Tonight: Before the big rainstorms sweeping thru here around LA this week, decided to rearrange my gear. Only to unplug it tomorrow morning.
While it ain’t Florida, I don’t trust surges, so off with the power.
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Very nice setup. You’ve some great gear. Your music listening sessions must be a real pleasure. Congratulations.
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Awesome!
That is a really nice set-up.
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Hi,
Thank you all for your support.
The setup is an 8 years work and some 100k€ including cables.
I’m not really a music specialist, don’t play any instrument, and I am more an affiliate of Concert Halls, mainly Europe (Paris Philarmonie, Berlin Philarmoniker, La Fenice Venezia, ).
To calibrate my setup I grab minutes during Concerts thanks to a binaural rig.
Mainly listening to Classical music.
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So with this equipment, you can record a concert you are at, at a high quality level?
Be aware that I don’t record a Concert since it is strictly prohibited but I grab minutes at a quite good quality (24bits 48khz) in good conditions (chosen sit, hall silence, acoustic).
These devices are also used by musicians in orchestras themselves during their performance.
My goal isn’t to really make a recording by itself but to be able to ‘approximate’ (kind of ersatz) a live rendering.
Never forgetting also that recording quality of albums obviously is a big concern.
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So do you use these recordings as a baseline for poor album renderings, at least for live performances? You know, this kind of structure sounds like this, another sounds like that? It would be an interesting comparator as to what a live concert can sound like when recorded.
I find live recording to be all over the place in terms of “quality” and I sometimes ponder what factors in to it. I will tolerate a “bad” live recording much more than a “bad” studio recording as the variables should be much less and better factored in for a studio recording.
Maybe as a reference to how it sounds IRL in the venue, then he can tweak his playback filters/EQ/presets/headphone choice/amp choice to best mimic that experience?
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That too! That would probably be a more typical use for this recording 
.
I think someone sitting on $100k of gear and mostly into classical are very much into recreating the feel of the concert hall and the timbre of each instrument.
On the flipside, I got from listening to Sufjan Stevens straight into Animals as Leaders. So not quite the same.
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Whoa, that Viva Solista is just gorgeous! How do you like them?
Hi,
Yes, when listening to live Concerts where you sit in front of the orchestra, even if you train your memory, getting back the timbre of acoustical instruments or voices isn’t obvious since hall reverberation is part or your hearing.
So I grab those tiny recordings to compare more or less what I get with my setup and better with good quality sound capture where reverberation is well picked up.
Point is that headphones aren’t really able to recreate reverberation and you get better timbres with very performant speaker drivers.
Problem is room correction but I listen very close like sound engineers knowing that of course it is a one seat capability.
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Cool. Trying to recreate a live experience is a worthy goal.
Im a fan of classical, but have yet to take in anything live in a concert hall (logistically difficult for me to do so) so Im just happy with any live recording that makes me feel like I am there. I always thought you could feel a bit more vibrancy coming from the musicians when they are playing live and its a well recorded/mastered performance.
I seem to have a preference for smaller ensemble pieces, like string quartets, so having an Auteur, which is glorious with acoustic instruments, is a real treat for me. Ive only just started creating what I hope to be a good audio chain so your setup has mine outclassed by a fair margin.
Have you tried the ZMF Verite? Some reviews make note of the reverb present with those, if that is something you are truly interested in with a headphone. Just referencing some reviews, havent heard it myself.
I admire your commitment to crafting audio to your liking.
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Hi,
It is true that a good recording live has good potential in an audio system but be careful that also those can be mixed with different captures in different concerts since it isn’t easy to get a great performance all along a long lasting symphony for ex.
I don’t know for ZMF, but one point with headphones is that contrary to speakers makers the engineers haven’t seriously worked on resonances and planars for ex are very much resonant (Susvara, Abyss). It means that good perception of reverberation isn’t easy.
It’s where new concepts like Raal SR1a or MySphere 3 are interesting for Classical listeners.
The Raal may be a good option then as they are considered to be ribbon speakers strapped to your head if I recall correctly. If you have the dollars there is little want for choice nowadays.
Not that familiar with the MySphere, rings a bell but I will have to look into them later.
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First of all. Congratulations for your impressive collection. 
As a matter of fact, congrats to everyone. I’m impressed with the firepower of the folks in this community. 
This is something I have been thinking to do as well but in a much smaller scale, i.e., with a single crunched guitar in an all tube amp. Now that I just got a preamp for my Shure SM7B I hope I can capture something and compare with the gear I have. Listening-wise. Ohh, and much more modest, btw… 
Why an electric guitar? Because this is what I have at the moment. I have hardware/software modelers, pedals, etc… But nothing sounds as good to me as my handmade 30W tube amp driving 2x12" Celestion green backs cranked to the point you can hear the power amp distorting (knob at noon – 
). It’s phenomenal. I just can’t explain using regular reviewers vocabulary. Most likely the reason I’m not one. Two characteristics come to mind though: dynamic range and attack (maybe what people call slam? Not sure).
Anyway, it’s cool you’re trying to experience music at all different levels, while assessing your existing gear. Let me ask you, have you already found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or are you still searching for it? 
Seriously now, the difference between what you hear live and the recording, do you think it’s due your microphones? The headphones reproduction? Both? Something else I’m not considering?
Cheers.
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