How do you listen to your speakers

[JonFo]

Another test record showing how revealing your system is. Tom's Diner is the cut. Basically a song without any accompaniment. When I heard it I was surprised how you can hear the ambience of the recording studio or synthetic echo, I don't really know. But this causes problems audible to the intent listener. She is unable to sing all the verses in one sitting, so you can hear the gain being turned down I think after the second verse, because the room ambience collapses.
I don't know if it is just me or if others pay that close attention to recordings in general.

It's a lovely song. Thanks for bringing it back up.
I just listened to it on my Airpod Max headset, and it is a very 'dry' recording, with little studio ambiance, but you are correct, they lower the gain after the second verse and there is bit less 'air' around her. Maybe she is closer to the mic and all it picks up is her voice, and the engineer had to lower the gain because she's closer.

 

[rpokuls]

@amey01
When I started my musical journey into high fidelity I was a teenager with a home build speaker system with expensive drivers and a home build power amplifier from a Popular Electronics magazine. All my friends were impressed on how close to real female vocals were. I remember one instance where I was playing "Never my Love" by The Association.
In most case it is an individual song recorded properly.
I have to say that no multi-tracked, multi-miked recording will ever sound real. When i got my electrostatic speakers I found the only recording that were close to real sounding, were direct to disk Sheffield recording. The most outstanding and suspect that this is even by today are the "Harry James" Big Band recordings. First time I heard them I got goosebumps. You could hear the room reverberation, localize the position of the instrument FRONT TO BACK, something seldom heard. Anyways check those out. I have the LPs, the CDs and they are available on Amazon music.
Other than that, I came to the conclusion, even though there are highly respected artists making the music, commercial recording were and still are crap when compared to REAL. I bough the very high performance Technics RS1500 back then and started to record my own using a single stereo microphone. There are many articles that explain how a single stereo microphone will preserve the phase relationships that give localization of the instrument, and an electrostatic speaker that is by design phase coherent will do an amazing job. The most realistic recordings I made were recording a small pipe organ and a choir in a small church with wonderful acoustics.
When digital recording became popular, their claim to fame other that infinite life (not really true) and dynamic range. The latter promise has been completely destroyed in the last 20 years. But back them when this was a thing, Telarc came out with recordings that lived up to that promise. While musically they may not be so stellar, but if you want the acoustic wind to blow your hair around, try any of their orchestral recordings. The other small label was DMP, but you may not like their music. Their was one specific cut on a CD, I can't remember the title, but is surely impressed my friends, It starts of with the sound of one of those small wind-up toys that make music. This small sound and the ambience of the original acoustic space and realism, you could swear that this toy was just hiding behind your speakers, then the high intensity sound of the band playing is enough to knock you out of your seat. If you play it at the proper volume level, the music peaks are guaranteed to drive your amp into clipping. Today the problem is that people use music as background and you can't sell recording like that anymore.

 

[rpokuls]

Hi @ESLFan

I think the toy music from the DMP label was from an album by Flim & The BBs named "Neon" circa late 80's. The track was "Toy Chest".

DMP pioneered "all digital" recordings. When I bought my first serious audio system back in 1989, Flim & the BBs was
the preferred test album for auditioning audio equipment. I bought that system based on the DMP label.

 

[ejspain]

@JonFo I'd love it if you could recommend one disc with piano that can show off a system, whichever you think is the best one. I've looked for some on Qobuz, but there's so much to wade through, and after your excellent dissertation I would trust whatever you'd recommend.

I too love piano and vocals through my system

 

[JonFo]

Hi @ESLFan

I think the toy music from the DMP label was from an album by Flim & The BBs named "Neon" circa late 80's. The track was "Toy Chest".

DMP pioneered "all digital" recordings. When I bought my first serious audio system back in 1989, Flim & the BBs was
the preferred test album for auditioning audio equipment. I bought that system based on the DMP label.

Absolutely correct. Flim and the BBs' albums were high on my demo list. The rest of the DMP catalog is good, and I bought each one when they were released in the 1980s and 90s.

 

[ESLFan]

Interesting views on different recordings. Back 20 years ago when I had my old system working, I never really liked those classical recordings from a realism viewpoint. First the dynamics were compressed when compared to listening in a concert hall, which was my reference. Secondly I disliked the lack of high frequency content. Instruments like brass ie. trumpets lacked the bite that you hear in RL. Also they tried to balance the volume of each section with multitrack recording so to me the balance sounded fake.
SUppose you have triangles or xylophones being used. The balance relative to the orchestra seemed always wrong, never mind the tympany. In real life those pack a wallop even when sitting in the middle row seats. Major labe recordings, not so much. I guess that is why I read comments that recording can't sound like RL. The multitrack recording plus mixing levels screw it up completley for me. The exception I found were Telarc recordings. I don't know if more recent (2010 or newer) are an improvement.

 

[JonFo]

This is another great album that I will listen to undistracted because the music and performance are excellent, as is the recording. The Atmos version is sublime; I feel like I'm in the studio with them. Bob James — Feel Like Making Live!

For those that have an MQA capable DAC, this version includes an MQA encoded CD as well as the BluRay:
https://www.amazon.com/Making-MQA-CD-Blu-ray-Dolby-Stereo/dp/B09HCP1QQ3

The stand-alone BluRay is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Feel-Like-Making-Ultra-Blu-Ray/dp/B09MCYQ2NG

 

[ESLFan]

Gale had a catalog of 45 rpm LPs. I have one or two of them. I grew up listening to piano being played from when i was a toddler. One of those Gale recordings, played through a tube preamp, was the closest ever to me hearing a real piano. I have to dig it up sometime and take a pic of the cover.

 

[JonFo]

Also they tried to balance the volume of each section with multitrack recording so to me the balance sounded fake.
SUppose you have triangles or xylophones being used. The balance relative to the orchestra seemed always wrong, never mind the tympany. In real life those pack a wallop even when sitting in the middle row seats.

That's correct, and they're likely trying to avoid oversaturating the tape with their high dynamics. Then, the mastering would compress the dynamic range overall, and the RIAA EQ for LPs further ruined the frequency range coverage.
This is why Telarc and others were so beloved: They captured a wider dynamic range, which CD could finally deliver.

RCA seems to have preserved their master well, as those Living Stereo SACDs I referenced earlier have pretty decent dynamic range (still limited by the tape to some degree). These are pre-LP mastering, so they are so much better than whatever the old LPs had.

 

[ESLFan]

I don't have a high end HT speaker system, so won't be able to enjoy these recordings as much. My Sony DVD plays SACD, and I have bought a few of those.

 

[amey01]

I never really liked those classical recordings from a realism viewpoint.

Interesting - and I certainly agree.

I guess the complexity of multi-layering of sometimes more than 100 instruments in orchestral music amplifies the gap between real versus recorded.

That, combined with the fact that classical music, the sound of the space is probably at least half of what you're hearing - more than any other style of music.

A single note on a violin or piano might be pretty hard to tell real from recorded. But when you layer 100 of them (in a space), it becomes impossible to recreate.

That said, I'm pretty picky about my classical music. If the acoustics aren't right, even live classical music doesn't satisfy me. The Sydney Opera House is one venue that always leaves me feeling angry. Royal Albert Hall is the same.

My favourite space is a small hall in the Sydney Conservatorium, creatively named "East Recital Hall" - I've had some total out-of-body experiences in there!

 

[ML4Life]

I'm listening to some nice long albums right now!

My system is in a multipurpose room, which has compromises everywhere you look, but it sounds ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!

So my system is used everyday, for everything. But for old tv shows and the like I just use All Stereo mode and keep the LCR amps off, so the sound comes from the four Surround and four Top speakers.

The primary goal with the ML main speakers and subs is for 2 channel music, but I also host Movie Night! with a bunch of friends regularly. Sharing the system with others is a thrill! We watch movies with great soundtracks, but also old Hitchcock movies, as well as the crummy movies from all eras. It runs the gamut from Plan 9 From Outer Space, to the best of the best for audio and video quality.

Streaming is what is used for music most of the time. I like how things are originally released, so re-mastered doesn't mean much to me. I use a Mac mini with Roon/Qobuz which satisfies my needs.

 

[ML4Life]

Currently listening to the Foo Fighters prepping for the concert at Citi Field in NY tomorrow.

But I utilize my 7.2.4 ML system for Music and theater experience. As for music, Dusty Springfield Son of A Preacher Man, The Brothers Johnson Strawberry Letter 23, and Johnny Cash Hurt is what I like to test run a system on and demo.

 

[thattomhall]

I've had a decent theater room (Phase Technology / Definitive speakers) and a series of amps over the years, upgrading on the odd Dolby format...

My NEW journey started with my computer speakers dying in a move. So I decided to get decent studio monitors and a little amp. Got Wharfedale EVO 4.1s. I played this song:



And I gasped. The singer and musicians were THERE. That never happened to me before...

So I upgraded my amp... added a subwoofer.

Then I needed to glue a speaker grille on my Left Channel, the foam on the front was decayed... and I started researching.

Anyway, months later, I have a 7.2.4 Martin Logan Theater room / music listening set up with F100s as the L/R. Marantz Cinema 30. JVC NZ-7 projector. Oppo 203 multi-region modded. 2200+ Bluray/4Ks.

I'm in heaven. Favorite songs sound new again. Seeking out audiophile recordings. Enjoying amazing movie sound (once they calmed down, and EQed).

Assembling an audiophile playlist while checking out what is beyond Spotify /Apple Music high-quality (so many possibilities with the Cinema 30)...