Ideal high end Headphone music, ( Sennheiser HD800) Suggestions Please

[APP]

Yes that is a nice album. Only trouble I have with the binaural format is that some how the sound of the voice is not so focused, the instruments are gorgeously placed and has depth and presence but not the voice.
Comparing the recorded sound of the voice to i.e. Alison Krauss live in the studio;

or Carmen Gomes live in the studio;

I think that the binaural format is a bit on the short side.

I understand your point. That is maybe a weakness of Binaural, that sound placed right in the middle gets pulled apart a little.
But I still find it a refreshing listening experience.

 

[dalethorn]

I understand your point. That is maybe a weakness of Binaural, that sound placed right in the middle gets pulled apart a little. But I still find it a refreshing listening experience.

Oddly enough, with headphones that have a good soundstage, the recordings I find to be the most enjoyable are those that use a simple mike arrangement, such as the recordings reviewed by J. Gordon Holt that are being reposted by Stereophile this year (hopefully to continue). Some of the RCA Living Stereo recordings from the late 1950's sound great on headphones as well. If I had to make a rule (allowing a few exceptions), I'd say that the most enjoyable recordings I have are merely well-recorded music.

 

[Kefas]

Less microphones

Oddly enough, with headphones that have a good soundstage, the recordings I find to be the most enjoyable are those that use a simple mike arrangement, such as the recordings reviewed by J. Gordon Holt that are being reposted by Stereophile this year (hopefully to continue). Some of the RCA Living Stereo recordings from the late 1950's sound great on headphones as well. If I had to make a rule (allowing a few exceptions), I'd say that the most enjoyable recordings I have are merely well-recorded music.

I think you have a point.

The above mentioned Thousand Shades of Blue, as well as the other downloads from the Sound Liaison guys are using a minimal mic set up with stunning results. Judging from the liner notes, I count a total of 8 mics, that's it.

quote from the Sound Liaison site; http://www.soundliaison.com/products-from-our-studio-showcase-series/92-carmen-gomes-inc-sss1-flac

The 12 pieces of music were performed live in the studio in front of a studio audience. The musicians were placed in front of a stereo pair of microphones with additional spot microphones on each instrument. The musicians were playing without headphones, the reason being that we believe that when we get the musicians to play together in the same room,with out headphones, it creates a number of musical and technical benefits:

As they are not ''separated'' by the headphones, the musicians, in order to hear each other are forced to create a natural and musical balance, a balance which is then easily captured by the main stereo pair of microphones. Because of the natural and musical balance the need for compression to control levels is no longer necessary, and since everybody is in the same room,the boxed sound which is so common in many modern recordings is absent, and the sound of the room helps ''glue'' the sound of the recording.

This is all very well but there are also problematic aspects to this procedure:

The room, studio, has to have a good sound. The musicians have to be very good and well prepared as it is very difficult to repair mistakes because of the ''cross talk'' between the instruments, we have to be very precise when choosing and placing the microphones and the puzzle of placing the musicians at the right distance to the main stereo microphones and the right distance to each other, is also time consuming. And when we have a live audience in the studio, we pray that they remember to turn of their cell phones and the ones with a bad cold choose to stay at home. The room where the recordings has been done is the now legendary Studio Eleven situated in the the building of the Dutch World Broad Casting Service. The Studio was used extensively in the 60's by European and visiting American jazz musicians (Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley,Dexter Gordon,Eric Dolphy.....) The Dutch World Broad Casting Service asked Frans de Rond to bring the room back to life as a recording studio, and Frans after seeing and hearing the room jumped at the opportunity. Sound Liaison has been allowed to use the room for our audiophile projects and we are eternally greatfull to the Dutch World Service for the opportunity.

Recorded in Studio Eleven (Hilversum) with a live audience on September 15, 2012.
This recording was made by Sound Liaison for and with lovers of high-end audio recordings.
The file is a one to one copy of the master file (96kHz/24bit).

Used equipment:

Microphones:
Carmen: Audix SCX25
Folker: Audio Technica 4080
Peter: JZ V67
Marcel: SE Rn17 - overheads and JZ V67 - bassdrum
Main system - Schoeps MK5 (AB)
Micpre's: RME Micstacy (Analog > MADI)
Microphone cables: Grimm Audio TPR
Speakers: Grimm Audio LS1
Master clock: Grimm Audio CC1

Mixing headphones: AKG 702 / Sennheiser HD800

 

[dalethorn]

I should mention that I sampled a symphony album (Dvorak 9th on Naxos, Alsop - Baltimore Sym) a few months ago on iTunes and thought it very good. Now I have the CD. The sound quality and presentation are the best I've heard of a symphonic recording. The several recommendations I got from Stereophile were very enjoyable and had their moments, but this Dvorak 9th is as close to real as I've ever heard. On a really good headphone you'll hear instrumental tone to amaze you. Especially movement 2 of the 9th, at 0:42 where one instrument plays a 12-second riff and then it's repeated at 0:55 by a different instrument - you need to listen closely to hear which instrument is which. Overall, I wish I had more like this.

 

[APP]

Sound Liaison minimalist but effective mic placement

I think you have a point.

The above mentioned Thousand Shades of Blue, as well as the other downloads from the Sound Liaison guys are using a minimal mic set up with stunning results. Judging from the liner notes, I count a total of 8 mics, that's it.

quote from the Sound Liaison site; http://www.soundliaison.com/products-from-our-studio-showcase-series/92-carmen-gomes-inc-sss1-flac

There is a photo from the beautiful ''After Silence'' session where one can clearly see the minimalist but very effective microphone technique these sound magicians are using;

 

[APP]

Talking about minimalist microphone technigue.
This Bill Evans video has one mic.... ONE, and great balance.
Okay a little too much bass.

 

[dalethorn]

Updating a couple of things - I got the Mingus Ah Um album, Legacy Edition, deluxe 2-disc etc. - excellent detailed sound, much of it recorded close-up, a slight crunchy sound on some of the horns, somewhat exaggerated left-right separation of instruments, but well worth the money and many re-listens. I'm still amazed that they preserved this detail from 1959 magnetic tapes.

This week got a tip and purchased Janine Jansen doing violin concertos by Bruch and Mendelssohn on the Decca label. Great performances and sound, and to me a realistic soundstage. These are the first violin concertos I've purchased, so liking them immediately was a good sign I thought.

 

[APP]

One mic. per instrument

Talking about minimalist microphone technigue.
This Bill Evans video has one mic.... ONE, and great balance.
Okay a little too much bass.

It is one mic per instrument.

 

[APP]

Janine Jansen

Updating a couple of things - I got the Mingus Ah Um album, Legacy Edition, deluxe 2-disc etc. - excellent detailed sound, much of it recorded close-up, a slight crunchy sound on some of the horns, somewhat exaggerated left-right separation of instruments, but well worth the money and many re-listens. I'm still amazed that they preserved this detail from 1959 magnetic tapes.

This week got a tip and purchased Janine Jansen doing violin concertos by Bruch and Mendelssohn on the Decca label. Great performances and sound, and to me a realistic soundstage. These are the first violin concertos I've purchased, so liking them immediately was a good sign I thought.

Nice little documentary here:

 

[APP]

I should mention that I sampled a symphony album (Dvorak 9th on Naxos, Alsop - Baltimore Sym) a few months ago on iTunes and thought it very good. Now I have the CD. The sound quality and presentation are the best I've heard of a symphonic recording. The several recommendations I got from Stereophile were very enjoyable and had their moments, but this Dvorak 9th is as close to real as I've ever heard. On a really good headphone you'll hear instrumental tone to amaze you. Especially movement 2 of the 9th, at 0:42 where one instrument plays a 12-second riff and then it's repeated at 0:55 by a different instrument - you need to listen closely to hear which instrument is which. Overall, I wish I had more like this.

I am going to look for that one, thanks.
Here is pretty good sounding you tube video of the 9th;

 

[dalethorn]

Incredible - full length symphony on youtube - thanks!!

 

[APP]

Incredible - full length symphony on youtube - thanks!!

My pleasure
And the sound is pretty good too....no?

 

[dalethorn]

My pleasure. And the sound is pretty good too....no?

Yes, very good. I had not seen this conductor before, but he was perfect for this 9th. I admit I wondered sometimes if he would make it through the work, being a bit old and slow of physical movement. But more than many conductors I've seen, I could hear and feel the music almost before it was played. His style seemed less like "do this" and more like "be part of this". Not a very precise description, but it was appropriate for the music.

 

[APP]

I think you heard that spot on.
Celibidache was a marvelous, but also a controversial conductor. He did not believe in recording music but insisted that it should be experienced ''live''.
And tempos were depended on the room the piece was played in. Dry room faster tempo, room with lots of echo slower tempos etc .
Now after he passed away they are starting to release his radio broadcast concerts.

 

[dalethorn]

My review of a very unique CD...

http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Grado-...B00GJ65Y14/ref=cm_cr-mr-title#customerReviews

Music sample: http://youtu.be/F4HTu1zdjOU

 

[APP]

Hi Dale this looks better, good review!

My review of a very unique CD...
]

I bought phonograph pickups from Joe Grado in the late 1970's, and little did I know that just before that time he started a sub-career as an operatic tenor at the age of 46. If that were not amazing enough, he had a heart attack with complications sometime later and had to develop new singing techniques (described in the CD liner notes) to be able to sing at all, let alone with operatic quality. None of this, not even his acclaim for previous performances, would prepare the listener for what he did here - recording the tracks for this CD at the age of 75, with a voice comparable to current Metropolitan Opera tenors. No kidding. I don't have a large collection of operatic arias, but I'm a big fan of Caruso and Evan Williams from the acoustic era, Mario Lanza from the 1950's, Pavarotti and Domingo from recent times, and a few others. The recordings on this CD give away nothing to those other singers. I was fortunate to have a grandmother who was a close friend of Evan Williams, who introduced her to Caruso once upon a time and created a lifelong opera fan, and I've also been fortunate to have owned phono pickups (cartridges) and stereo headphones made by the Grado company in Brooklyn. But with all of that, nothing beats a great collection of songs on CD performed by a man who was most characterized by his lifelong passion for music. Highly recommended.

[video=youtube_share;F4HTu1zdjOU]http://youtu.be/F4HTu1zdjOU[/url[/video]

 

[dalethorn]

I missed the Grado PS-500 I had in 2011, so today I ordered the PS-1000e. I'm very interested in the claims that the PS-1000 'E' version has less bass than neutral. I have a CD called Second Sight by Marc Johnson's Bass Desires group, and the bass in this CD is ideal for testing whether a headphone's bass is neutral but good enough to hear and feel, or just too weak to appreciate.

 

[Kefas]

Minimalist recording, great sound.

There is a photo from the beautiful ''After Silence'' session where one can clearly see the minimalist but very effective microphone technique these sound magicians are using;

Check the latest album, there they have a total of 5 microphones and with a stunning result.
http://www.soundliaison.com/

The room was filled to the brim with audio enthusiasts, the closest listener being just a few feet from the musicians and the microphones.
When the audience is so close to the musicians, a synergy occurs. The audience becomes part of the music making and help spur the musicians on to great heights.
The musicians feeling the empathy from the audience dare to take chances that one rarely hears in a studio recording.
Tony and Bert had not performed together as a duo before, and no rehearsal had taken place prior to the Rhapsody concert, but the music these two masters of improvisation created that sunny afternoon in Rhapsody, is simply breathtaking.

Microphones:
Piano: Neumann TLM 170 (2x)
Bass: JZ V67
Room mic's: Sonodore RCM-402 (2x)

http://www.soundliaison.com/

 

[dalethorn]

I may have mentioned previously that I got a Samuel Barber CD (School for Scandal, Symphony 1-2 etc.) conducted by Marin and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. Last week I bought a similar CD of Barber's works (Essay 1-3, Adagio, Medea, School....) by Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony. Both of these CDs are impeccibly played, recorded, and mastered. Highly recommended.

 

[APP]

The small boutique labels Sound Liaison and 2L are using the Sennheiser HD 800's for mixing and mastering.

The hi-res downloads from these labels are probably the best recorded music available from a technical stand point and I think that as an owner of a pair of Sennheiser , Audeze or other headphones of that caliber one should at least have one of these downloads to really hear what is possible with Hi-Res music these days.

http://www.soundliaison.com/
http://www.2l.no/
View attachment 18564

the new Andre Heuvelman is really worth a listen, meditative music, with a gorgeous SQ.

Very interesting liner notes as well;

As long as music has existed it has been known to have spiritual and even healing powers.
The group Space Master Silence was started as a musical search party, traveling headfirst into the uncharted land of music, emotion and spirit.

link further reading;http://www.soundliaison.com/
and introduction price 11$ for the PCM copy of the studio master.
It is not your average music but still very captivating.