Today a hint to an in print album which most probably will shortly be out of print. I just ordered one a few days after its release, one of 1884 sets of this rare case of a symphony orchestra direct to disc recording not released in any other format.
There’s a lot to tell, especially about the gorgeous outfit and care taken for design, make and content of the box. It’s even better than the Mahler SFS Symphony box. The best I have seen so far. So, a lot to tell, but after I read Michael Fremers report, there was nearly nothing to add. He nailed everything from the outfit to specific descriptions of the sound, some hidden between the lines.
He gave it a 11 out of 11 for sound quality. Where I want to get a bit deeper is what I read between the lines that matched my observation.
Also for me the sound quality is very good., dynamic, direct, detailed, black in background and very well controlled and transparent alsoin the lower frequency spectrum.
But imo it’s not the most exceptional sound quality we use to know, which Fremer excellently describes in extremely positive words which I translate for you to straight talk
Read Fremer’s positive version of some findings here:
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“So, don’t expect to experience a big reverberant space because that’s not the hall sound. Instead, it’s surprisingly direct and even somewhat dry, but as intended, despite the minimal miking, you hear everything all sublimely and effortlessly balanced and rendered in three-dimensional space not limited by recording tape or Pro-Tools digital sampling and processing.
…if it sounds too bright, it’s your system! When everything’s in balance, you are in the concert hall (not in an artificially created multi-miked non-existent space, where perhaps there’s more “detail” due to twenty odd microphones strewn throughout the hall). Also, the black backgrounds and unrestrained dynamics mean that if you start with the volume too high, when the big explosive sections arrive, they will be unnaturally LOUD“
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And I’d put it a little more straight:
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Don’t expect a sensational soundstage as used to from e.g. Reference Recordings, the concert hall doesn’t sound really spectacular and so does the recordIngs soundstaging.
The recording does indeed sound direct and a bit dry with not the most air around instruments in upper string sound.
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So is it still a recommendation in my eyes? Yes, alone for the perfect outfit and the rare chance to hear a Symphony direct disc recording.It sounds great in a special way, just don’t expect an extremely airy, lush, big, charming string and horn sound…as Michael wrote…it sounds a little dry, which you might not have expected from this all tube recording setup…if that’s all just a question of the concert hall I don’t know. I’d give it a 10/10 considering positively the D2D benefits and special D2D sound.
(I revised the initial report due to a not recognized interim config problem before)