MVP.
This sets a very high bar for those of us looking to start adding to the music knowledge around here
2 Likes
Thatās interesting as I was thinking similarly in that this should be a more common occurrence. The site is gear focused for obvious reasons but a bit more attention on the music would be nice.
Classical is perfect for this and it is perhaps required for it given its breadth.
@FLTWS excellent work makes me want to attempt something similar although it would be less refined. Just need time and a piece to settle on.
1 Like
With popular genres your lucky to get an original studio recording and maybe one āLiveā performance recording to compare. Marilyn Manson sings the musicoif Abba? I donāt think thatās gonna happen.
1 Like
I have never been able to find meaning/stories in music (or art). Iām basically a lost cause in terms of learning to appreciate music.
Try as I might to like or understand jazz (bought the legends - Monk, Charlie Parker, etc.) I just canāt. Jazz sounds like putting a bunch of instruments in a room and hitting it with a fire hose. My loss of course, but canāt find a way to listen to it.
I guess Iām trying to say that while my usual approach is to try to understand how and why things work, it doesnāt get me anywhere with music and Iāve stopped trying.
All Iāve got is feeling and experience and accumulate music that speaks to me in some way.
Edit: I also suck at separating the artist from the art. I specifically avoid learning anything about artists because it might cause me to stop enjoying them.
2 Likes
People talk about how music makes them feel all the time. Itās a perfectly valid place to begin review albums from.
The comparing versions angle is actually one of the more rare, due to the effort it takes. Iāve been outlining a āthe basics of musicā, and āhow to listenā series I was thinking about trying to write. Maybe it will happen next winter, now that the suns out, my attention span is sharply reduced.
2 Likes
LOL! Still cloudy here the past 4 to 5 days.
It would be hard to tell these apart in a blind test but they obviously do sound different. The ācheapā one sounds kind of dry, taut and kind of hard around the edges. The āmidrangeā one sounds a little sweeter on the treble and a little more ātogetherā in the mids with warmer lows. The āhigh-endā one sounds a good deal more āopenā and all the notes have more texture and complexity. Itās not as boxed-in as the other two sound. Thatās my one-take impression.
My experience with something like this would come as a guitar player comparing, say, a $200 Squier Strat, a $1,500 production Strat and $8,000 Fender Custom Shop Strat. I worked at Fender for 10+ years and know each price point very well. From 10ft away, they look exactly the same. Novices and inexperienced players wouldnāt be able to tell the difference. Machines that plot graphs wouldnāt be able to discern the difference either or say which one is ābetterā or ābestā. That is only for the player to decide.
1 Like
I grew up with classical music as that is what my mother played at home all the time. My first experience with music, as far back as I can remember, was with Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Tchaicovksy and other great composers. So, even as I grew up and got into pop, rock, metal, prog, electronic, jazz and whatever else over the years, Iāve always had this subconscious affinity to classical and would always return to it every now and then.
For some months or even years, I would only mainly listen to classical. During my early college years, the Wagner bug bit me and I became a fervent Wagnerian. It was literally like a delusional fever. That expanded my view of classical to the entire Romantic era and the 20th century, easing into my discovery of Richard Strauss, Debussy, Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov, Copland and, eventually, to the likes of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartok, Shostakovich and the atonal world of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Definitely not easy listening, for sureā¦
The classical world is so incredibly vast with such an immense range of musical styles, techniques, and moods. Yet, it can also seem quite constrained, pedantic, and stuffy. Sometimes it can be like the most maudlin new age kind of thing and then be the most jarring, intense and disorienting cacophony you can imagine. Itās a world where you sort of need to take a long-term view and try to incorporate into your listening diet in a measured manner.
I would say that classical is probably the single genre I listen to the most - Iād say almost 40% of the time, so itās a big part of my music life. But I also love jazz, electronic, rock, pop, world - even metal - and anything else that sounds interesting and can stir my musical curiosity. Iāve even started getting into bluegrass and country recently. Every genre and style of music has its gem and also its crap or plain mediocrity. Itās finding the gems that is hard.
I like to think that classical can enhance oneās enjoyment of virtually any kind of music. I donāt buy into classical elitism at all and, believe me, Iāve certainly dealt with those types. The same within the jazz realm. Great music is great no matter what genre or style. As itās so often said, music is food for the soul but not every cuisine is going to suit oneās taste. But, if you have an open mind and willing taste buds, then you may try something that you didnāt like before and come to like it and even love it later. For me, greater the variety the better. Ultimately, itās about finding what ācuisinesā will nourish you the most and that you can derive the most enjoyment from.
5 Likes
I used to play classical guitar (badly), the last time I auditioned guitars to purchase about 20 years ago I came very close to spending 4x as much as I did, based pretty much on the sound of an open G string.
I like your strat comparison.
You really do need to know what your listening for, and if itās an instrument you play there is more to it than just how it sounds.
3 Likes
I understand the vibe you got from your Mother playing classical music. My Mom got minored in music, and when she went to grad school, she continued to take grad level music courses. She taught piano and classical guitar, and took master classes in classical guitar at the Kansas City conservatory. She did like folk as well, but classical was usually on the radio (WQXR when we got cable) or on vinyl, or being played.
About a month ago I was over at the parentsā house (theyāre 93 and 92 years old now) and I took a look at her classical guitar. Itās been many years since she played it, and it was left strung in the case, which I suspect was a bad thing. Possibly it had some rough handling over the last couple of decades, because there are some serious cracks. Probably not worth repair. Her guitar was a nice find, by a Mexican lutenist family, Hernandez. Iāve looked all over the net and canāt find any record, even though the sticker inside is quite clear. It was a respectable instrument, not master quality, but far above a student model.
Iāll never forget the night when she had a couple of her teachers over, one had a Houser, the other a Ramirez classical guitar. The Ramirez was beautiful red color - I think a mahogany of some sort, and the Houser similar to Momās guitar, but nicer inlay. The Houser had a sweet tone that I can remember to this day, but the Ramirez was a powerhouse, loud and resonant that could command a stage. The teachers kept swapping their instruments and playing dueling classical guitar into the wee hours.
5 Likes
Very cool. Those early influences from our parents when we were little toddlers last a lifetime. And, of course, we pass those influences onto our children. My mother - who used to dream of being a pianist even though her mother was totally against it - used to tell me stories about great composers when I was around 5 or 6 years old. One story was that Schubert was so poor that he couldnāt afford to buy paper. So, during the winter months, heād draw staff lines on the steamed windows and write compositions that way. I can still remember that story like it was told to me yesterday.
Over the last 5 years or so, I had really started gravitating towards classical and thatās one of the reasons I started developing serious interest in audiophile gear - specifically headphones as I prefer it over 2-channel listening due to the total immersion they could offer in privacy and not disturbing others. Getting the HD800S back in 2015 was the first major step and here I am now with the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, the RAAL SR1a and the LCD-4 being driven by the Chord HMS/TT2/TToby stack. Of course, I have my sights set on ever higher level gear - mainly in headphone amps like the WA33, Luxman P-750u and others.
Obviously, all this great gear is spectacular for classical music (especially the SR1a), jazz, acoustic, ambient electronic, vocal-centric and other nuanced genres but Iām now finding that I want to thoroughly explore all these other realms I have sort of discarded: rock, metal, pop, EDM, classic rock, blues, and other more mainstream genres - both the past and the present. Finally jumping on the streaming bandwagon with Qobuz last year has increased my curiosity and appetite for virtually everything out there. Of course, great gear only encourages one to go on the hunt for more and more.
The 1266 TC being driven by the TTobyās speaker taps has turned out to be a life-changing experience. The sound is so immense, clear, powerful, transparent and musical that my mind seems to be racing in a thousand different directions. I knew I could no longer limit myself and that I had to open mind to explore new musical realms that I had ignored - like country, all forms of modern metal, hip hop or rap, mainstream pop, world music emanating from distant corners of the globe, etc. All this great gear - but the 1266 TC in particular - presents so much resolving detail and sound quality in such an expansive manner that I now feel obliged to seek out all great music - whatever genre or style it is.
Having been immersed in classical for several years, I started to explore the modern āneoclassicalā genre and artists like Olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Mari Samuelsen, and many others who fuse traditional classical elements with modern electronic instruments and recording technologies. Sometimes, some of this stuff can sound New Age-ish or like soundtracks to nouveau art films but some are truly beautiful and better reflects the modern age that we live in.
Then the TC had me going through my old collection - from classic rock and pop from my youth to all kinds of other genres and styles that defined various eras of my life. That got me going from one thing to another - prog to metal, jazz to fusion, 80ās dance pop to modern EDM/trance - from the past to the present. And everything, as long as the music is good, simply sounds amazingly great. The TC has revived the dormant metalhead in me (I used to love Iron Maiden, Metallica, Korn and Meshuggah) and made me relive my rave days of being into the likes of Armin van Buuren, Avicii, Daft Punk and Paul van Dyk.
These types of genres actually mesh quite well with classical stylings and sounds. So I start checking out all kinds of metal and Iām digging it but I find myself gravitating towards genres that are more melodic and have that grand flair. You can see where this is going. I get intrigued by a metal sub-genre called symphonic metal and discover bands like Epica, Nightwish, and Within Temptation. Yes, it can be rather bombastic and cheesy with that Cirque de Soleil wall of sound featuring female operatic vocals, death metal male Cookie Monster growling, super heavy distorted guitar riffing with some decent shredding thrown in and symphonic keyboard sounds but, hey, through the 1266 TC, the stuff sounds absolutely amazing and I can head bang, enjoy epic and technically demanding arrangements and compositional structures, and actually a surprisingly good sense of melody. Total sensory overload - kinda like Wagnerian metal, if you will. 
Well, what a time to be a music fan. Itās really hard to believe how far it has all come along when you look back on the 60ās and the 70ās and even the 80ās. Could we have imagined this kind of gear, this kind of sound, this kind of convenience, and this kind of virtually infinite abundance? I know that Iām extremely grateful and I plan to enjoy every moment of it and look forward to experiencing even better sound in the future.
5 Likes
Iām an eStat fan. Iāve not chosen to spend flagship level dollars, but really like the Nectar Hive with my tweaked STAX SRM T1S tube hybrid amp. I also have STAX SR-5n headphones since they were new. The old STAX (normal bias) donāt have the bass punch of the Hive, but are so incredibly fast that they are wonderful for things like classical guitar or even Flamenco with guitar, castinets, and stomping. Anything that doesnāt need to reproduce pipe organ, tympani, or 1812 Overture cannon. After close to 40 years, they still get listening time. But the Hives are just excellent for my use, which includes a wide range from classical to world, bluegrass, rock, punk, and anything not boring.
6 Likes
Hi All, Iāve been listening to a lot of Rameau lately. As a music student I never paid much attention to him probably owing to his more famous Baroque contemporaries, or just my more youthful interest in romantic and modern musicā¦but I am finding a lot of value now in much of his work especially keyboard. This track in particular was a revelation because of the writing but also the absolutely impeccable playing of the Musicaeterna orchestra. This is an ethereal recording with dynamic range, long melodic lines, perfect intonation, and an enveloping timbre. In particular the unisons between flute and violin create a new instrument so perfectly do they blend. Enjoy
5 Likes
Iāve only gotten as far as the Bernstein so far and I canāt imagine anything better. Bear in mind this was also my first ever listen of the 7th, so I have no context for what this symphony should sound like.
Iāve finally finished tube rolling on my Nautilus and it sounds exactly the way I want, and listening to this performance on the Nautilus and Stellia, Iām afraid Iām going to have to use that old cliche that I felt I was there, enjoying a perfect performance.
In the past, when comparing other works, Iāve preferred other recordings to Bernsteinās so my expectations were low, and I was very pleasantly surprised.
Iām a big Vanska fan so Iām looking forward to hearing his performance, which should be arriving at my library in the next day or two.
3 Likes
Bernstein 1965 or 1985?
1 Like
- Was that the one you liked? If not, itās still the one I like (so far).
1 Like
1965 is the one I prefer.
2 Likes
Agree. Vanska up next for me too. But Iāll probably let my brain rot watching bad scifi tonight instead.
1 Like
Ooooh, do tellā¦ if itās sci fi anime even better!
