• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Franklin Mint Record Society

J. Chauvin,
When I cracked open Vol.100 last night, it had an index of the collection.
23A:
Berlioz / Beecham / Royal Phil. - Excerts from "Les Troyens"
Mussogsky / Stokowski / L.S.O. - "Night on Bald Mountain"
23B:
Borodin / Solti / LSO - Overture & Polovtsian Dances from "Prince Igor"
24AB:
Offenbach / Fiedler / Boston Pops - Gaite Parisienne
24B:
Ravel / Boulez ? N.Y. Phil. - La Valse
25A:
Sibelius / Heifetz / Beecham / London Phil. - Violin Concerto in D Minor.
25B:
Rachmaninoff / Rubenstein / Reiner / C.S.O. - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganinni
26AB:
Rachmaninoff / Ashkenazy / Ormandy / P.S.O. - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor
27A:
Handel / Marriner / Acad. of St. Martins-in-the-Fields - Music for the Royal Fireworks
27B:
Handel / Biggs / Boult / London Phil. - Organ Concerto No. 13 in F Major
Haydn / Andre / Gurschilbauer / Bamberg S.O. - Trumpet Concerto in E-flat
28AB:
Holst / Boult / New Philharmonia Orch. - The Planets
83AB:
Stravinsky / Bernstein / N.Y. Phil. - The Rite of Spring
84AB:
Prokofiev / Koussevitsky / B.S.O. - Symphony No. 5
89AB:
Dvorak / szell / Clev. S.O. - Symphony No. 8
90AB:
Bartok / Reiner / C.S.O. - Concerto for Orchestra

If by the off chance that your extra is the one I'm missing, you may be hearing from me.
- Mario
 
veqlap.jpg


Three omni-microphones originally trussed 8 to 12 feet above the orchestra with lightweight aluminum and rigging.
High reaching mike stands can be used or simple mike drops from the ceiling grid (don’t forget to safety tape those XLR connects on this last one).
All distances highly variable depending on room and ensemble size.
Center pick-up was added as “fill” to L&R mix.

- Mario
 
Been listening to most of the opened 9 sets of the Franklin Mint Classical collection, and continue to be astonished how clean and forward sounding these are. I’ve been trying to nail down what I’m hearing – it’s doesn’t sound like vinyl – way too in your face for a typical phono stage signal. It’s definitely not a CD sound – that silky analog flow is front and center. Listening to the clarity of the voices and instruments that now sound a little muddled on the original issues, I knew I heard this sound before. Then it hit me – these records sound like 2-track studio pre-records - the same type of saturation bringing clear butter to the table.

But all is not Goodness & Light with the collection. They’re inconvenient as all hell. The 100-record set takes up as much space as 300 singles. You need a reference librarian to figure out where pieces are. The spines certainly don’t help. And the 4 pt. font on the labels begs for a loop if you want to play the right side. One out of 18 opened LPs had an out of registration spindle hole – enough to cause a perceptible slow wow. Not good.

But even if the average says I’ll run into another four miscut spindle holes, I’ll take he time with a rat-tail file and epoxy to repair them. Great sounding stuff. Thanks Ben F.!

- Mario
 
Wow, it's great to get all this new info. Thanks to everyone so far with their 2 cents worth. I'll be treating my FM sets like the gold they are. Translucent red gold. The test results were interesting. I thought about spending an evening doing that as I think I have a few of the originals of these. Still might. I really don't care what these are worth to the market, because they're not going anywhere. I'm glad this label has been discussed more now--we can all use a heads-up on what to look for and not let any of these slip away. I'd been leaving box sets behind lately because they really do stack up quickly, and I almost didn't see these at all. Should've grabbed the opera set anyway. Matter of fact, I wasn't gonna stop at the garage sale at all but there was some, um, other scenery there as well.
I've seen the Reader's Digest sets too and pass them up all the time. I actually have one of the cheezoid sets from later years. 1001 Waltzes or some such crap. Will investigate further instead of auto-passing them in the future.
Am now listening to record #3 Beethoven/Serkin/Ormandy/Philly Orchestra
It's incredible.
Dan
 
Another great aspect of the 100 Greatest set is that the writing in the booklets is often first-rate. I have the full set and enjoy listening to it, and agree that the pressings and recordings are lovely. One or two sides have a bit of noise (I am not the original owner, so dunno if the noise was present when new, or added by the p.o.) but otherwise clean as a whistle. I find it a bit frustrating that the spines of the library boxes usually do not indicate what's inside, so if, for example, I am hankering for a Mozart piano concerto, I'll tend to go grab one from the individual LPs I have on the shelf, rather than looking up something in the index and then going to that numbered library box. Still, for anyone wishing to get a good foundational set of classical music, this is a great way to do it.
 
I’ve got a few odd sets I picked up at thrifts over the years, IIRC, and will have to check which ones they are, but they (like all blue or red vinyl) can’t be played on my LT-30 or 20 that auto select size & speed. Funny that I don’t play them for the same reason…no way of knowing what is inside without a lot of work. I know one set sounded awful, so I tossed it and just kept the rather impressive sleeves!

It would also explain why I have so many MHS cassette tapes still sealed! They were purchased as a subscription service and never listened to, while the subscriber desperately tried to cancel the subscription because those type of products usually also carried a hefty (at the time) S&H fee, often as much as half the cost of the actual product and FAR more than actual shipping was, which was always “media” rate. That was pure profit for them, all in fine print.
 
About 10 years ago I found 15 boxes/4lp sets of the "Jazz Collection" most of them were still sealed. A couple of years later I found 14 boxes/4lp sets of the "Big Band" set all still sealed. These were thrift scores and paid $4 per box. The sound is very good. It would take me a "another" lifetime to listen to all these albums lol.

Here are some misc. images of the jazz set . . .

20210710_144104.jpg


20210710_113952.jpg


20210710_145237.jpg


20210710-145154.jpg


20210710_135225.jpg


20210710_113510.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom