Question for classical lovers

Rotarius, maybe you're like me (and Neil Young), an analog guy.

The good news is , most of the great classical performances were pressed on LP and many have been redone by Classic Records and are EXCELLENT.

Just buy an inexpensive TT, arm and cartridge and see if the sound returns you to that "warm and fuzzy feeling" (as it does for me).

Buying used here at Audiogon means you can try this gig and later dispose of the pieces (if they don't make you happy) with little or no loss.

Let us know how you fare.

I was lucky enough to find a store in my area that has hundreds or even a thousand classical vinyl LPs and each is about five dollars. Its pretty hard to beat great vinyl recordings, especially for the money. I bought a stock MMF-7 and a Pro-ject phono pre-amp and th sound at least equals my beautiful Classe CDP. I say, go vinyl and have fun shopping for LPs.

I think Kal's comments might well apply...You could well need to work on your room. You might also re-examine the synergy of your components and your room.
FWIW, I do a lot of listening to digital classical on a system using a tube CDP and/or DAC, a tube pre-amp and tube amp with a moderatly priced pair of dynamic speakers which are very revealing. I have carefully set up my room and I do not share your experiences at all. I will admit that my electronics err slightly on the warm side of neutral which makes instruments with a lot of lower midrange-upper bass sound much more natural.

The majority DO suck! There is a wasteland of 10-15 years (early 80s to mid 90s) where classical CDs–except from some smaller labels like Telarc, Chandos, Chesky, Reference Recordings, and a few others who managed to produce excellent sounding productions–are painful to listen to. The large labels piled crap-on-crap as far as sonics. Some exceptions were Decca and (some) Philips.recordings. Reissues on CD of previously excellent sounding analog releases were also a disgrace. These same analog recordings are now turning up on more tolerable sounding SACDs but still can’t quite equal the sound of an LP played (even) on a reasonably priced turntable system.

With some of the newer, higher sampling digital processors and players the shrillness and metallic quality of some of these offensive recordings can be tamed but not completely cured. It is a shame so many excellent recordings by great artists were butchered by such crappy sound. The situation seems to have improved in recent years. I guess the complaints (maybe even from the artists themselves) started to pile up enough that someone took notice.

So be careful what you buy and read some of the opinions of other members here. Members, Rushton and Texasdave, have given some excellent choices in the past on these forums that have assisted me in my purchases.

Regards,
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Rotarius, you've posed an issue I've resolved for myself by staying firmly with LPs in my classical music collection. At the same time, I have a number of audio friends who derive great pleasure from classical music via CD, such as Audigon members Texasdave and Trcnetmsncom.

Here are a few classical CD suggestions for you to try that I know can sound good with well-tuned digital front end (there are certainly others):

Rutter, Requiem, Reference Recordings 57
Bax, Symphony No. 6 or No. 7, David Lloyd-Jones on Naxos
Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto, Wallenstein/LSO with Perlman on Chesky

None of these have the ease and naturalness of sound that I hear from a comparable LP on a decent turntable setup, but all have quite reasonable string tone. If they don't work for you, then either some work on your audio system is needed, or, like me and Albert Porter, you may just need to shift back to a turntable. ;-)

Vvrinc, glad some of the music suggestions have resonated well with you!
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