Re: This Woman's Work

[chrisw@wwa.com (Chris Williams)]

   John writes:

>Chris wrote:
>>   Sometimes we've discovered things on crappy systems that huge piles
>>of very expensive audiophile equipment have failed to reveal. The
>>first time I recall clearly hearing "...what about Edward G?" was
>>on a really crappy stereo. It had little frequency range outside
>>of speech and no stereo seperation to speak of, so it made a 
>>monophonic, spoken part stand out clearly.

>Yep, I've experienced a similar phenomenon, most notably on Godley and
>Creme's masterwork, "Consequences".  Peter Cook carries on a hilarious
>dialogue throughout the entire 3 record set.  When played through a
>crappy system, the limited frequency range makes the spoken words really
>stand out.  But when played through a decent system, Godley & Creme's
>elaborate (and subtle) orchestrations come through, providing an entirely
>different listening experience.

   Also, I suggest you experiment with "The Dreaming Plug" to discover
even more. All you need is an ordinary pair of headphones with the
ground wire cut. You can also use any home theater system in "Dolby
Surround" mode with the front speakers disabled.

>>   I wonder if a letter writing campaign to EMI could prod them
>>into releasing high quality versions of *all* her albums. I
>>NEED a copy of "The Dreaming" with the same quality as this recent
>>re-release of "Hounds Of Love. Not want. NEED. 

>And I'm still looking for the *PERFECT* TKI.  I have 18 copies and still
>haven't found it yet (but the Japanese box set CD is real close...).

   Our old room-mate/fellow Katefan/Golden Ear Audiophile friend Tim
discovered that the Japanese vinyl had the cleanest surfaces, but if
you cherry-picked from a number of UK vinyl pressings you could eventually
find a near perfect copy with more musicality. The UK pressing is
the one most likely to have been actually auditioned by Kate...it's
just that EMI had poor quality control.

>>   Of course I also need "The Kick Inside", "Lionheart", "Never For 
>>Ever", "The Sensual World" and "The Red Shoes". EMI has the choice 
>>of either: waiting (like us) or finding some way of selling us the 
>>same thing twice. They tried that with the Box Set and blew it by 
>>fobbing off crap "Nice Price" versions. And still we bought it!
>>Resentfully, but we bought it anyway. 

>Yah, I still remember how terribly disappointed I was to find one of
>those cheesy "Fame" pressings of Lionheart in my box set.

   ...especially as Lionheart is arguably the "best sounding" of
all Kate's recordings.

-- 
Chris Williams of
Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
chrisw@miso.wwa.com (his)
vickie@miso.wwa.com (hers)