Best Hardware for Classical Music

I don't get how classical music lovers could live with a turntable as a main source. You'd be robbing yourself of 20+ years of recordings and performances. Especially if your interests run towards ancient and contemporary music.
For that reason alone, a SACD player seems like a much safer bet to me.

 

Is the Io what you have?

I run my MM/MI cartridges into a Conrad Johnson PV12. For LOMC I use a SS Aragon 47K preamp. I'm currently using an Ortofon Quintet Red LOMC. Do you have a recommendation of what to use to be able to run it through the PV12?

 

Yes, trade-offs all around. As a vinyl listener I'm missing a lot of new performances, artists and recordings. I have to make that up through listening to radio (streaming and over the air). But, since this is a thread on hardware for listening to classical music, not a debate on media formats, please share with us what SACD playback hardware you've chosen and why?

 

Yes, I made a commitment 10 years or so ago to the Io Signature with volume controls as my phono stage and preamp. It is quite comfortable with a 0.4mv output cartridge and will handle a 0.2mv cartridge with very careful tube selection in the first gain stage.

Your Ortofon is 0.4mv, I believe, and, as you note, the PV12 just doesn't have enough gain for it straight in. You'd need to use some form of step up device, like a transformer or a separate LOMC gain stage. I don't use them and can't provide recommendations. One resource for some advice to add a transformer could be Ralph Karsten at Atma-Sphere. He provides a transformer option for his MP-3 and UV full function preamps (the MP-1 doesn't need it).

 

That's a beautiful thing. I never had a problem spending my money on audio when I was working but I'm retired now so unless I win the lottery I'm sticking with what I already have (which is pretty good to my ears.)

 

As I said, if your interests lie in ancient or contemporary music (both vital fields in classical music), going for vinyl is not a trade-off, it's a form of musical suicide. And this isn't a format debate as such, but a practical consideration. What good is hardware if it won't play what you like ?
What percentage of classical record labels are putting out vinyl these days, I wonder.

 

Bluemooze, I'm approaching that stage of my life, too. What I assembled 10 years ago will be the last of my gear acquisitions. For the future, expenditures will be "maintenance only." But, I'm delighted to have been able to get this when I could.

 

I may concentrate on records (vinyl) and a turntable, but most of us also have a CD and/or SACD player, too. And I have reel-to-reel tape... (I love formats.)
As for records, my collection extends back to the 1950's, so I have several thousand recordings (including ancient and modern music) that came out prior to the introduction of the CD. One can still buy LPs in shops and online from the earlier decades, and quite resonably.

 

Getting to that stage, too. Not many gear acquisitions on my radar now as I'm quite happy with what I have. Now concentrating on maintenance and, of course, more recordings.

 

My music collection on LP is similar - many genre over a broad range of periods from ancient to modern. Collected over 40+ years, many of my records are second hand from the used bins, many are from the sellout during the mid- to late-80s as distributors jettisoned inventory, many from some of the more reasonably priced used sellers who publish lists (like Ars Nova and Mikrokosmos). In recent years I've been adding quite a few reissues (from the reissue labels like Speakers Corner, Hi-Q, ORG, Impex and Acoustic Sounds) and new recordings being released from a small number of dedicated labels (like Fone and Yarlung), many of which sound exceptionally good.

Another Hardware catergory: Storage Shelving?

 

Sure, there's a lot to be found. I'm partial to Calliope LPs myself, but the fact is a huge number of key recordings were never released on vinyl. Garrido's Monteverdi, late Leonhardt, Paul Van Nevel's Dufay, or Luciano Berio's Sequenze, off the top of my head, for things I care about.
And given these were recorded digitally to begin with, it'd make little sense for the few analog reissue labels who do classical to work on them now.
Again, I don't mean to stage a format war. But I do think the availability of our music of choice is a key factor in hardware decisions.

 

I'm all the way digital. NAD D7050 streaming spotify and Classics Online HD LL. Between spotify and classics online there is a huge selection of classical music (from Renaissance to contemporary music). Spotify sound quality is good and Classics Online streams cd-quality and hi-res music. Speakers are KEF LS50. There certainly are better sounds out there, but the sum of convenience and very good sound quality is unbeatable for me. I'm listening now to Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony in hi-res performed by the Russian National Orchestra and it would be hard to beat the sound (not mentioning Shostakovich's music and the performance of the Orchestra).

 

But why have a single main source? One can as easily note how much one would be missing by not having a turntable or a means of streaming from the internet.

 

I've considered paying for streaming on classicsonline. Ive purchased albums from them. One thing is for sure, it's the one service that makes it easy to find what you're looking for.

 

Then don't. I'm interested in your choices. Please talk about what gear you've chosen.

 

Interesting, felixa. If I'm reading correctly, this unit will take both a variety of hardwired digital inputs plus wireless signal inputs so it connects directly to one's in-home WiFi network. Is this correct?

 

felixa, do you also listen to streaming radio broadcasts, such as BBC Radio 3? If so, what resolution can you get via non-paid online services?

 

Nostalgia factor is big in all hobbyist groups, I've noticed. That, of course, applies especially to Finland where I happen to live. Many people find certain kind of beauty in robust vintage gear and piles of LP's around. Mee too...

And especially the eighties pressings of early digital recordings have been quite horrible to my ears. Not only because there's 50-70 minutes music (=all too much) crammed into 35 minutes LP format...

I don't care of ancient music - I begin with barock - but I'm more into modern stuff, besides the obvious classical & romantic periods. I totally agree with you: there's no other way to listen to especially contemporary music (besides a radio) than ceedees/SACD's.

The new LP's I know of are usually repressings of old favourites that companies know will sell... Tacet record compary (from Germany) has released also some new recordings, but I can't recall if among them have been anything but audiophile barock/classicist/romantic music recordings.

About your query about digital playback, I have a dedicated 2-ch. SACD player (today already a bit oldish) and a dac for "universal" player, server and digibox to provide a better analog conversion for other than DSD streams. It's a trade-off, I guess, to try to get decent sound out of both analog and digital sources, but I happen to be more interested in music than gear only, so I'm willing to accept the decisions I've made in order to be able to listen the LP's I've inherited and bought during the last four decades as well as the more contemporary SA/CD's.

 

- Full or nearly full range speakers (want to capture everything from the softest, tinkliest percussion to the deepest, most thunderous double bass/drums?)
- Sufficient headroomy power (want to replicate the DR where it exists?). And ideally even with a sense of it at low volumes.
- A generally open, airy natural presentation (get those strings singing).

Overall gear that won't hold the music back from doing that it wants to do. To me there's nothing gentle, smooth, and 'mid-bandy' about live classical performances; certain chamber type or solo guitar pieces aside.

 

In near-field also a modern string quartett (with metal strings) or piano quintet for that matter can sound quite hard and metallic when necessary.

 

As you say, there's a certain beauty and a big Nostalgia factor in working with vintage gear that can be fun. Perhaps it's the flip-side of "High-End" in this hobby. I have a dozen or so reel-to-reel machines that I maintain and play on occasion. This morning I loaded an old classical tape on a Sony TC-630 (vintage 1969) and played it through my current amp & speakers just for the nostalgic fun of it. It's not my best tape deck, nor my best recording of these works, but the synergy works and it sounds surprisingly good. I wanted to hear it "as it was" back then. Most of all, it give me joy seeing this old (and beloved) machine from my youth still making music with a tape I enjoyed back in the day (when funds were very limited!)... It's just another part of this great hobby.

 

Ah, yes, "back in the day" a tape deck was a good way to assemble something of a music library when funds were scarce. Mine was a Teac with lots of tapes dubbed from friends record collections, with a small smattering of Barclay Crocker tapes. No longer have it - finally donated it to Goodwill for them to recycle. But it served me well through the college, grad school and a few years after.

 

Indeed! Dubbing LPs swapped with friends (or borrowed from the library) and taping off the radio were ways of building a music collection on a shoe-string budget. Tapes were relatively cheap--though you couldn't know which brands would hold up in the long run. (Most of my commercially pre-recorded tapes can still be played without any shedding.)

I have yet to part with my old tape decks. I have two Teac machines--robust, heavy beasts. They just won't die!

 

I'm sure you can find space if you just get organized.

Uh, never mind...

 

And let us not forget the crusty B.H. Haggin.