Originally posted by Gordon
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Yes, I'm nor surprised!! The mount of power needed for moving coil stereo cutting heads is large and those early ones had massive magnets suspended from the ceiling!! Decca [I think] had a hand in inventing half speed mastering way back then to try and deal with this problem. I think EMI's Blumlein cutter from 1933 used moving coil cutters which are low impedance and would have needed a lot of current to drive the cutting tool and also a large magnet to give a strong field. Try and make that lot linear and resonance free over a wide frequency range!!
Mono cutters first used in the 1920s were made by Westrex but mechanically damped and Bumlein got around their patents with electrical damping and saved EMI a fortune in royalties. Westrex tried the same trick with stereo -- but see below:
Try this for some more info on Decca Stereo:
or here
But beware this one [despite the author's connections with Decca] has a couple of small errors relating to the role Decca [ie Arthur Haddy Chief Engineer] had in standardisation of stereo in 1958. Apparently Westrex who are credited [even today, in the US, RCA had no excuse because they were partners of EMI in the 30s] as having invented the stereo LP disc had no idea that EMI/Blumlein had patented the system that was adopted in 1933 and were trying to bully the industry into large royalties but Haddy showed them a copy of the patent!!
Solomon's record of the Grieg was made at Abbey Road in September '56 so was relatively early [18 months after their first release] but there are many from that era that have impressive stereo sound, at least in the original tapes. Try Giulini's Firebird from Kingsway also '56.
Mono cutters first used in the 1920s were made by Westrex but mechanically damped and Bumlein got around their patents with electrical damping and saved EMI a fortune in royalties. Westrex tried the same trick with stereo -- but see below:
Try this for some more info on Decca Stereo:
or here
But beware this one [despite the author's connections with Decca] has a couple of small errors relating to the role Decca [ie Arthur Haddy Chief Engineer] had in standardisation of stereo in 1958. Apparently Westrex who are credited [even today, in the US, RCA had no excuse because they were partners of EMI in the 30s] as having invented the stereo LP disc had no idea that EMI/Blumlein had patented the system that was adopted in 1933 and were trying to bully the industry into large royalties but Haddy showed them a copy of the patent!!
Solomon's record of the Grieg was made at Abbey Road in September '56 so was relatively early [18 months after their first release] but there are many from that era that have impressive stereo sound, at least in the original tapes. Try Giulini's Firebird from Kingsway also '56.
- it's available to listen to on Spotify 
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