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I've just played a spanish pressing POM of Stokowski/NBCO recording (Nov.27th, 1941) of his own orchestral transcription of Bach's "Arioso" from Cantata 156. Matrixes are 0A-071252-2R and ...253-1R, as per my copy, confirmed with other sources (Stokowski.org). It was issued primarily in Victor 18498 (12").
It is strange, if you know this recording, that the equalisation is very narrow, sounding as an acoustic record... no bass, no treble... I've discovered it sounds more natural when played with a exaggerated bass and treble. I use a 700Hz bass turnover and flat treble equalisation, and still I must add more bass and treble with the amp tone controls, some +8dB at 100Hz and another +8dB at 10,000 Hz to get a natural sound.

Does anyone know this recording? Is my copy of these -1R and -2R matrixes some kind of dubbing or remastering with strange equalisation? Are there other matrixes with good sound?

Thanks anyway...

Inigo

I don't know the answer nor I have ever listened to that record, but I suggest that you let your ears rest overnight, and then you retry listening to the record beginning with a less enhanced re-equalisation. In the past I had to find out that our ears have an unbelievalbly fast and wide self-readjustment range, and an EQ setting that I though sounded terrific at evening, sounded terribly the morning after.

I only have a transcription on CD, that sounds very good. Marco's suggestion is good, our audition changes as the day goes by.

Thanks guys, and yes I know about this brained ears of us, I experiment it almost daily, for rarely I listen to the same machine several days. Every time I change with no intermediate rest, the 'new' machine sounds terribly, and after a while, I end with the sensation that the machine I've just been playing is the best of the lot. Acommodation.
But this particular recording always sounds strange to me, kind of middle range exaggeration, or bass and treble diminishing. Besides that, I've posted this thread after listening with the modern equipment, which is the one at home that produces the most natural sound. Gramophones tend to diminish the audible range, besides exaggerating some wide-middle range freqs. Invariably when I return to the modern equipment I listen to better quality reproduction than the gramophones.
My curiosity goes for the question about my supposedly original matrix pressing, which sounds as if it had been dubbed using a poor mic placed front of an AM radio speaker...! And also to know from any other colleagues of the original Victor pressing did also sound so compressed and unnatural. It is a 1941 recording, and symphonic Victor records of this era, I would swear sounded fast better than this one. In the other hand, the takes being -1R/-2R seem to have been processed in some way; what does the R stand for? Is it Relay recording by some t transmission system?
Thanks, guys!