What I wrote in this post I had intended to tell you about after the publication of my upcoming feature article for Positive Feedback titled "The Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier – An Affordable Masterpiece!", which includes snippets of my adventures with Peter Qvortrup while visiting him at Audio Note (UK) headquarters, just outside of Brighton, England.
Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier
What changed that timeline was the arrival today of a box of musical treasures that are from the work of Peter's late friend, the great Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky.
Audio Magazin Test CD 1
Most of you probably have not heard of Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, unless you read my earlier post "Jeff checking in ... visiting with Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note UK! Part 2." (HERE), where I discussed the Test CD 1 of the Russian Audio Magazin (The Hi-Fi Journal), the first Russian audio publication about "hi-fi, high end and the appreciation of music." Those last three words are key to what the test CD was about.
If you didn't read that post, I suggest you go back and read it now, as it will fill in some of the background for you related to this post.
Audio Magazin Test CD 1
In my personal opinion, the Audio Magazin Test CD 1 is the greatest test CD that has ever been produced.
It's not available for purchase, so I feel a little bit bad in teasing you with its greatness when you can't buy a copy of it.
However, there's some things about music and audio that I want to tell you about, like the Audio Magazin Test CD 1 - because I think it's important and something special - even if you can't experience it for yourself at the moment.
Audio Magazin Test CD 1
As I mentioned in that post, "One of the true highlights of our listening session for me was - somewhat surprisingly given all the excellent vinyl at our disposal - listening to two 78rpm transfers to CD, one of which was unadulterated, and the other which was processed with “noise reducing” methods."
Peter's digital front end.
I was struck by two things, the first being how remarkably good a 78rpm transfer to CD can sound using Anatoly's purist methods, and secondly, it was astonishing to hear how much typical noise reduction techniques degraded the musicality and sonics of the music. Instead of “noise reduction” those methods should be called “music destruction”, as the difference was profound.
As I shall also tell you about in the upcoming feature article about the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier, these 78rpm transfers to CD were made by Peter’s late friend, Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, and they are truly remarkable.
During my visit, Peter gave me a couple of CDs containing Anatoly’s transfers to listen to, and they are brilliant and exciting. Thank you, Peter.
My vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based audio-visual system.
I have been immensely enjoying listening to Anatoly’s transfers in my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based audio-visual system, and marveling at what Anatoly had accomplished.
You would expect that listening to these transfers with Peter's superb digital front end would be spectacular (they were), but even with my humble OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player they sounded spectacular in my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based audio-visual system.
These are seriously good 78 transfers that rival - or better - anything recorded at any period in the history of recording. There's musical gold in those 78s.
Peter mentioned to me that he was sending me a care package containing several more of Anatoly’s transfers to listen to, with one CD being from restored tapes, and the rest from 78s.
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky is the "AML" you will see on the following discs.
Today a box of musical treasures that are from the work of Peter's late friend, the great Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, arrived here at Jeff's Place from Peter - thank you Peter!
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers.
Peter told me, “I promised you a bit of history about these transfers, and here is some of it from my perspective.”
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers. Note the AML+ in the upper right corner of the CD set.
“Where to start … I met Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky at the second Moscow show in 1993, I think, and spent a good deal of time talking with him about music, and about how the hi-fi industry had increasingly moved away from a real interest in music to offering products that were largely amusical in that they generally needed pristine recordings to produce a sound that was even moderately listenable.”
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers. Note the AML+ in the upper left corner of the CD.
“Anatoly had spent his entire career at Melodiya as recording engineer, and in the latter years he worked on restoring early tapes and improving the quality of 78 transfers. Anatoly was of the opinion that 78s - especially - contained far more good information that they were generally credited with, and that the processes used to transfer the music from 78s to LP and CD were wholly inadequate. Anatoly said that he had developed a way of remastering 78s that gave hitherto unheard-of results in fidelity, and clearly showed that there is far more musical information in them than anyone had imagined.” (Which I can attest to after hearing them, they are remarkable. - Jeff)
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers. Note the AML+ in the upper right corner of the CD.
“I met with Anatoly and the editor of a leading hi-fi magazine again in 1994, and the idea came up for Audio Magazin to release a test disc. After much discussion it was decided to release a test disc which focused on showing musical performance quality rather than the usual cosmetically perfect recordings of vapid and largely meaningless music, the Test Disc 1 was born.”
“I sponsored the release and in return received 500 copies which I have been giving to anyone who wanted to hear just how amazing these performances really are. Jeff, you got the last spare copy, ha ha!”
Peter is looking at rereleasing the Audio Magazin Test Disc 1 "as a tribute to my friend Anatoly Likhnitsky who did the fabulous 78 transfers."
Please encourage Peter to do so, you really, really, want to have this Audio Magazin Test CD 1 in your collection!
Audio Magazin Test CD 1
I’ll keep you posted as I hear more about this, you won’t want to miss out on this one if and when it becomes available again, it’s truly impressive.
Back to Peter's care package containing the above transfers of Anatoly’s from restored tapes (one CD), and the rest from 78s (the other CDs).
Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers. Note the AML+ in the lower left corner of the CD.
I am sorry to tell you that these are not available to buy. I've been trying to find them via Discogs and eBay, etc., and they can only rarely be found. I found one CD of Anatoly’s in all my searching and bought it. Fortunately it was not represented in the CDs Peter sent me that you see in the photos above.
These CDs are basically unobtainable. Sorry about that.
I will be telling you more about these Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers in future posts as I get a chance to listen to them and report back.
At the moment I suppose you have to think of these Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers as arcane rarities that are owned only by a lucky few.
So why am I telling you all about these unobtainable Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky transfers in this post?
Partly, because if Peter decides to reissue the Audio Magazin Test Disc 1 "as a tribute to my friend Anatoly Likhnitsky who did the fabulous 78 transfers," I'll tell you about it when it becomes available, and you should buy one lickety-split as they may never be available again on Planet Earth.
Primarily though, I would like enough of you to get interested in the work of the great Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky to create a critical mass sufficient to see these transfers reissued on CD by the powers that be in control of the transfers if they still exist (Melodiya?).
These transfers of Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky are a notable part of the heritage of recorded music, and I hope as more people become aware of them, they will want them, leading to a revival of their availability.
I don't know if reissues are even a possibility, but I sure hope so.
Ok, that's all for now, but there will be more to come on these Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky CDs in future posts as I get time to listen to them and write about them.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
Postscript: After this post went live I received this interesting link (HERE) from audio electronics designer and builder, Misho Myronov, that discusses some of the contributions to high-fidelity advancements in the former Soviet Union that Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky contributed (i.e. the Brig amplifier).
An additional comment that Misho shared with me was that, "AML was big fan of the 78 rpm recordings, collecting them. He created what he called the RX corrector, a phono preamp with the equalization based on parasitic properties of the interstage transformers. It was the heart of his record digitizing system."
The article is in Russian, but Google Translate does a very nice job making the article readable by non-Russian readers.
Thanks for sending the link with more information about Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, Misho, and for your comments, much appreciated!
Postscript 2: As a follow-on to the previous link Misho sent, Misho also provided these additional links about articles related to Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, and in-depth discussions of his RX corrector.
More article links about Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky HERE.
Detailed discussions of Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky's RX corrector HERE and HERE (two slightly different translations of the same article).
Posts by Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky in audio forums HERE and HERE.
All of these links make for fascinating reading.
Thank you for the links, Misho, much appreciated!
