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Reference Recordings

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the sound of the highly touted Reference Recordings.  While there are some exceptions (e.g. Prokofiev “Alexander Nevsky,”) I find the orchestral perspective on most of their discs so distant that the sound is muddled and sound staging practically non existent.
Anyone else feel that way?
128x128rvpiano
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,688 posts
 
As for the ‘50’s RCA and Mercury reissues on CD, I find the latter to be consistently fine sounding, but the former to be of very uneven sound quality.
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,688 posts
 
An exception to the usual distant RR sound is a new recording of Beethoven’s 9th with Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Streaming on Idagio, the Reference immediate sound seems spectacularly suited to the piece.
(Does the exception prove the rule? NO, that’s a stupid expression.)
rcprince
3,074 posts
 
In listening further, it seems to me that the Minnesota Orchestra recordings do have a recessed quality not found on the others.  I still get a soundstage, but it does have a distant perspective.  I'd be curious how much the hall has to do with that--perhaps Schubert, who I believe lives in Minneapolis, has heard the orchestra in that hall and could chime in.  The new recordings from Pittsburgh and Kansas City are really good. and quite different in perspective., as were the recordings from Dallas.  
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