After Peter Qvortrup had shared with me some of the remarkable 78 transfers from CDs remastered by his friend, Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, I became keenly interested in finding more of them.

Mr. Likhnitsky built custom remastering and digitizing equipment for his transfers of the music from 78 rpm disks in his 78 collection to digital, and with one listen it easy to tell something special was going on with the transfers and the music he chose.

If I remember correctly, Peter was the beneficiary of Mr. Likhnitsky's remastering and digitizing equipment after he passed, and has restored it, and has been doing some transfers for his own music collection.

Well anyways, I decided to start at Discogs to see if I could find any CDs that Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky had transferred from 78 records.

I found out they are few and far between, unfortunately. People who have them and know what they are understandably don't part with them.

Serge Koussevitzky conducts Beethoven and Prokofiev!

I did happen to find the above CD of Serge Koussevitzky conducting Beethoven and Prokofiev that was produced in Russia by the Russian Audio Magazine (Audio Magazine CD003) utilizing Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky's transfers from 78 records in his personal record collection.

As a bit of a hint, if you come across CDs that say "AML+" on the CD documentation somewhere, that's code for Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky's special transfers using his custom remastering and digitizing equipment.

Audio Note (UK) AN-S4/L step-up transformer, with Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player (left) with Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier.

While I'm writing this post, I'm listening to this CD with the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player as the source, and with the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier providing the amplification to my "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers, and the performance is riveting.

That's coming from a guy who enjoys classical music on occasion but doesn't go out of his way to listen to it.

Serge Koussevitzky conducts Beethoven and Prokofiev!

However, that's changing after listening to these AML+ 78 transfers to CDs. I want to hear more!

So what am I hearing, or maybe it would be more appropriate to ask, "What am I feeling?"

I'm feeling the artistry and emotional impact of this music in a way that makes me excited about listening to it and makes me want to hear more of it.

I have a bunch of RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence CDs - and other fine classical CDs - and they don't come close to doing to me what these AML+ transfers do to me.

I'm not dissing the RCAs and Mercurys, they're great for what they are, but they just don't do to me what these AML+ CDs do to me. 

There's just something inexplicable about hearing these 78 AML+ transfers, it is like emotional time travel back to the performance, for lack of a better analogy.

So here is the deal: Obviously I'm hearing the music on this CD, but more than that I'm feeling it.

I'm feeling the music in my mind, intellect, emotions, and in my body in a different way than I am used to experiencing with music.

So these are ancient recordings from the earliest era of recording, but they're positively brilliant.

From an audio perspective there is a little bit of surface noise, and an occasional sonic anomaly present, but much less than I was expecting.

If I didn't tell you these were transfers from 78s you might not have guessed that upon listening to them.

The recordings themselves are dynamic, rich, nuanced, and beautiful. The musicianship and the music is superb.

I'm really new to all this with 78 transfers, and only have a handful of these rather hard to come by AML+ transfers, but I'll be telling you more as I learn more, so stay tuned for more to come.

I've just listened to this Serge Koussevitzky conducts Beethoven and Prokofiev AML+ CD of 78 transfers straight through twice. That never happens when I'm listening to classical CDs, until now, that is. I think I'm going to listen to it a couple more times before I'm done!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!