Sir Georg Solti Das Rheingold Half-Speed Mastered 180g 3LP Box Set

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Sir Georg Solti's passing, "The Greatest Classical Recording Of All Time" now sounds better than ever before!

Transferred and remastered in HD sound at 24bit / 192kHz from the original two-track stereo master tapes.

The first all-new transfer in over 25 years.

The first-ever stereo production of Wagner's Ring cycle, still considered the benchmark today.

"Here is the greatest achievement in gramophone history yet," wrote Gramophone in 1965. For many, it still is.

Lacquers cut using half-speed mastering technique by Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios. 180g heavyweight vinyl pressed at Optimal Media GmbH in Germany. Lavishly illustrated booklets featuring technical information on the new HD remaster and original recording techniques, introduction to each opera by producer John Culshaw, synopses and libretti in English & German plus many original session photographs and rare facsimiles.

A note on half-speed mastering:
"Abbey Road's world-renowned engineers have been cutting grooves into discs since the studios first opened their doors in 1931. This record was pressed from a master cut using a precision technique known as half-speed mastering. The procedure requires the source master and the cutting lathe to run at half speed on a specially adapted Neumann VMS-80 lathe. This rare and specialized technique transforms difficult-to-cut, high-end frequencies into relatively easy-to-cut, mid-range frequencies. The result is a cut with excellent high-frequency response and very solid and stable stereo images. In short, half-speed mastering produces a master of the highest quality that enables the pressing plant to produce a superlative record." - Miles Showell, Mastering Engineer, Abbey Road Studios.

No one has bettered Solti's Decca Ring in terms of sweep, scope, grandeur, dramatic immediacy, and sheer adrenalin