Which Performance/Recording Is Best?

[Tango]

15kg a year only harvested from a rare mountainside crop.
From Yemen.
All's fair in love and war.

This is obviously out of thread, but I feel the need to bug Ron every once in a while.
There is coffee here that is picked from Civet shit. This sounds even more exoticly organic than Yemen mountainside coffee beans. A Civet would natually select fresh bean, eat and shit the coffee bean out. If you ever visit me, Marc, I will give you this fresh brew Civet shit coffee. It tastes so damn analog too. Retail before discount around $10 a cup.

Tang

 

[microstrip]

Performance and recordings can be kept independent of each other. On some systems you can play both good and bad recordings, obviously as in the case with pre or power or tube, the good will sound sonically better than the bad. Good recordings additionally will let you appreciate performance more, as the nuances of the instrument and the dynamic range will not be as evident, in fact much less, in a bad recording. And a system that does not let you hear the difference is worse, though might be financially more practical.

Pressings, like anything else in this hobby, are a sub hobby, and whether you choose to pursue them or not is similar to whether you choose to pursue a rega or an AS/vyger and compare equipment

One relevant question concerning recordings is that perceived sound quality is system dependent - the famous "Circle of Confusion" as explained by Toole. Some people perfect and optimize their systems using their favorite recordings - a natural move, but no way we can expect that their systems and preferences become a standard.

Pressings is also a collector hobby - IMHO the emotional side often overcomes everything else. Again IMHO, hearing differences is mainly an educational feature, not just an equipment property.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Francisco, so we have digital orientated systems, and analog orientated systems, and within the latter, pressings orientated systems. One could sure keep up on The Jones' this way.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Tang, coffee could be a reasonable analogy to music reproduction, esp to those who obsess about coffee but maybe don't get our passion.

For me, I stay away from 99% of outlets churning out the stuff. Near us is Ely that
1- serves damn fine beer
2- it's cathedral is host to damn fine classical concerts
3- serves some of the best coffee in the market square

I won't waste my cash in many other places. However, much as I love coffee, the audiophile equivalent of Yemen Mountainside Rare, or Civet Shit Hot, or lab inspired Cold Pressed Epiphany, really don't appeal.

But it would do to many for whom the OCD in coffee is as strongly held as ours re audio.

 

[microstrip]

Tang, coffee could be a reasonable analogy to music reproduction, esp to those who obsess about coffee but maybe don't get our passion. (...)

No way it can be a reasonable analogy, unless you just want coffee talk ... What are you reproducing when drinking coffee? Just the consumer attitude?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Coffee, home cooking, wine, real ale.
Anything highly subjective, "slow living" in concept, steeped in saturation of senses, w added snob appeal.

Non audiophile coffee addicts get our hobby when I point out areas of common insanity in perfecting the end product.

Non audiophile Mc Donalds self serve coffee addicts don't get us at all.

 

[bonzo75]

One relevant question concerning recordings is that perceived sound quality is system dependent - the famous "Circle of Confusion" as explained by Toole. Some people perfect and optimize their systems using their favorite recordings - a natural move, but no way we can expect that their systems and preferences become a standard.

Pressings is also a collector hobby - IMHO the emotional side often overcomes everything else. Again IMHO, hearing differences is mainly an educational feature, not just an equipment property.

That's your assumption. Maybe some systems are such that they consistently play best to the best recordings. By verifying across systems, you can check that the right presses will always sound better. The one place they won't sound better is where you can hear minimal difference between different presses.

Everything is a hobby, pressings or gear.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ked, I warned you not to spend so much time w The General. Now you've been infected w the drug of the v best pressings. Try not to OD on them.

 

[bonzo75]

Ked, I warned you not to spend so much time w The General. Now you've been infected w the drug of the v best pressings. Try not to OD on them.

Best advice I have received. Honest.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Whoa! I'll leave things on a high
"Just give me five, and again on the flipside!"

 

[microstrip]

That's your assumption. Maybe some systems are such that they consistently play best to the best recordings. By verifying across systems, you can check that the right presses will always sound better. The one place they won't sound better is where you can hear minimal difference between different presses.

Everything is a hobby, pressings or gear.

Yes, independently of individual preference we can carry statistical analysis of our assumptions - it would imply many users and many independent opinions, not a one man or group show. But, as well as on gear, I see such divergence on the opinions of people about pressings that I doubt if such study will have any significance.

 

[bonzo75]

Yes, independently of individual preference we can carry statistical analysis of our assumptions - it would imply many users and many independent opinions, not a one man or group show. But, as well as on gear, I see such divergence on the opinions of people about pressings that I doubt if such study will have any significance.

Your replies make less and less sense to me these days. That's one of the most generic replies I have read.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Performances in many cases are possible, but I do not know if spotify allows you to guess whether the LP quality is worth the pursuit. To do this, one will have to go through some spotify recordings of well known gear pressings cum performances, listen to other digital rips of those, and check if either or both are consistent in reflecting the fact that the LP is excellent as well.

I do find streaming at redbook and above both with Tidal and Qobuz in an well optimised digital system are easily sufficient to clarify essentially sonic performance and if the system is up to it also musical performance.

The closer we get to iPhone, earbud and mp3 for replaying tunes the distinctions in sonic and musical qualities becomes increasingly more indistinct. Listening while driving or drawing and designing makes connection a bit easier for me to be engaging more deeply in the musicality I figure that’s just a bit of designer spectrum showing through I’m afraid.

Of my three speakers I have when streaming the Magnepan 20.7s make any sonic shortfall completely discernible. A mate of mine calls Magnepans the scalpels because they cut through and show what’s happening with sound. They are a great audio and system setup review tool.

The Harbeth 40.2s aren’t as revealing about sonic shortfalls as the Maggies and are completely a glass half full of musical goodness. They are very positive contributors to making music accessible.

The PAP horns are revealing like the Magnepans of critical aspects of balance and even technicalities of performance but beyond this again they are absolutely the best speaker I have heard at highlighting qualities of musical engagement. Identifying best musical performance is just so clear and so easy... musical gradation from poor to OK to almost great to absolutely great performances comes across with amazing clarity and immediacy. These horns are for me like the ultimate music critic. They focus you into the very core of the music.

 

[bonzo75]

Yes but the question I have is, if you found a good performance on spotify or tidal that seemed to be sonically well recorded, did you try to check if that extends to the LP? Or read was the LP poor, or the other way round?

 

[the sound of Tao]

Ked I know you might be horrified but I can’t go back to Spotify not even for an instant when Tidal and Qobuz offer considerably greater musical satisfaction streaming in the first place and all the options for musical discovery along the way.

Tidal and Qobuz are much more directly relatable to the digital Hi-res equivalents.

My mate with Animas,OMAs and Harbeth 40.2s is equal parts vinyl and digital optimised and when playing there he only streams Tidal (not Spotify though he used to like the choice of titles with it) and Tidal seems a fair indicator of musical performance in regards to the vinyl versions but obviously that is less reliable on quality of mastering based on the digital equivalent when spinning the black gold versions... but yes he does buy much vinyl based on his streaming experiences of new music.

I purchase only a few hundred albums a year more lately (whereas traditionally more like 5 times as many) and in more recent times since getting the Chord M Scaler in I’ve slowed that even further and instead have upped my subscriptions because for the first time ever streaming has been sufficient to not make itself a stopper in the way of musical engagement. It has closed the gap for me both sonically and musically considerably to where downloaded hi-res files are only justifiable for albums I will play regularly. The magic that the m scaler pulls off is seriously addictive. Two reviewers have done m scaler reviews since its product launch ... both bought the m Scaler at the end of the review.

 

[bonzo75]

Ok thanks that helps

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron the answer to your question is Kubelik.

. . .


Performance trumps all always no exceptions.

Kindest regards,G.

Thank you, sir!

 

[thomask]

I am listening to "Piano Trio by Schumann op63" played by Arthur Rubinstein, Pierre Fournier and Henry Szering.

through Sennheiser HD 800S headphone driven by Chord Dave and Mscaler.

It sounds very intimate through headphone than speaker.


HD 800s is very good for chamber music with nice timber and placement of each instrument.