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There is a soft but clearly audible (and thus annoying) buzzing sound on my copy of Telarc's Berlioz Requiem (Spano/Atlanta SO) SACD. It sounds like a 60 Hz ground loop buzz/hum and appears (or is audible) only when the music dies down. Alas, there are many silences in that tremendous piece of music (e.g. right after each of the first few opening bars on the Introdus [Track 1]) and the Chiaroscuro (silence/sound) effect dear to good old uncle Hector is marred by this less than peaceful silence.How on Earth could Telarc let this pass? (Mr. Bishop are you listening?)
Or could it be just my copy? (Any silence-tuned inmates with another copy want to chime in?)
I doubt that the buzz is only in my copy as it sounds as a purely analog problem that is extraneous to the digital mastering or reprduction processes.
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My guess, from previous posts, is noisy filiments in the stage and houselighting. Depending on when the hall last upgraded their lighting control system, they may have an early SCR controlled dimming system, with either insufficient, or no inductors in each of the dimming circuits. It's amazing the noise a hundred or so filiment based stage lamps will make, at certain levels of dimming, without the proper inductor in every lamp circuit. They really buzz and sing.
Did it send a 60 cycle buzz through the electrical eqiupment?
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I listened again carefully using my Stax headphone (and bypassing all other electronics) with the signal coming directly from my Sony XA777ES SACD player. The faint but audible buzz is in *all* passages where there is no music (with the exception of the no info pauses between tracks). It is only audible when there is no music. Could you please listen with headphones (or with ears close to the speaker) to the period, for instance, between 15 and 20 seconds from the beginning of Track 1. If you still cannot hear it, and there is no other reports otherwise from other inmates, I will purchase another disc and check again (I am pretty sure that my payer and headphone preamp are not at fault). I can also check with a spectrum analyzer to see if it is indeed a 60 Hz ground loop noise.
OK, barely, sounds like a very distant heater/air conditioner, or even huge-hall ambience. Had to put my ear up to the speaker or I would have never noticed it. Perhaps it would be annoying on headphones, but....
Thanks for confirming. IMO it is definitely not the hall 's "sound" as it is a narrow-band buzz and not a wide-band hum.Apparently, my system (or my hearing) is blessed/cursed with too much resolution in that part of the spectrum. (BTW it is in all 5 channels). I find the buzz quite annoying especially since it appears right when Berlioz wants me to hear the silence of death.
I am not a stickler for noise. I am a classical music recording engineer and I collect master and master dub tapes and can live happily with even the most pronounced tape hiss. Ditto for vinyl surface noise. Your mind learns how to filter it. The buzz here is a bit different, at least for me.
As a fan of the Berlioz requiem, I was delighted when Telarc released Spano's on SACD. This has not spoiled my enjoyment of the recording but has put a dent in my hope that this would be a flawless SACD.
I apologize in advance if my detecting this apparent flaw has marred anyone's enjoyment of this outstanding performance.
I do hope, however, that someone from Telarc could shed some light on this.
I feel it *is* a flawless recording otherwise, I'm just increasingly concerned that Telarc's stable of conductors--Spano, Jarvi, and Botstein--are too tasteful for their own good.
Mr. Michael Bishop has kindly responded to my inquiry about the source of the 60 Hz buzzing during the silent moments of Telarc's Berlioz Requiem. It is the old lighting system at the Woodruff Performing Arts Center: both transformers and fixtures were buzzing.He said: " Believe me, the noise was quite an annoyance and distraction to us at the session. When we found we could do nothing about the noise, we had to move on with the session."
I fully sympathize with this dilemma, and I thank him for clarifying this issue. I am also quite impressed by the integrity of Telarc's engineers for not marring the purity of the DSD recording by post-processing the data to remove the buzz. This could have been done (as it is often done by lesser labels) but would have most likely required a conversion to PCM (since I doubt such filters exist for DSD editors) then back to DSD.
for your post, from people who turned out to be wrong!! Some should step up and say they are sorry.
Many DSD recording have similar problem.
Such as the Channel Classic sampler.
other than that high resolution recording - pcm or DSD - will certainly reveal more of the detail, both wanted AND unwanted.
Best Regards,
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