chain right up until 1975, the longest of any classical label. Decca, for instance, had moved to transistor by late 1970, and this is clearly audible in the bright, bleached sound of their post-1970 output. If I listen to my later EMI records, right up until about ASD3050 (or thereabouts) in 1975, the sound is still very tubey: big soundstage, rich tone, lovely waft and wane on melodies - all the usual hallmarks of tubes as opposed to transistors. In fact, whilst some aspects of the recordings (mostly more microphones and multi-tracking imo) have changed, the sound is still very similar to that of my gold and cream ASD records. To repeat, I would be surprised if EMI had transitioned to transistors as early as the late 1960s. If I am right, and I am only basing my argument on the evidence of my ears, this is very good news for collectors.

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    1. You are correct that EMI held onto their tube equipment much longer than the others. Its been a while since I've looked and I had the start of a research project on exactly what these steps would have been (Abbey Road a good location as lots of rock/pop done there as well.) Electric Recording Company restored the mastering setup, but the records are so much that I've never really heard comments on the differences with the originals and of course they only did one kind of setup and a later tube one. On the LP side they also are known to reuse stampers while this was rarer with other labels though I've heard London BB's of Ansermet's tchaikovsky nutcracker highlights with the same basic stamper numbers for much later pressings, yet this high selling LP's later vinyl from the same tube mastering had lost all its magic so much so that one would not have thought it tube sounding at all compared to the shimmering original.

      Decca I'm pretty sure moved to transistors fully by the late 1960's for classical, but often I here many with a preference for their Neumann cut material (to me this is not generally the case, but have heard Ansermet Pulcinella sound quite fine on later pressing. When it comes to Decca its rather amazing how different Lyrita's sound from Decca's and they used the same engineers and everything else for many years, just a different recording approach with mikes and channels.

      Maybe you had a typo or you're just listening to your collection and guessing at the changes. If your using your ears to a large extent and your dates are correct then I would say you're hearing more the difference between integrated circuits (came on in late 70's) versus discrete transistor sound that came before.

      Not living in England, I don't have as many British sources LP's as I'd like though I've probably got around 600 EMI classical. The earlier SAX and ASD seem to have a somewhat distinctive sound though engineers and recording sites are shared between the two. Not as different as Decca and Lyrita, but often the ASDs have very extended highs while the Columbia's often are more neutral to warm sounding.

      My guess would be that Decca mad a much more rapid switch to the new transistor technology while EMI very slowly made the changes. I do not have a thorough collection, but my guess is you're on thin ice beyond ASD 600 if you want pure tube sound and the SAX make a shift a bit after SAX 2500.

      It is hard to find a bad EMI pressing and though even the change to DMM in the 1980s does not score points with my ears, I will say that the current classical DMM pressings done for Hi-Q are excellent in many regards.
      ....

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    2. One's own playback equipment will make a big difference. A friend (Magnepan 1.7s with isobaric sub) has a custom high gain jfet phono stage that has always sounded amazingly tubey with a tube line stage. Just recently did a huge upgrade when he tried my Placette Remote Volume control (the best true passive probably on the market) and you'd think less tubes would mean less tube sound, but quite the opposite. Removing the unnecessary gain from the system just made everything better plus the Placette actually had substantially more low bass then the line stage oddly enough (drives VTL tube amp and solid state crossover amp so a bit of load.) I am a Nonesuch collector and the early virgin vinyl American Decca pressings sound stupendous and very tubey with this setup.

      Switch to my system which is an all tube high transconductance Loesch design and things are different, but not necessarily better. And then of course you can do step up transformer based system for high gain with low gain tube preamp (Coincident Phono Stage) and of course a tube phone stage with a leading jfet. There are a lot of different designs for phono stages and its going to change how you hear your records. (I'm secretly intrigued by the small IFI Iphono2 with its low noise wall wart of all things right now as an utterly reliable backup to my Loesch which of course will torture the user with tube issues from time to time.)

      Its all going to affect your ear and the whole area of high performance phono stages has at least five different basic design type approaches for low output moving coils (oh recently heard Hana SL low output and its a phenomenal cartridge for just $750 to start touching the very high end of playback). And of course one can do higher output cartridges with interesting possibilities (like less electronics to amplify). Still for LPs like SAX 2375 with Haydn's toy symphony one may wish a very serious cartridge to track the high frequencies.

      Its all going to sound different based on equipment. EMI is my favorite family of labels by far and I suspect they held onto tubes in various parts of the recording chain much, much longer than nearly any other label including the reuse of stampers cut with full tube equipment.

      Oh on your Decca 1970 comment the smaller label that showed up in 1969 is when they switched to Neumann lithium cooled cutter heads and then by the mid-70s a further improved Neumann that could cut perfect high frequencies past 20k. Its heavily rumored that all Decca classical pressings including the early tube ones were all done with 1/2 speed mastering. Low bass is problematic with 1/2 speed as is speed accuracy, but it takes a big load off of the tape playback because its at half speed easing the strain on everything including the cutting amplifiers, but mainly the tape playback itself.

      Something changes with EMI over their entire stereo classical pressings over time, but its hard to guess at what as most of their pressings are excellent as are their recordings. Salvatore over at Supreme Recordings with his nice lists prefers the later EMI pressings and sound. He thinks those are the best and they're underrepresented. I think the Muti Pictures at an Exhibition (emi asd 3645) is one of these greats and its the MUSSORGSKY-PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION-MUTI-MOBILE FIDELITY MFSL 1-520 that is the one to have (much better bass than the Hi-Q I've heard.) Me, I love my blue & silver and my gold & cream!

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    3. I preferred my original EMI to the MFSL reissue. The EMI sounds much better.

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    4. Really on the Muti Pictures? Interesting. Would love to know in what areas the original bested the sound of the mobile fidelity.

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  8. I'm happy that there is still some (slight) activity on this very helpful site. So, some very modest input: on 4 Nov., 2018 Meles mentioned a brief listen to Barbirolli/ Sibelius 4 on Hi-Q, a pressing I have. It is quite good, but as luck would have it, I found a 1st colour stamp pressing very shortly after buying the Hi-Q. The original is better - more realistic presentation of space, more transparent sound, a bit warmer and less processed sounding.
    And thank you for keeping this site alive!
    Davidphillip

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    Replies
    1. I believe it. Due to listen again to Hi-Q. Snagged quite a few for $15 delivered new which is as cheap as shipping from the UK without the LP. My friend the Quadophile owns that one and he blew up some of his panels and due to go over this week to help position the restored ESL57s.

      I did some comparisons with other EMI reissues and they are quite competitive. One of the big EMI's is the late Muti Pictures and it should be said that I have reliable information that the Hi-Q has nowhere near the dynamics of the mobile fidelity, nor the original. Still overall most EMI pressings sound very good, the Hi-Q's DMM pressings are a very, very interesting take, but not supreme by any means.

      Notable Hi-Q's with very rough approximation of the cheapest alternative pressing:
      Starker Dvorak Cello $800
      Rimsky-Korsakov: Capr Esp/Ravel: La Valse PhilH Cluytens $500
      Schumann: Piano Concerto/Liszt Piano Com: 1 Philh Klemperer Fischer (original $300, Semi $50)

      Right now of course the Electric Recording Company has the rights to the biggest EMI titles and they cost a fortune, but eventually that will run out and perhaps we'll see some further EMI reissues of note.

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    2. I ought to get copies of the Cluytens Rimsky-Korsakov and the Klemperer/Fischer Schumann. I have the B/S of the Cluytens (reviewed on this blog) and a semi of the Klemperer/Fischer, and it would be worthwhile to do an A/B comparison. The Starker is probably worth purchasing considering how difficult it would be to get an original!

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  9. Living in the UK 🇬🇧 and collecting for the last 45 years I have quite a number of Decca's and EMI/ HMV records. On my turntable I find the most dynamic and exciting to listen to are the SXL 2000 series and the smoothest and warmest the ASD and SAX series.

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    Replies
    1. it is actually far more complicated than this. For Decca SXL oh I cannot actually claim significant experience but we're only seeing a few I have a been very disappointing. I actually went to the Cincinnati Symphony through a mutual friend with a big decca collector but we never got together to listen and I would've loved to have seen his collection. he stated that Decca was always better than London. anyone with any sense (not your typical UK dealer) will of course look at the stamper numbers. letters of course associate with an engineer and they can differ for an LP and then you have the number in front of the letter and every one of those will sound different because they are a different mastering of a laquer. they all literally came out of the same plant but there are some noticeable trends:
      1. i'm pretty sure stereo decca pancake crossings are a real rarity and of course the pancakes were from I believe somehow converted mono equipment when pressing the actual LP, meaning not mastering the lacquer, just at the final pressing stage. to me this definitely implies some kind of bias for sending saving the best for the UK market.
      2. I suspect this bias has its limits and if something were released under London first then it often should have an advantage. enter the charm database which has links to when everything was actually made with the two labels. Of course I suspect there is some confusion as the LPs were pressed an angle and then would've been shipped almost surely overs season not on an airplane to New York which takes time and then finally put in their sleeves and sent out to the US market.

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    2. Thanks for deleting my second post blogspot, this can be some of the worst software ever grrrrr

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    3. testing worthless software

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  10. Where is the labelography for the EMI / Melodiya ASD's ? ER7's in the Mikrokosmos Labelography.

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    1. I thought the ASD are all the same red label over the years and the few SXLP was the same but blue

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  11. I am now of course I can't edit my comments!

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  12. Russia is a good source of EMI recordings, many of which were done as a collaboration with Melodiya. Melodiya has a vast archive of EMI materials. I know someone with access to the safety masters, and I have many copies of the masters, including many of the Kogan and Kondrashin recordings. They are mostly excellent, and I think problems with some of the LP issues came from the LP mastering and pressing, not the original recording.

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  13. I recently came upon the HMV Carmen set (SAN 140-2, SLS 913-2) with Maria Callas. It has gold labels with a white dog on top and a white angel at the bottom; when does this label date from?

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