I think all of you are being far too hard on RCA for Dynagroove and Dynaflex.
The introduction of Dynagroove marked the transition in the mass
market from dad's show-off hi-fi in the basement to stereo consoles
for the masses. Dynagroove was designed to "wow" the average person
who didn't care about all the technical gobbley-gook - they just
wanted a bright sounding, loud record to show off that big piece of
furniture in the den that happened to contain a record changer. And
they stuck with it to make records sound more dynamic on the smaller
record players that came later.
The goal wasn't accurate reproduction of sound - the goal was
tailoring the sound of their releases to a particular technology they
were also selling at the time.
Dynaflex was introduced to save on shipping costs and returns of
broken records mishandled by shippers.
If you think about the large volume of recordings that RCA had to move
to pay those great artists, you can begin to understand why they had
to pinch pennies and think of ways to market to the masses.
RCA was simply following the market and survived many years because of
it. Just remember that those crappy sounding Dynagroove discs paid
for those beautiful masters you're listening to now on SACD and 180
gram remastered vinyl.
rand
On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 8:50 PM, Carl Pultz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> "There's probably a business school case study in why you'd mess so
> drastically with that formula."
>
> If not, as any resident of Rochester can tell you, Eastman Kodak is
> providing an over the top example of total corporate suicide. Spectacular to
> witness.
>
> My first experience of hifi stereo was as a kid who just got his second
> speaker. (Could only afford one for Christmas, so had to wait till the next
> year to get the other.) I put them at the foot of my bed, cued up
> Leinsdorf's Mahler 1, laid back and discovered the Soundstage. But that's
> what Dynagroove was for - to play low so your parents won't be annoyed. Like
> FM radio.
>
> Was it Mahler 5 that was first? My older brother brought back to the US from
> his 1967 Air Force duty in Spain a German pressing of that album, and a few
> other RCAs like that. On the cover, they trumpeted, "Das ist DYNAGROOVE!" So
> I always say it with a Hollywood Prussian voice when a great album like
> Gould's Ives Sym 1 gets all frantic at the end, despite "Verzerrungen und
> Übersteuerungserscheinungen entfallen!". There is no cure, even on a
> tricked-out record player.
>
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