Mark, they got the value of a lifetime from your work! There's no time the public heard those
recordings sound better. I'm sure the session tapes sounded a little better in their first day of
playback, but that's about all I can think of that would compare to the SACD layers. And I do have
many of the original first-pressing LPs. The SACDs, both 3-channel (where applicable) and 2-channel,
blow the LPs out of the water to my ears.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Donahue" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 5:21 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] New SONY sets


> FYI, the SACD mastering budget for the series on a per disc basis was
> cheaper than doing the project as a CD re-issue in house at Sony Music. (We
> charge Boston rates, not NY rates......)
> Finally, of the 60 SACD titles, all but 4 recouped in their first
> pressing. Unfortunately Morton Gould and a couple others just didn't sell
> well after the original group of 10 releases. Doesn't mean that they are
> any less interesting to listen to, just not big sellers.
> All the best,
> -mark
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Dennis Rooney <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> Dear Tom,
>>
>> I have heard similar hearsay but never followed it up. LIVING STEREO was a
>> prestige line. Pfeiffer mostly stayed out of it. We can discuss his
>> influence on another occasion.
>>
>> Ciao,
>>
>> DDR
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]
>> >wrote:
>>
>> > Hi Dennis:
>> >
>> > The story I heard [WARNING - 2nd Hand, perhaps hearsay] was that someone
>> > in the family that controls BMG (Mann? family) is both a classical music
>> > and RCA Living Stereo fan, so he or they saw Living Stereo as a crown
>> jewel
>> > in the RCA acquisition. Therefore, the horrid-sounding early CDs quickly
>> > came out of print under BMG and the 1990s Living Stereo reissue program
>> > took place, which was often an improvement over earlier reissues
>> > (definitely the ones supervised by John Pfeiffer were improvements, I
>> think
>> > the program got dilluted as time went on). Then when SACDs came along, no
>> > expense was spared in producing the Living Stereo hybrid reissues. Again,
>> > heard second-hand, but I was told that there was no mathematical way for
>> > BMG to profit from that series from the number of hybrid discs they
>> pressed
>> > at the very reasonable retail price point they set, so it was a
>> loss-leader
>> > labor of love. Now what I don't know is whether they did additional press
>> > runs, which would have added to any profitability or perhaps attained
>> > profitability.
>> >
>> > When Sony put out the box set of the CD layers a few years ago, I figured
>> > that meant the SACDs were thus out of print and so I better snap up all
>> > that I wanted while there was still inventory out there. I succeed but
>> > everything was bought "new and used" from Amazon-affiliated sellers, many
>> > of them located outside the US. I don't like opera and that was a good
>> > thing because the opera titles were sold out and quite pricey in the "new
>> > and used" world.
>> >
>> > -- Tom Fine
>>
>