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Re: Favorite recordings to show of your (tube) system

Everybody has one or two recordings that "do it" for them, and mine only work with tube gear.

Anyway, Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring" (Pierre Monteux and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, RCA Victor LM-2085, 1957) is mine... I have three copies of this (2 16S/17S and 1 19S/19S pressing), and each is unique. When rendered by a Rega Planar 3 through an Audible Illusions Modulus 3A and a pair of Dyna Mark IV's I get shivers and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

Another record that has this effect -- with tubes only -- is the 1955 RCA Victor LM-1913, "Delibes Sylvia and Coppelia"; Monteux again, this time with "members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra" as the jacket says.

My solid state Rega Elicit is good, but it can't do these records justice. Both of these are mono recordings -- the latter with a single mike directly over the maestro's head. I'm not a mono fanatic, but these recordings paired with my EL34 based system... well, they do things to me. Air, imaging, soundstage... all of this is still important in the monaural domain. These disks have it, and the EL34's reveal it (David Hafler's transformers probably have a bit to do with that as well!).

A friend posited that it may be ideal to match up the recording and playback technologies -- tube with tube, and ss with ss. I wish I could remember the specific example, but he had an orchestral recording that was cut entirely with tube equipment, and if played through ss gear gave one the rather unsettling effect of hovering above the orchestra.

Interesting thread -- keep it up!


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