Hi-Rez Highway

RE: "I find that surround tends to obscure tonal deficiencies"

68.183.100.107

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Hi-Rez Highway ]

I am always comparing recorded sound to what instruments sound like live. I attend a lot of concerts, especially chamber music, and have a good idea what an orchestra or a string quartet sounds like. I also play the piano. It is string sound, especially violin, and the top two octaves of a piano that are the bête noire of digital recording. I am saying that the recording is not free of digital artifacts, although at lower levels than we are used to.

By **roundness** I means a natural body and three dimensionality that indicate the size of an instrument. After all a cello is bigger than a violin, and not just louder. The sound should not have a contricted or squeezed feeling and should expand naturally when more body of the instrument in brought into play, not just get louder in a narrow way.

When I said that surround sound makes it more difficult to judge tonal qualities I am referring to the fact that additional speakers add more ambient and reverberational information. This makes is harder to distinguish timbral accuracy. It's like sitting too far back in a concert hall. The fine detail is lost, and the seats are cheaper. This may be good for getting a sense of space, but it's not always best for judging sound quality, live or recorded.

I said the violin/piano works are more revealing because the microphones are closer and there is more detail. Two months ago I sat about 8 feet from the violinist and cellist, with the grand piano behind, in a program of Ravel and Beethoven trios. At times the sound was very loud, but never overly etched or edgy, with tremendous presence and body **roundness** in all three instruments. The high frequencies floated in the air and decayed naturally, especially with the Ravel. The sound had a sense of ease that pulled me into the music. I am missing some of this on the SACD. Don't get me wrong, as I still think it's a wonderful disc.

I use Quad ESL63s with subwoofers and tube electronics and the Ayre C-5xe player, in case you are wondering.


Follow Ups:

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

 Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Hi-Rez Highway ]
[ Comment ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ] [ Copyright Warning! Click for Details ]
[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2007, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]