After listening to you guys talk about Command releases over the past week or so I figured I should check through the archives and see if I had picked anything up on this label over the years. I came across this Virgil Fox LP and gave it a whirl. Well, it is by Virgil Fox so the quality of the music and the performance is pretty much a given, but I was very taken back by the high level of SQ on this disc. I'm not sure how much of it is attributable to the new Blackbird cartridge (which continues to amaze me with how much good sound it is able to mine from LPs that I previously thought were just fair) and how much was just the fact that I was asleep at the switch and never really gave them a good listen, but based on this LP, I am now going to have to ad Command to the list of things I search out at the Crack House. (Like the list wasn't long enough already 
)
Thanks for opening my eyes on this one. 
Be aware that Command Records experienced a number of changes (declines) in the quality of its vinyl pressings over the years. The label was originally launched exclusively as an audiophile label by Enoch Light in the late 1950s under Grand Award Records. In 1966 the Command label was sold to ABC Records. Records pressed prior to that were on very heavy vinyl and came in gatefold jackets with textured backs. The records usually featured a gold colored label but some were also grey. Later records used white labels, no longer came in gatefolds, and were pressed on thinner vinyl (to reduce costs). Having listened to both original first pressings and later pressings of several titles there is no question in my mind that the earlier pressings are sonically superior.
The image on the bottom is from an original 1965 Command Classics pressing of Beethoven Symphony No. 5. The one on the top was pressed in 1972. The Command label under ABC Records was still issuing new classical music releases, so some records will have white labels with the multi-colored box and be first pressings.
The later pressings can still sound good, but they are not the equal of Command Classics vinyl pressed between 1959 and 1965. As far as sound quality goes, those early Command Classics records are easily on par with what was coming from Decca and London at that time, and that's saying a lot.
--Jerome
