Can digital get to vinyl sound and at what price?
- Thread starter ScottK
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I have been to many live performances where the venue acoustics, the ineptitude of their sound engineers or the group of musicians having “a bad night” made the experience “less” satisfactory than listening to one of their studio recordings at home on my rig. Whether “live”, or via my home system, I just want to enjoy the listening experience.Scroll down to Quested in the show report below. They had 2 rooms, one with a live acoustic band and one playing back the live music via an ADC/hifi system. They were trying to reproduce the music as close as possible to the live sound.
Are you interested in having a sound at home that is as close as possible to live?
The London Audio Show 2024 | The Ear
The London Audio Show in the Radisson Red hotel was a small but attractively formed event with exhibitors in 29 rooms of which three were of a good sizethe-ear.net
If my system, at it’s best, were unable to sound as good as a particular “live” performance “at it’s best”, then I would simply consider that, with my home system I don’t have to buy tickets, get dressed up, go out in the rain or snow, find parking, sit in uncomfortable seats, try and enjoy the performance despite the guy behind me coughing on the back of my neck, during the intermission dispelling with a drink because I’m driving, wait for the toilets, get back to my seat late (causing everyone in my row to be inconvenienced standing up as I try and get by without stepping on anyone’s toes) then, after the concert, shuffle through crowds (more coughing and sputtering as though sick, they didn’t want to miss the concert) to the street and traffic.
Once home, pour a glass of scotch and turn on my hi fi and relax in my own comfortable listening seat. Something I could have done in the first place and not faced all the hassle above.
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Still, the indoor experience is quite civilized compared to an outdoor venue with either porta-potty or one of those beer hall troughs where all the men line up and an unpleasant mist is created. It is always "compared to what?"
Yes, being at home, comfortable and with the volume control at hand can be a very good experience indeed.
I think all of us would have to admit there is "some" truth in what you say. If you have gone to a few concerts you have experienced it.
Still I find many live performances I have been to are still cherished memories! Many were not perfect but the artist, the venue, the company, the unexpected made them memorable!
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Wow, we live in different worlds for sure. First I never ever ever go to a live concert that is amplified. Ugh! I cannot imagine anything more distasteful than an amplified live concert. When I go to listen to live music, I want to hear unamplified pure acoustic sound from a singer, a piano, an orchestra, a jazz band or a folk singer. If the concert is being amplified, I don’t go to it. Period.
With that out of the way, I share good old Harry Pearson’s world view. To me, the “Absolute Sound” is pure unamplified music in an actual concert hall (or a smaller venue). Having attended thousands of such live concerts all over the world in over 30+ countries over the past 40+ years, nothing, I repeat, nothing comes close the sound of unamplified live acoustic music. No audio system I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard plenty of multimillion dollar systems, comes remotely close to the sound of live music.
I could give many examples but I’ll stick with a few. As a grad student in the mid 1980s, I had the good sense to subscribe to a year of the Pittsburgh Symphony concerts at the student rate of $5 per concert, for seats that cost $50 for everyone else (and would probably cost $500 today). I heard the incomparable soprano Jessye Norman sing Richard Strauss’ Last Four Songs composed when he was close to death. I’ve never heard a human voice that can bring such presence in a huge concert hall like what she did. The compact disc of her performance was issued by Phillips. What a travesty of her live voice. It was as if all the richness and harmonics had been drained out.
Many years later, I lived in San Francisco for a year and attended as many live concerts in SF and Berkeley as I could. Each one is seared in my brain. From the great conductor Ricardo Muti conducting the Chicago Symphony in Brahms symphonies or Charles Dutoit conducting the San Francisco Symphony in Berlioz’s majestic Requiem with a chorus of 500 singers and percussion arranged in surround sound throughout the concert hall, the Absolute Sound of live music was as I remembered it from my grad student days. Incomparable.
Even if you spent a billion dollars on a hifi, you would never get anywhere near the sound of unamplified live music.
With that out of the way, I share good old Harry Pearson’s world view. To me, the “Absolute Sound” is pure unamplified music in an actual concert hall (or a smaller venue). Having attended thousands of such live concerts all over the world in over 30+ countries over the past 40+ years, nothing, I repeat, nothing comes close the sound of unamplified live acoustic music. No audio system I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard plenty of multimillion dollar systems, comes remotely close to the sound of live music.
I could give many examples but I’ll stick with a few. As a grad student in the mid 1980s, I had the good sense to subscribe to a year of the Pittsburgh Symphony concerts at the student rate of $5 per concert, for seats that cost $50 for everyone else (and would probably cost $500 today). I heard the incomparable soprano Jessye Norman sing Richard Strauss’ Last Four Songs composed when he was close to death. I’ve never heard a human voice that can bring such presence in a huge concert hall like what she did. The compact disc of her performance was issued by Phillips. What a travesty of her live voice. It was as if all the richness and harmonics had been drained out.
Many years later, I lived in San Francisco for a year and attended as many live concerts in SF and Berkeley as I could. Each one is seared in my brain. From the great conductor Ricardo Muti conducting the Chicago Symphony in Brahms symphonies or Charles Dutoit conducting the San Francisco Symphony in Berlioz’s majestic Requiem with a chorus of 500 singers and percussion arranged in surround sound throughout the concert hall, the Absolute Sound of live music was as I remembered it from my grad student days. Incomparable.
Even if you spent a billion dollars on a hifi, you would never get anywhere near the sound of unamplified live music.
There are many folks, including some who post on WBF, that really enjoy "UGH" concerts. In fact, far far more in that "world" than yours.
Anything more distasteful? Quite a limiting, dramatic, judgemental and "god" like musical perspective.
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I just posted in another thread I'm super excited. I can clearly hear the local concerts from the front yard of my new house. It's a bunch of rock from the sixties to nineties. At least that's the lineup tonight. All amplified music. Can't really hear the drums. The guitars and singer come through clear.
Luck you... I've listened to that CD many times (I even played one of the tracks at my father's funeral...), and though I have never had the chance to hear her live, it is obvious that the CD is limited. We can still be grateful for having it...
Agreed, but some systems do sound "livelier" than others.
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I don’t have anything against amplified concerts necessarily, but the problem for me is that 90% of them are at an excessive volume which just ends up being a distorted sonic mess.
Many musicians, sound board guys and intrepid concert goes have hearing loss which just “amplifies” the vicious cycle.
Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. I didn’t want to sound so judgmental! But it’s because I’m passionate about hearing the sound of live music without electronic artifacts ruining the experience for me. A cello, an oboe, a piano or a saxophone can sound beautiful up close. One of the tragedies of our modern age is the widespread use of amplified concert venues. I can’t recommend enough for everyone to hear live unamplified music, and this was Harry Pearson’s credo of The Absolute Sound.
I went to a show on Broadway two weeks ago. All of the actors wore microphones and the sound of their voices was blasted through a PA system hanging from the ceiling of this beautiful old classic Broadway theater space. it was not a big theater and yet their voices were so loud it was distracting. There was a live band in the orchestra pit that did not seem to be amplified. But they were drowned out by the incredibly loud voices singing. It was a very unnatural experience and it ruined the show for me. Can’t modern actors project their voices from the stage in a small theater.?
The reason might be that most people hear louder as better. If they are not familiar with sound levels, they don't realize they risk hearing loss. Or that the sound is distorted. This phenomenon is not recent. It has been going on for about 20 years on Broadway. Too bad it ruined it for you. Wearing customized hearing protection is the only "solution."
Lately I went to John Surman Quartet concert. Loudness level was very reasonable or I can say moderate. It is probably related with artist or the manager of the theater.
did you notice whether the musicians were wearing hearing protection?
Music needn't be amplified to be very loud. Talk with a saxophonist who stands next to the drums when he/she performs. But speak loudly to them when you do.
From a quick internet search:
"Tittman recently finished looking into just how loud Broadway is. "We went to ten different locations downtown and we measured how loud it was for about 60 minutes," Tittman said. "We had measures upwards of 139 decibels being the max level." Tittman compared 130 decibels to standing next to an ambulance siren."
That is crazy. Did I mention the array of massive speakers hanging from the ornate ceiling of this classic Broadway theater looked ridiculous?
I remember listening to rehearsals of the Vienna opera from just in front of the pit and then to performances later at night all the way in the back sitting in the director’s box. The performers were able to project their voices and every word was clear and intelligible. Nothing artificial sounding at all. What a contrast to modern Broadway.
Just came back from a lovely trip to Carmel-on-the-Sea to escape the Bay Area 110 degree heat wave. Carmel was as usual nice and cool at 55 degrees, even though it's just around 40 miles from my house! We went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner near the center of town, where a singer with a guitar serenaded us with some Italian songs. When you hear the pure sound of a human voice and a guitar up close, you realize how colored even the best reproduction of music is. We have to be reminded every so often how beautiful the sound of pure unamplified music is.
My room is sort of thrown together. I don't have ethernet up there yet. I have files on my drive, so I set up the digital with HQ player. On my setup, HQ is nothing more than a device to find a file and play it. All filters are off. All my files are WAV and some 24x96PCM. It sounded very good.
I have no vinyl. Too hard to setup. No real rack.
I have no vinyl. Too hard to setup. No real rack.
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