1958? Stereo? 78 rpm Mario Lanza Christmas Record Preview

[melvind]

This record I believe is from 1958 and is a 10 inch 78 rpm RCA Victor record made with soft vinyl exactly the same as LP records. The big surprise for me is that I had to play it with an LP stylus and as I transferred it I realized it was actually in Stereo. So, a nice and interesting record that is different than anything I have ever seen before.

Does anyone here know about these late RCA Victor 78 rpm records? Did they do stereo 78 rpm records for commercial use? Is this type of record rare.

A nice Christmas to all! Mario Lanza has a nice voice and fits Christmas very well.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to watch the video on YouTube in HD.)

https://youtu.be/4I8sU0G3EtA

[Wolfe]

It isn't stereo. Summing it to mono sounds basically identical. Especially for the kind of wide stereo RCA Victor tended to use in the late 50's.

The Living Stereo LP pictured in the vid has a different, longer recording of Silent Night.

The vinyl RCA Prevues are fairly common in my experience. Thin pressings and none stereo that I've ever seen.

[Wolfe]

I tended to doubt that a promo from RCA would be released as a 78 that late so I looked up Lanza's recordings of that tune and came up with one RCA version from 1951 and one from 1959 which I figure is the Living Stereo version. I think your record is the 1951.

https://www.mariolanzatenor.com/english ... s-s-y.html

I wonder why an LP stylus would only work since, for a 3:19 tune, if that was a real microgroove record it wouldn't be cut so far up to label like a 'regular' 78. The slight fuzziness of reproduction makes me think an LP stylus is too small for that disc.

Thanks for the upload. Nice vid !

[melvind]

Watching the channel levels on the recording there are vast differences in them. If it isn't stereo then I don't know what it is all about. But, you are likely correct.

When I attempted to play the record with the 3mil 78 stylus I use the record would not play well at all. Everything was fuzzy and horrible. When I switched to the smaller stylus it was a huge difference. When looking at the record it seems to have much finer grooves than 78 records I am familiar with. The second side, The First Noel, is much cleaner than the Silent Night side. And, if it is a 1951 recording, that is OK too.

Anyway, I find it to be an interesting preview record. I think those kind of records are really a fun thing to find.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I have to agree, it is mono, with a ghost stereo effect due to spurious differences in the vertical plane of the grooves being read with a stereo pick-up.

As I remember having already written on some other thread, at least to my ears most mono 78 records deliver a more vivid sound and an illusive spatial effect when played with stereo cartridges, and I feel that the sound is "killed" when switched to mono. Of course this may be subjective. Most people play records with mono cartridges or mono wiring in order to sum and cancel out the vertical component of the groove noise, which is perfectly reasonable; but as I have never been really picky when it comes to background noise (and there is a lot of noise left when switching to mono anyway) I personally much prefer to listen to them with the described "ghost stereo" effect.