Early 78rpm Stereo with Stokowski & Elgar - Barry Fox explains

Back in the mid-1980s, two Californian record collectors (Brad Kay and Steven Lasker) discovered that certain 78rpm pressings of the same recording didn't sound absolutely identical. It seemed that in some cases, recording engineers played safe by having two turntables running in the studio, each with its own microphone, one being a back-up to the other. After much experimenting, it was discovered that by synchronising one disc with the other, a form of "binaural" sound was produced. All this was explained by audio journalist Barry Fox in the Radio 3 "CD Review" programme heard here in which "binaural" examples were conducted by Stokowski and Elgar. Nothing ever came of these experiments commercially, though the "Elgar in Stereo" example was eventually issued on a Naxos CD. Also uploaded here are some other 78rpm "binaural" examples, including Koussevitzky and the Boston SO in part of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony and Goossens and the Cincinnati Orchestra in Massenet's "Le Cid."