Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Music Lane ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Wow - thanks for the elaboration

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on August 13, 2012 at 23:48:45

In Reply to: RE: ??? - I'm not following posted by learsfool on August 13, 2012 at 17:14:09:

I do agree with you on some points (especially re the simple, more holistic microphoning of the golden age recordings), but OTOH multi-microphoning has advanced beyond its initial (and too long lived!) primitive state (especially in the last few years) IMHO, and hi-rez digital pushes out the boundaries further still. And remember, vahe's original point was about dynamic compression, not microphoning. And there's no way these golden age recordings, good as they are, can compete with today's best digital recordings in that respect.

I have to relate an experience I had a week ago at the California Audio Show. In the room with the Wilson speakers (I think Robert Lang estimated the system cost to be about $400,000!), they were playing some golden age material on vinyl, such as the Curzon/Solti/VPO performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. It was SO frustrating for me, because, here was this deluxe, costly system used for a recording which, although very coherent, still robbed the woodwinds of their tonal body which I hear live as a listener (if I'm seated in a good spot) and which I also hear on modern digital hi-rez recordings. (OTOH, I know from other recordings of that vintage, e.g., Barbirolli's Brahms symphonies, that the thin sound of the VPO winds could easily have been a characteristic of the orchestra, no matter how they were recorded!) Still, it's just hard for me to believe that woodwind players would prefer this to a modern hi-rez digital recording in terms of the richness and subtlety of the wind section's tone quality.

I also agree with you about the sound quality of the Abbado/CSO recordings he did in the 80's. That was, in general, a very ghastly time for sound quality on DG.

BTW, for recent examples of what I mean with regard to well-recorded multi-microphoned digital, try to hear the (multi-channel if possible) Chandos 24/96 downloads of the major orchestral works of Debussy with Deneve and the RSNO, or the selection of Saint-Saëns orchestral works with Järvi and the RSNO. I would not have believed that multi-mirophoning could sound so good. And the woodwinds simply have a body in their tone on these new recordings that did not seem possible to capture in the golden age. Hard to believe, I know - but that's the way I'm hearing it now.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Parts Connexion

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---