Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #23)

You have your answer...

IMHO the Ashkenazy SACD is not good as the Aubort - Nickrenz production.

 

Now playing CD4 - Theodora Part II from this set for a first listen ...



This work is also available from the following older Erato set.

 

Now playing CD5 - Theodora Part III from above set for a first listen ...

 

Now playing CD9 from the following set for a first listen ...

 

I cheaped out and went with a dvd-audio disk instead (24b/96khz with stereo and multichannel mixes) for $11.99 (got the last one at that price). Free shipping since I was buying another item with it.

I may buy something else later.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001LYGJO

 

Do you have a universal player that can play the DVD-A format? SACD player does not play the DVD-A format ...

 

No, I play them on a Panasonic BDP-10A Blu-ray player. It's an early model that plays dvd-audio quite well. It's better than the Denon 2900 universal I used to have.

 

I have avoided DVD-A's all along. A number of classical recordings were initially released in that format but were subsequently re-released in SACD format.

 

I've got 3 old EMI dvd-audio disks that never came out in SACD. I think I have 5 total. Way more SACDs. I own only 2 classical CDs, both EMI (old ones made in Japan in 1984).

 

I picked the Jarvi Kije SACD when Concord was selling off a lot of their Telarc SACDs. I got it very cheap, or I would have gone with the Slatkin. On a first listen I was not too excited. Not sure I like the balance. The bass seems louder than the rest of the orchestra, but I am just breaking in a modification I had done to my SACD player, so this note is tentative. Haven't listened to the CD layer yet.

 

Those Telarc disks seem to be always like that. I don't like it either. Most of the music is extremely quiet and the bass comes along and blows the speakers right out of the side of the house and into the street.

 

Glad I am not the only one to say that. I wonder if Telarc got the MultiChannel right? I was listening to the stereo SACD layer.

 

I only buy Telarc CD's if the conductors were Mackerras, Previn or Dohnanyi. Its roster of classical artists is just not all that appealing ...

 

I have a couple by Erich Kunzel and Yoel Levi that aren't bad.
Robert Shaw performances are quite desirable in my book.

Since you Guys mentioned Telarc...celebrating Spring I have this on the spin!
Excellent Excellent CD!!

 

Got myself a New Laptop last week Compaq Presario CQ56-219WM.
Now I can take my Music Collector CD Database on the road and edit my photography on the fly.

http://connect.collectorz.com/users/graphyfotoz/music?viewType=cover

http://www.graphyfotoz.smugmug.com/

Lost this tiny lil receiver for my wireless mouse.....anyone happen to have one around?
Just checking before I hit up ebay...it's for a Logitech m510.

**PM ME so as to not stray the thread**

 

Also speaking of Telarc

THE BEST Telarc CD I own and a MUST HAVE for anyone!!
This CD is simply spectacular!!

 

This is a good one and I think O'Conor was a student of the great Wilhelm Kempff ...

 

Panasonic made the one model early in Blu-ray's evolution that supported DVD-A and not, IIRC, SACD. To my knowledge, no Panasonic Blu-ray player model before or after plays SACD/DVD-A. At the time, it was unclear which hi-res audio format would prevail -- or if either would. So it seemed strange at the time that they supported one and not the other. Maybe Panasonic saw this as a way to irritate Sony, one of the main inventors of the SACD.

 

Universal player is supposed to work with all formats. I just bought my first Yamaha universal player less than a year ago so I could start enjoying my expanding SACD collection, which should surpass 300 very shortly. I took the middle ground since I could not decide on which SACD player to get. In fact, there are not many multi-channel SACD players out there these days. I do not have any DVD-A's since I want to keep things simple ...

 

Biography:

The Irish pianist John O'Conor has earned a worldwide reputation as a masterful interpreter of the Classic and early-Romantic repertoires.

Following initial studies in his native Dublin he studied in Vienna with the renowned pedagogue Dieter Weber, won First Prize at the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna in 1973 and made a special study of Beethoven with the legendary German pianist Wilhelm Kempff.

Since then he has toured the world in recital and concerto appearances and makes regular visits to Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea and China.

His recordings on the Telarc label have brought him particular renown. CD Review described his box set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas as "Beethoven playing at its best"; the New York Times named his recording of the Beethoven Bagatelles as the best available; his recording of the John Field Nocturnes spent many weeks on the Billboard charts and his recently released recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andreas Delfs have been greeted with great acclaim.

For his services to music he has been decorated with "l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Government, the "Ehrenkreuz fur Wissenschaft und Kunst" by the Austrian Government and has received many other awards.

 

Following the death of FDR, Shaw commissioned Hindemith to set Whitman's poem to music. Shaw worked closely with the composer on this project, and he virtually owns this piece. I play this disc occasionally. It is a fine requiem.

 

On the subject of SACD.....

Is it just me or does a SACD of say a Living Stereo sound better even on a regular CD player?
Seems to ME anyway that the remastering enhances the Hybrid side as well as the SACD rendering of these CD's.
I've compared a regular LS with it's SACD counter part and this is what I found.

 

That was wonderful. I was once in a class at my grad school that was taught by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Mathematics ...

 

The sound quality of DVD-As is, for all practical purposes, equal to SACD even though both take different paths to arrive at the same result. The main rap on DVD-As is that you have to access a video menu to navigate around them, which of course requires a video monitor in the system to do so. My workaround is to put post-it notes on all detailing the exact sequence of buttons to push to get them playing the right track without having to fire up the TV. Also, I note volume levels because the output levels can vary from disc to disc.

There are far more knowledgeable people here, but I remember this issue mentioned in these threads before. Apparently there is reason to believe the DSD mastering required for SACD production also sharpens up SQ on the "hybrid" layer, even though that bitstream must still be held down to the lossy Red Book bit depth and sampling rate.

 

Are all SACD's 24/96? But some redbook CD's are also 24/96 these days.