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HDTT's DSD transfer of Ansermet's wondeful Petruska is likely the best digital facsimile us mere mortals will ever get our hands on. I've already listened to the download in DSD 64 and it's breathtaking.If you're new to the piece, or have only heard modern, cosmopolitan orchestras play it; or if you've only heard the Suisse Romande on CD and believe their sound to be thin and scrawny, do yourself a favor and at least sample HDTTs reissue. All the magic of the lp and tape is retain but without the alleged hassle.
The Dsd isn't edited but the tape used was evidently flawless. I didn't hear a single blemish.
It still amazes me that Decca's engineers were able to capture an orchestra better than BIS or Chandos. You can practically point to the tambourine player who seems 15 ft to the rear of the speakers. Amazing, and the performance measures up to the sound.
Edits: 09/29/16 09/29/16Follow Ups:
Found it on the internet and cleaned it up with Photoshop.
Russell
At least according to some...
DECCA's sell for more $$$.
I spotted a copy of this LP on a dealer's website yesterday. 350 g.b.p. Decca, of course, here in Blighty.
I must download the PCM or DSD file. What a bargain in comparison.
Do think I have one or two originals though.
Let's get this: they can make and send me a cd for 1/2 the price of a download, that involves no manufacturing or raw material. I am expected to throw out all my prior recordings and rush to this.
Hmmmm.
I'm not sure this will fly.
that's times a thousand discs
don't need. Or a few mugs of "craft" beer.
I suspect the premium is for superior sound but if you don't buy into such things I totally understand.
$9 for a DVD-A (plus shipping) with the 24/192 file on it vs. $16 for the same 24/192 makes little sense to me considering they have to buy the disk and burn it.
But...
I'd rather have the disk, rip it if I can figure out how (VLC should do it) and have my cake and eat it!
I use DVD Audio Extractor, which works pretty well. Works on the audio portion of Blu-rays, too (though you'd need a disc drive that can read BDs, and sometimes you need to do an intervening step, using MakeMKV, to overcome the copy protection).
Russell
as VLC running in a custom partition is my go-to player for 96/24 and 192/24 content.
If I can figure out how to rip it and convert it to ALAC I'll be golden.
If VLC doesn't work, you can try out DVDAE for free for 30 days. (And it can rip directly to ALAC!)
Russell
which right now sounds surprisingly good with the very few Hi Rez downloads I have done.
$40 well spent, if you ask me.
Not literature or 'jewel' cases but...
I can never find the CD cases anyway and I have all of these recordings on LP if I want to read while I'm listening.
Thanks. I'm not new to the piece, been listening to it since I was four, but a high rez issue of the Ansermet version sounds like a good idea. No SACD disc, apparently, but a 24/192 DVD-Audio disc is available. Would that be a major downgrade in sound quality?
I've ordered four which they claim are 'on their way', hopefully on their way to me not on their way from the disk burner to some other department in the building.
Stravinsky Le Sacre Du Printemps - Ernest Ansermet & L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande × 1 Budget 24/192 DVD Audio Stereo Disc (No Jewel Box only Disc)
Stravinsky conducts the Firebird Ballet (Complete) - Igor Stravinsky Columbia Symphony Orchestra - 4 parts × 1 Budget 24/192 DVD Audio Stereo Disc (No Jewel Box only Disc)
Schubert Symphony No. 3 and 8 - William Steinberg - Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra × 1 Budget 24/192 DVD Audio Stereo Disc (No Jewel Box only Disc)
Stravinsky Petrushka - Ernest Ansermet & L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande × 1 Budget 24/192 DVD Audio Stereo Disc (No Jewel Box only Disc)
Can't wait!
I've purchased a handful of HDTT 24/192 DVD Audio Stereo Discs over the last several years. This is the format I prefer. HDTT always does an excellent job of transfer. The most important factor is the tape used for the transfer. HDTT has used commercial releases of 2-track and 4-track tapes at 7½ ips and 2-track 15 ips tapes of often unspecified provenance. It all depends on what HDTT has access to.
A transfer from a 2-track 15 ips tape should produce a better sound. This tape is a copy of a tape, or a copy of a copy of a tape, or a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a tape. It could be 5 generations down. If all carefully done the losses can be minimized. And this doesn't take into consideration the quality of the original recording.
I have 4 Tape Project 15 ips tapes and one Yarlung Records 15 ips tape. The sound is stunning and beats anything else I have heard. I have some other 2-track 15 ips tapes of unknown pedigree. The sound is still very good, but not at the Tape Project and Yarlung Records level.
The Ansermet Rite of Spring is good too (and, perhaps more importantly, interesting!), but it's a little weak in some ways compared to the incredible Litton download on BIS - I've been meaning to post about these loose ends (i.e., the Litton Stravinsky album and the Vanska vs. the Kamu Sibelius cycles), but I've had lots of distractions recently. Maybe later this weekend.
So I'm looking forward to hearing it as it was on 2 track 15ips tape.
Recall one of the best sounding system I have ever heard at a show was a Studer playing 15ips 2 track tapes into Cogent field coil horns.
Hysterical is how I'd put it.
Just please for the love of Darwin don't wonder aloud if there's something wrong with my system, or that two channel isn't enough. Bad taste is bad taste.
Let me ask this: have you ever run room correction programs or software, and if so, what did you think? In my case, it made a noticeable improvement.
Not what the Bergen needs in such music; from a psycho-acoustic POV, it's a deal breaker.
I can see how overcompensating at the recording end could make lesser systems sound more dynamic though.... ; )
.
Your attempt at a reductio ad absurdum is easily seen for the smokescreen it is.
Remember, Bissie was receiving a lot of complaints about dull, weak bass in his recordings at the time, especially when said recordings were played at sensible levels. Maybe his bass drum concerto Rite was a reductio ad absurdem response to the criticism!
From the Amazon review linked below."The dynamics are great, the drums kick ass. If its at the right price, buy it. I listen to 2 channel, I don't know about surround."
"Frankly, I love the immediacy of the bass drum and tympani: bone-crushing outbursts often"
Edits: 10/02/16
I'm sure Bissie"e experiment paid off, but if one"s speakers project the truth, it's audiophile at its worst .
Btw, your sparklers are frickin bad-ass. Did you download this abomination?
Didn't you post (a few posts above), "please for the love of Darwin don't wonder aloud if there's something wrong with my system" - and yet that doesn't prevent you from supposing aloud that most of the eleven listeners on Amazon who have heaped praise on this Litton/Bergen Rite must have boutique systems with 6" speakers. And only YOUR speakers project the truth? LOL!
Well, OK. . . perhaps we'd be right to be suspicious of some of the amateur reviewers on Amazon or even of the so-called "professional" reviewers in the glossy rags (or web sites!), but here's a selection of the "professionals" falling over themselves to sing paeans about the recorded sound here:"The recorded sound is exceptional in both stereo and, especially, surround, with a real sense of how Stravinsky moves details around the orchestra." - BBC Music MagazineReally, do they ALL have 6" boutique speakers? ;-)
"state-of-the-art sonics that will thrill high-end audiophiles (at least so I assume, as I am not one of them but was mightily impressed). As with most BIS recordings, the dynamic range is very wide. . . everything snaps into focus and the result is stunning whatever your preferences: regular stereo, SACD stereo, or surround. . . the conclusion of Part One will lift you out of your seat. In Part Two, the battle between the Stegosaurus and the T-Rex (oops, that's Fantasia, isn't it?) packs a huge wallop but also sounds somehow musical, while the final sacrificial dance, lean and mean, doesn't wimp out in the post-mayhem coda." - Dave over at Classics Today
"On a scale of 1 to 10 for sound quality, I would have to give this one a 12." - Classical Music Sentinel
"For the sheer impact of performance and recording, Litton's BIS disc is hard to beat" - BBC Radio3
I'm sorry.
Sorry, but every time I hear Vandersteen...
I'm not criticizing Vandersteens.
Look, I like a lot of your posts (not least for their enthusiasm and entertainment value), but you tend to opine in absolutist terms, and this time you got caught with your pants down: criticism of your system is verboten, while you remain free to criticize other systems that you only surmise that other listeners (who might be so bold as to express their own enthusiasm of the Litton/Bergen Rite of Spring) might have. That's a no-no when you're trying to make your point. ;-)
No, I don't criticize Vandersteens, but, at the same time, they're not the only path to musical truth.
I look forward to your review, (do you think the Dance of the Earth is adequately articulated and transparent?) and you wont hear another peep from me obsessing over the bells and whistles.
Also wasn't very taken by Neschling's Pines; another recording loved by all it seems.
Bought it for the Petrushka, as I have other 'Rites'.Regards the Bass Drum in the Rite, the mid-bass horns on my Edgar Titans only go down to about 80 Hz.
No sub either. :-(
I did listen to it the other day on ClassicsOnlineHD at 24/96 on my DAC/Headphone Amp and still sounded pretty good, drums and all. OK, HD-600 is not the best for Bass-Heads, so there's that.
A pagan sacrifice of a virgin without a decent drum track makes no sense at all, does it?
Edits: 10/02/16
I don t know, but its all likely better than cd.
Not Here.
DVD-A is Not as good as SACD, and a DSD 64 File is easily converted to DSD 128, for a fantastic listening experience.
You need a DSD Dac to make that comparison too.
"Because of the nature of sigma-delta converters, one cannot make a direct comparison between DSD and PCM. An approximation is possible, though, and would place DSD in some aspects comparable to a PCM format that has a bit depth of 20 bits and a sampling frequency of 96 kHz. PCM sampled at 24 bits provides a (theoretical) additional 24 dB of dynamic range."
I don't care, I record in DSD and it's better than 24/192.
And it's My preferred listening Mode.
YMMV. Wikipedia's too...
But Roy's original question was whether 24/192 represented a downgrade in sound quality compared to DSD. My answer is, not a chance! In fact, the specs for both formats far exceed what an analog master from c. 1960 is even capable of. However, unlike PCM, DSD does have a sprinkling of ultrasonic noise, which you can see for yourself using spectrographic software. (There's of course legitimate debate as to whether the effects of this DSD noise can be heard in the audible frequencies.)
Several years ago, on SA-CD.net, Robert van Bahr of BIS ran a little quiz on the Vanska/Minnesota Beethoven symphony recordings. A big scandal had just broken out when it was revealed that, although BIS (like Chandos) issued a number of SACD's with "DSD" proudly proclaimed on the back of the disc insert, the vast majority of the BIS masters at that time were in fact PCM - and not even 24/96, but 24/48! There ensued a horrible weeping and gnashing of the teeth among the site's DSD fetishists concerning this betrayal on the part of BIS. So at that point, Robert revealed that two of the nine Beethoven symphonies in the Vanska/Minnesota set actually had DSD masters. So the question became, could these golden eared DSD proponents tell which symphonies came from the DSD masters. Of dozens and dozens of guesses, only two or three listeners got it correct! And remember, the highest PCM specs that BIS ever uses are 24/96 - not 24/192. When Robert revealed the correct answers, there was again much weeping and gnashing of the teeth from the DSD contingent, most of whom had guessed wrong.
What I conclude from all this is that arguing about the superiority of one or the other format (i.e., PCM vs. DSD) is like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Chris, out of curioisty, I want to know which of the Vanska set were DSD recordings.
Also, concerning room correction software, Audyssey will down-rez to 24/96 before applying its corrections. Still, I prefer the results I get with Audyssey XT32 than what I hear when listening to DSD files converted directly to analog without intermediate conversion to PCM.
We could have gone back and looked it up on the original posts, if only the owner, in a fit of pique, hadn't seen fit to destroy the whole portion of his site holding the posts, produced over several years, by both listeners and industry leaders. I used to have a couple of SACD's in the Vanska Beethoven collection, but, for some reason, I got rid of them a long time ago. Of course, no matter which format you buy, SACD or PCM download, you're going to run into format conversions somewhere along the way (in one symphony or another).
Regarding room correction, what you say is true. Of course, one can always work around the room correction if so desired. For instance, I have an older player which decodes DSD directly and connects via its analogue connections, in case I want to hear the actual DSD recordings (on SACD anyway) without conversion to PCM for the room correction.
You may just be comparing DACs or decoding algorithms.
That said, all other things being equal, it may be easier to convert DSD to audio than PCM.
I've ordered four DVD-A from HDTT to try out on my Marantz DV-9600, just for grins.
It's a pretty good silver disk spinner and spins almost anything, so we will see.
My Marantz 7007 Uni Player isn't as good as Sony 5400.
Sony does DSD Discs with Korg AudioGate, and I've made DVD-A's w/Burn.
Still, it's another way to listen to something that's not available in a different format.
I don't listen to any Discs much anymore.
even shuts down all of the video electronics when playing CDs/SACD. and all of the better Marantz analog circuitry to boot (all 5 channels worth).
That said, most of my listening these days is ripped CDs and streaming.
Very few downloads.
Not much magic in the commercial 4-track London tape, the one with Rite of Spring on the reverse. I've heard two copies; both were seriously overloaded in the bass (the Rite was worse). Just a warning to tape fans.
/
That's actually great news. They may have fixed the problem during production. I'll have to find another copy and hope for the best. My own copy and the one a friend owns are incredibly bottom-heavy totally unlike any other in my collection.
I love this performance, have it on a fine-sounding LP, and have always regretted that the tape sounds so weird. I'm using an Otari MX 5050 BII deck modified to send the tape head signal to a deHavilland 222 tape head preamp, so I don't think my system is at fault.
I don't know what tape HDTT used. I just know the lp inside and out and it was one of the few cherished records, (too few to justify keeping my turntable), that I knew I was going to miss when moving on to downloads. That's why I was so thrilled to see it come available digitized.
The download reminded me of the lp in every way, and it was a slight improvement in fact. The Petrushka was one of the last lps I listened to last month before selling.
The original 4-track commercial tape -- the only tape available of the Ansermet performance when the LP came out, the one that is severely overloaded -- is NOT what you were referencing.
And I can stop thinking about looking for a good-sounding tape, per se.
I was afraid of that :-)
I'd love to get my hands on a genuine 15 ips 2-track "safety master" at a reasonable (less than $250) price.
"Transferred from a 15ips 2-track tape"At least that's what it says on the packaging.
I believe the London Tape LCK 80006 is a 4 track 71/2 ips tape
Link below:
Edits: 10/01/16
As I've mentioned before, a friend has a 15 ips 2 track tape deck which he had restored and for which he bought a couple of tapes from The Tape Project (for $300 each, I think they cost even more now). IIRC, one was a classic jazz oldie, Saxophone Colossus with Sonny Rollins, the other a contemporary recording. That's some of the best consumer audio I've ever heard.
So I'd expect the hi-rez issue to improve on the Decca commercial CD release.
...a 128's on the way down.
Jim
http://jimtranr.com
N
I've always enjoyed the Ansermet/Suisse Romande performance, and the sonics of the DSD128 incarnation are superb. As you indicated, the tape from which it was derived appears pristine, and the soundstage is about as walk-into-it-and-roam-around as you can get. A real tribute to the Decca tree and the engineer (Roy Wallace) who knew how to utilize it.
(For reference, listened to on a system consisting of a Win 10 laptop/JRiver Media Center 21, TEAC UD-501 DAC, Counterpoint SA2000 line stage, c-j Sonographe SA250, and Paradigm Studio 20 v.5's.)
Jim
http://jimtranr.com
In any case, last night's outing was Ehnes' Prokofiev Violin Concerti from Chandos in 2 channel. A bit of a let-down that orchestra simply floats in no-man's land; no aural perspective. That said, sound blessedly non-clinical.
Will definitely spring for HDTT's Decca Rossini with Gamba and the Brahms Curzon PC #1, both fabulous recordings and performances.
for $9.00.
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