ABC Records from China

[MylesBAstor]

Anyone purchase any tapes from them? Website is much improved and they have a large selection of tapes (and music). Looks like a first class operation with an American engineer involved with the project. Couple of tapes caught my eye.

[Skylab]

I poked around their website, did you see any info clearly stating that their tapes are actually analog master tape sourced? I couldn't find anything that said so.

The tapes I looked at like the Louis, Nat, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Crystal Gayle were all timed such that they would fit on a single reel. $380 for a @32 minute single reel tape...I dunno if that's a flyer I'm willing to take. I would want more detailed info from them first (but I might have missed it).

[MylesBAstor]

I poked around their website, did you see any info clearly stating that their tapes are actually analog master tape sourced? I couldn't find anything that said so.

The tapes I looked at like the Louis, Nat, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Crystal Gayle were all timed such that they would fit on a single reel. $380 for a @32 minute single reel tape...I dunno if that's a flyer I'm willing to take. I would want more detailed info from them first (but I might have missed it).

Yes, scroll down a little.

[Skylab]

Ahhhh, Ok I see that now, thanks. Well that does make things more interesting!!!

[astrotoy]

I bought five of their tapes a couple of years ago. Quite expensive, but the packaging, including numbered and embossed reels, is very nice. I had problems with one of the tapes - the first Royal Ballet tape (btw, the two Royal Ballet tapes total about two thirds of the contents of the two record set. In two or three of the Nutcracker excerpts, the end is pretty abrupt (there is no reverberant tail after the last note - it just cuts off). I asked them about it and they checked and said that their master tapes have the issue. Clearly, they are not the same master tapes that Chad (Bernie) used to make the Royal Ballet reissues for Classic Records or Acoustic Sounds. It is difficult for me to believe they had access to the master tapes, maybe safety masters or other copies. Anyway, the RB tapes and the others - the Perlman Carmen Fantasy, Starker Cello Fury and a sampler of popular vocal pieces, all sound quite good. Again, the Perlman is a compilation of, I believe. parts of three different EMI albums, not of a single album. It could be that this album and the sampler came from a safety master or production master of an album or CD of excerpts from different albums. I don't remember what I paid, but it was higher than the going rate for Tape Project or Acoustic Sound releases ($450 for 2 reel sets). Shipping from China also cost more.

Larry

[MylesBAstor]

I bought five of their tapes a couple of years ago. Quite expensive, but the packaging, including numbered and embossed reels, is very nice. I had problems with one of the tapes - the first Royal Ballet tape (btw, the two Royal Ballet tapes total about two thirds of the contents of the two record set. In two or three of the Nutcracker excerpts, the end is pretty abrupt (there is no reverberant tail after the last note - it just cuts off). I asked them about it and they checked and said that their master tapes have the issue. Clearly, they are not the same master tapes that Chad (Bernie) used to make the Royal Ballet reissues for Classic Records or Acoustic Sounds. It is difficult for me to believe they had access to the master tapes, maybe safety masters or other copies. Anyway, the RB tapes and the others - the Perlman Carmen Fantasy, Starker Cello Fury and a sampler of popular vocal pieces, all sound quite good. Again, the Perlman is a compilation of, I believe. parts of three different EMI albums, not of a single album. It could be that this album and the sampler came from a safety master or production master of an album or CD of excerpts from different albums. I don't remember what I paid, but it was higher than the going rate for Tape Project or Acoustic Sound releases ($450 for 2 reel sets). Shipping from China also cost more.

Larry

Thanks for your input Larry. I remembered you having tried the ABC Record tapes.

Exactly what I was wondering about. I figured say in the case of the Royal Ballet, they somehow had Ryan Smith (or somebody else?) make them a running master. If it was the master tape. After all, there's only a few places Sony will send the RCA tapes and as I understand, the studio has to be in NYC. But that goes against ABC Records saying they start with the master tape. So something isn't right somewhere.

I figured all they might have been able to make a copy of the master tape in the case of the Asian music recordings. The Teresa Teng seems to be an Asian audiophile favorite.

[Skylab]

Interesting recent post regarding ABC that is troubling if accurate:

https://thereeltoreelrambler.com/201...or-your-views/

[astrotoy]

Thanks for pointing out the article. I will drop a note to Dave Denyer about my experience. Denyer writes about the copyright theft of his writing being lifted verbatim without permission or credit for their website. I saw some of the same issues with ABC Int'l lifting written material from the Tape Project website.

Larry