2. music
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When will there be decent classical music recordings?

With "pop" music the recordings are such that you can hear the rasp of the guitar string, the echo of the piano, the tingle of the percussion ... and so on .... and in surround sound.
Surround sound is brilliant in picking out different instruments that would otherwise have been "lost" or merged with the other sounds.
Someone will say well that is not how you listen at a concert, but that is just archaic. As a friend said many years ago to me ... whats wrong with mono?!
I am sure Beethoven or whomever would have been excited if they could have presented their music in effectively another dimension.
I have yet to come across any classical recording that grabs me in the way it should, or could. Do they operate in a parallel universe musicwise?
I used to play in an orchestra so I am always looking out for the "extra"  presence in music ... in amongst it, not just watching and listening from a distance


tatyana69
vindanpar
58 posts
 

I understand what you are saying by a blob of sound.

But the better your equipment becomes(which can take a heckuva lot of money) the more impactful and transparent it becomes.

You can listen to Paray's on Mercury Saint Saen 3rd in its most recent cd incarnation and find it overwhelming. I can't stop listening to it.

I recently got an outrageously expensive great cartridge and even 70s vinyl pressings of Reiner's Lt. Keiji and Ansermet's Pulcinella are tremendously moving to almost bring tears to your eyes. I know that with more space and more money it is capable of sounding better and then there is reel to reel... But most of us have space and money limitations.

And there are those who are into original acoustics on victrolas and find them unearthly in their presence. True time machines.

If you want anything better you'd have to hire Dutoit and Montreal to play in your back yard. 

tatyana69 OP
269 posts
 
My equipment is good enough to get anything possible from the source, and as you know the better the equipment, the worse is the sound from bad recordings ..... relatively.
I do appreciate suggestions of quality recordings. so thanks - I will research.


vindanpar
58 posts
 

That's why I have a second system.

I listen to a lot of historical recordings and I cannot listen to them on my primary system. Too revealing.

Box sets I love: The Reiner, Westminster Legacy and the Archive Analogue. All good examples of exemplary sound. And artistry. And we're not talking digital sound here.

A disc I use for testing (read about it by a reviewer) is by Trondheimsolistene 'in folk style.' Grieg and some wonderful contemporary composers.

Of course if I had mono blocks each with their own power conditioners and 70k speakers with a reel to reel playback system and a large room there would be no end to the possibilities of great sound. 

 



sevs
301 posts
 
I hear ya! My second system is my old Saab, with a box of Furtwangler CDs in constant rotation while enjoying the awesomeness of LA traffic! :-)
sevs
301 posts
 
Interesting thread! When I first read in "music in the round" that with SACDs there is an option to opt for a surround which puts you inside of an orchestra, I just laughed! TATYANA69, as I understand the original post, is actually looking for this, go figure!
Lets post the photos of our "big rigs" so that the thread could get more meaningful and less anonymous. I will try to post mine today...
Flying Gilmore guitar maybe a dud, but that was the "original intention" of the guys, and I would like to hear it. Until then I have no idea what that is and if it works for me, all I know is that I cannot afford surround at the same quality as my present stereo.
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