Best Hardware for Classical Music

Best Hardware for Classical Music?

Violins, horns, harps and acoustic instruments. Otherwise its just an illusion. Support live music!

 

The Thorens resides in a whole different world never imagined by the Empire folks 40 years ago...

That Thorens platter weighs over 13 lbs. and is coated for vibration damping. The bearing fits in a ceramic dry running sleeve. The motor is external, sitting in it's own housing isolated from the chassis. Plinth is made of a bonded anti-resonant sandwich of acrylic (top and bottom are clear, with a blue one in between) sitting on three polymer-damped feet.

 

In my opinion, the Bechstein:



That said, noting the beautiful Empire of Wes H, I'm finding it easier to listen to a historic piano recording on a CD than a modern piano recording on LP. Though there's a lot to be said for the very best sound coming from an LP, piano records expose off-center records, lose impact on their way to the dead wax and are far more likely to expose surface noise than your typical Pop/Rock/Jazz recording. Even though my turntable [Strathclyde 305-m, SME III arm, Shure 97xe cartridge] is relatively fancy:



. . . and my CD players are cheap, it's easier getting a good sound from my CD player than the turntable. Particularly with piano music, which I tend to play a lot.

 

Indeed they did... and very "long ago" it was!

I snapped the photo below from an ad in the October 1970 Stereo Review.

 

And on the page directly behind the Empire speaker ad, they ran this ad for the Empire turntable...



(Alas, no room for pretty girls in mod red leather!)

 

Outstanding!

 

I only listen to historical recordings on CD and would not even contemplate about buying them on vinyl ...

 

"Would you believe"... ages you right there!

All I'll say is that this magazine was part of my subscription to Stereo Review in 1970... and leave it at that!

 

I remember the last time I attended the NY Hi Fi show held at Hilton in midtown Manhattan in the mid to late 70's, the only Empire audio gear on display was the 698 turntable ...

 

There's some LPs—including piano music—of historical recordings that are superior to their CD counterparts. If you compare early LP examples of Furtwängler's studio recordings to their CD counterparts, the LPs are usually better. A lot of the Artur Schnabel recordings on LP have better tone quality than their CD counterparts.

 

I have one of these with a Rega RB-900 tonearm. Works OK.

 

The 698 came out in 1976, replacing the 598 series and staying in production as Empire's only turntable until the company was bought out-- sometime in the early '80s.

 

I bet it works a lot better than "OK"!!!

 

But where am I going to put that in my living room?

 

Lived for a few years in a house with an Empire 598. Nice 'table:

 

Nice casework... but I think my neighbor would complain about the noise!!

 

Speakers that can move a lot of air ie :Magnepans

 

I was 15 in 1970, went to the public library to read Stereo Review and High Fidelity while playing [mostly] Beethoven LPs on the record player they used to have. Their headphones were cheap and nasty. The magazines had the Classical section ahead of the pop/jazz section. Both magazines tended to be very dismissive of rock. The High Fidelity survey of Beethoven records was very informative, with Dr. Paul Henry Lang reporting on the symphonies, Harris Goldsmith writing about the piano sonatas.

 

Nice. That's a Model III version... You can tell because it has the reversible (not pop-up) 45-center spindle, the strobe disc is only for 2 speeds, and the Empire logo has the backwards "R" in it.
Also noticed on this one that someone turned post light shade so that it doesn't shine on the platter.

 

Free recitals almost daily but to visit that storied instrument you will need to travel to Paris (I visited, it was awe inspiring). I have loads of classical music mostly on CD and as good as some of those disks sound nothing beats the real deal. With recorded music all I strive for is to hear what the engineers have placed on the media and make it sound natural as possible.

 

While I have that 108-CD Furtwangler's box, I also have quite a few of his EMI recordings on LP. The LP's are quite listenable ...

 

Particularly with organ music.