Hi-Rez Highway

RE: Noise levels and dynamic range

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: Noise levels and dynamic range posted by layman on June 10, 2012 at 12:40:52

****This thread reminds me that my listening room background noise level goes up dramatically during the summer due to the hum of the air-conditioning unit in my room.**** I understand completely. Air conditioning is not required and is a rarity in my area. But I do have the same type of issue. In the winter when the forced air furnace fan sometimes becomes far too audible for some classical music. (Regrettably, I did not anticipate that when I took out the ancient gravity furnace). I have adjusted my music listening in the winter so that I listen to more jazz, R&B, and music with less ultra-quite passages and more classical music the rest of the year. With respect to Respighi’s "Trilogy", I find the recording to be more than adequate but not "outstanding" and not just because it has one of the wimpiest sounding pipe organs in recent memory. Is that a real pipe organ in the dirge movement of the "Pines"? Come on. With respect to "dynamic range", BIS recordings don't seem to have more of this coveted characteristic than any other quality recordings. The BIS recordings I own tend to be more of the spectacular "war horse" variety and these compositions, as a group, tend to emphasize dynamic contrasts more than others in the general classical music repertoire. (This does not at all suggest that the BIS inventory leans toward "spectacular war horses"). While on the whole I find my modest collection of BIS recordings to be fine I far more enjoy the sound of Pentatone, Channel Classics, Telarc and others to be audibly and consistently better.

Robert C. Lang

Edits: 06/10/12

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