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monophonic
7 Feb 08
From Bryant, 1985:
Critics and music enthusiasts, for whom the performance is often more important than the recording, may feel that the electronically processed stereo effect is less satisfactory by far than the original, but it seems that many collectors will no longer consider buying any disc that is admitted to be monophonic. Indeed, many public libraries have found that their single channel discs are shunned by the majority of borrowers, however great the merits of a performance, however good the recording and however satisfactory the general condition of the record. The time may well come, however, when there will be some slight swing in the pendulum of fashion, in the way that there is now a small but quite lively market for 78rpm discs, with as many youthful collectors as elderly ones.
Despite this, a library is currently unlikely to buy any of these old shellac discs except in special circumstances. Gifts of coursegroove recordings may be offered to a library. For some years the general response was to reject them; indeed, where a collection of discs had been started before the LP era, there was a widespread tendency to withdraw and scrap all the coarsegroove recordings during the 1950s. Belatedly, it is being recognized that almost any old record in playable condition is likely to have some historic and artistic value (or, one imagines, it would never have been issued in the first place [!]), so that the possible importance of an archival collection is slowly being recognized; this matter will be raised again later in the chapter. (273-374)
Posted by pzed on February 7, 2008 at 10.26am
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