I was inspired to create this thread after the subject came up in the Ainola thread...

Sibelius had a penchant for listening to music on his radio at a very high volume. Not because he was hard of hearing...but because he wanted to make sure to hear every note of the music. I suspect this drove Aino and his daughters crazy at times!

I, too, listen to music at a high volume. After all, music is sound, and when sound is louder, it is more powerful. I want the ultimate "powerful" experience whenever I listen to a work by any one of my favorite composers, Sibelius included.

For the past several years, I have used a Brookstone CD player/speaker system which has incredibly rich, powerful sound for a rig of its size. It is convenient because it sounds a lot bigger that it is, and it takes up minimal space.

I've just upgraded to a more "full" system, however. I've purchased two Bose 901 speakers whoch should make the experience of listening to classical music rather life-like. I need to get a receiver for my Sony 5-disc player, however, so I won;t be able to really hear the speaker in my hom euntil I've gotten the receiver. I'll be getting one this week.

Anyway, I can;t wait to give Finlandia a go on the new speakers...I hope it is a roof-ratlling affair. I hope my neighbors don;t get too angry!

I never use headphone, unless I'm jogging or something.

I listen to headphones when I'm on the road, which is really more often than not... but when I can I don't.

As for loudness... I agree with Tapkaara, especially with those pieces like Tapiola where you really have to hear every note and then be shocked and brought to a state of unparalleled intensity by the louder parts. Or the end of Mahler's Second... or Sixth...

I would love the loudness, but I live in an aparment building with thin walls, so I can't provoke the neighbours too much.

Here's a little picture of my ancient and low-end JVC set up... hope you all get a kick out of it.

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

Well, Kurki, what you have may be modest, but it's better than nothing. For years the best I could do was a Sony boom box, but I was not listening to classical at the time.

Yes, Tapiola is a good one to listen to at a high volume. After all, this is music about a forest god, not a forest sprite. I want to hear this music as if it were the voice of Tapio...terrifying and shattering.

Finlandia is among the most bombastic of Sibelius's output, and so that is another obvious candidate for loud listening. Karajan delivers the goods, here.

Mahler is also great to listen to loud. In the 2nd symphony, when that organ kicks in toward the end, I want to FEEL it as well as hear it!

Speaking of "feeling" the music, even I was shocked when hearing the percussion in the Saga Symphony of Jon Leifs. Whatever they were hitting sounded like it was in the room with me...it startled me the first time I heard it.

My aim has always been to try and recreate through my Hi-Fi the concert hall experience. When I listen to say Vanska's recording of 'Jordens Sang' I want to feel that I am sat at the back of the Sibelius Hall in Finland. Over the years I have searched for the ever perfect sonic experience and I think I am pretty close to this now. The danger of course is that you don't listen to the musical message anymore but simply concentrate on the sound quality. Maybe I was guilty of this at one time, but now the music comes first, sound quality second.--kp

Castle speakers, Technics CD player, and an Arcam amp (though at the moment I have some other amp hooked up with more inputs) produce a very pleasant sound in my room - warm but forgiving and with no acoustic nasties. Luckily I can turn the volume up too if the mood is upon me. I don't mind doing so even in chamber music, within reason - but then I like to sit right at the front at chamber concerts so I get every nuance!

The problem with some recordings is that they are stitched together by people with no musical sensitivity whatsoever. So (especially on older material) you still get crazy pauses (usually too short), digital zero between tracks (duhhhhhhh!!! some people have never heard of room ambience), reverb faded out or cut off completely, and so on. All of these problems CAN and SHOULD be mitigated if the remastering engineers have half an ear - but it is a ruinous disappointment to play a great performance at a good loud volume and then find that the last chord is cut short by some fool in post-production.

Yes, I haven't gotten at all beyond either a boom box or a set of speakers probably older than I am that are messing up anyway (how much older than me I really don't want to know...). But still, I'm not terribly picky about this, as I very much like older recordings, so the question of sound quality pretty much immediately goes right out the window (unless it's someone such as Bach or some of Sibelius, where the silence and contrapuntal lines MUST be heard over everything; then there's BIS ).

Well, I installed my new speaker system and WOW...I'm a very happy camper.

The Bose 901s are not only very loud, but I am hearing details in works that I had never heard before. The clarity these speakers draw from the discs I've sampled is pretty incredible. I cannot wait to re-listen to the whole Sibelius catalog...I feel like I will be hearing many pieces for the first time.

18 years ago, my colleague collected me a set. Rotel LP player RP 855 and Rotel AM/FM Stereo receiver RX-845. Speakers he made himself. He didn´t care what cd player should be (he listened only LPs), so I bought JVC XL-V131. I also have JVC double cassette deck.

These equipment still work very well.

I don`t like to listen so much on loud dynamics as I have become sensitive for noise because of years in orchestra.

Hello, my first post.

I well remember "plumbing" into my hi-fi my new Marantz amp(purchased on E-bay) just over 4 years ago.

What a shock! It took several days to set the volume control at the right level. I began to hear details on well known cds that were not there before.

I rediscovered my cd collection, a frenzy of listening pleasure.

Kieron.

A warm welcome to Kieron.

I share World Violists love of older recordings and indeed many of them are far more satisfying to listen to than some modern stuff.
I honestly think that it is a fallacy to suggest that older recordings cannot compare with todays 'state of the art' discs.

For me the finest recordings date from the early years of stereo. It was the British engineer Alan Dower Blumein who pioneered the idea of stereo recording as far back as 1931. His concept was to record sound using just two microphones and placed at the listeners position. For me the best stereo sound dates from between 1957--65. Hereafter multi-mike tecniques became the thing with artificial reverberation and other nasties. We have of course had some great recordings in more recent times, but for me around 1960 was the golden age.

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

Above is a pair of vintage Quad 11 power amps and below a matching Quad 22 control unit [Pre-amp]

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

The above Quad items are at the heart of my main system, dating from the early 1960's they have a lovely warm valve sound and can tame many astringent recordings. I also have a Meridian Cd player connected up and a Tandberg tape deck.

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

Above is my main turntable, another classic from the 1960's 'Garrard 401' transcription record deck. mine stands on a very heavy plynth which is vital in removing 'rumble' etc.

I also have two other 'transistor' systems including a Rotel RA-820AX amplifyer, Technics and Cambridge Audio Cd players and a Garrard Zero 100 turntable. They keep me out of mischief! kp

Kieron Kirk wrote:

Hello, my first post. I well remember "plumbing" into my hi-fi my new Marantz amp(purchased on E-bay) just over 4 years ago. What a shock! It took several days to set the volume control at the right level. I began to hear details on well known cds that were not there before. I rediscovered my cd collection, a frenzy of listening pleasure. Kieron.

Greetings, Kieron. We hope to see a lot more of you on the forum from here on out. Welcome!

Last night I listened to Tapiola (Karajan/Berlin) on the 901s and it was like hearing it for the first time. It really was. I could here details and notes that were virtually non-existant on my previous player, which is very good for what it is. I don't think I had ever felt as immersed into the forest god's world of mystery as deeply as last night. I literally felt euphoric after getting throughthe experience. My re-exploration of Sibelius's oeuvre begins this weekend!!

Looks like you've got some great old equipment, Pete. I desperately need to get a new turn table. I don;t have a huge cache of vinyl recordings, but I do have a few, and I enjoy them a lot. I sold my old turn table at a garage sale years ago, and I am upset with myself that I did that.

I think the best stereo recordings tend to come from 1955 to about 1975, roughly. I particulalry enjoy getting recordings from the "Great Recordings of the Century" catalog on EMI and "Living Stereo" on RCA. Of course, these are all recordings of a certain "vintage," but the engineers back then really has a type of mad genius and the fruits of their labor blow away so many of todays modern stereo recordings.

I think the best stereo recordings tend to come from 1955 to about 1975, roughly. I particulalry enjoy getting recordings from the "Great Recordings of the Century" catalog on EMI and "Living Stereo" on RCA. Of course, these are all recordings of a certain "vintage," but the engineers back then really has a type of mad genius and the fruits of their labor blow away so many of todays modern stereo recordings.

Tapkaara,

Thank you for the welcoming words
.
I could not agree more with your comments as to the golden age of stereo recordings. Just under 50% of my cds are recordings from the 1950/60s.

Kullervopete has some classic old equipment Quad 11/22, Garrard 401.

My main system includes a couple of classic items, the Thorens TD124/2, SME 3009/2 does not get a lot of use but the Tannoy Gold Monitors I listen to every day. The cabinets were made by an uncle who lived in Morton, PA whilst working for Boeing Helicopters.

Both turntable and speakers are over 40 years old and are an absolute joy to use.

Kieron.

Hi Kieron and welcome from me too!

Wow - a lot of support for old recordings. In a way I'm not surprised: sound engineers then didn't have access to so much technical wizardry so they had to use their ears and innate musicality. That counts for a lot, indeed.

Thought you might find the following posts on the SACD forum of some interest.

Kieron

Code:

Post by hiredfox Today 03:44 am (6 of 7)     reply If they are making DSD recordings from old tapes, the results will be disappointing to most SACD collectors as at the time these recordings were made neither the tapes nor the microphones could record the frequency and dynamic ranges that DSD can accomodate and to which we are now used to. Post by krisjan Today 05:50 am (7 of 7)     reply Are you joking? Have you heard any of the Mercury Living Presence and/or RCA Living Stereo releases? Some of those recordings are the best you will ever hear if you value natural musical realism. Next to a good DSD master tape, I'll take a good analog master tape any day and twice on Sundays.

We are not the only ones who are of the opinion that "older" engineering is often superior to modern techniques. Glad to see this discusion is happening in other venues.

Does this mean that recording music first onto tape is better than recording staight to digital?

A little over 10 years ago, King records in Japan produced several CDs called the Artistry of Akira Ifukube. Though intended for CD release, the head engineer opted first to record the music on analog tape, and then transfer the recording to disc! He feltt this would ultimately produce a better recording. Needless to say, the sound of these records is pretty darn good!

Anyway, I am by no means an expert on the differences between recording analog over digital, but if anyone has any input, I'd like to hear it!

I agree 100% regarding the superiority of the Mercury Living Presence series. These analogue recordings are the bench mark by which to judge all subsequent audio. I collect these Mercury discs including the early Mono [Mg and MMA series] and the later stereo releases [AMS and SRI] most of these have been re- issued on Cd and run rings round most digital recordings. The RCA Living stereo recordings are also magnificant as are the Decca SXL series.-kp

Among my most treasured CD just now is indeed from RCA's Living Stereo releases: Fritz Reiner's recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. It is utterly flawless. There is no grainy sound/hiss/anything at all; no excessive or false reverb; very warm, rich sound; and being Reiner/Chicago all the orchestral detail is jaw-droppingly immaculate... and then I read when it was recorded: 1959!!! It totally blew my mind.

As for other favorite recordings of mine, Bernstein Century has been a long-time favorite series, as has, once again, EMI's Great Recordings of the Century. One could bathe in the sound of these recordings, they're so warm and fuzzy... makes you feel like you just swallowed a hamster.

Most of Reiners recordings on RCA with Chicago symphony are superb, I'm thinking of his 'Also sprach Zarathustra', Rimsky's 'Scheherazade' and Respighi's 'Pines of Rome'. Great pity he never recorded any Sibelius tone poems! and lets not forget Mercury 'Living Presence' all time 'Demo' disc, '1812' with Dorati. A sonic experience never surpassed after 50 years.--kp

I listen to Sibelius (and Bartok and Lutoslawski etc etc) on a decent system (Cambridge Audio amp and CD player, Gale 301 speakers on Atacama SE24 stands) which has an added extra - attenuated interconnects between the CD player and the amp. With an attenuation of -16dB, it means I can have the amp set to 12 o'clock and hear all the quiet bits (eg Osmo's ppp!) and the storm in Tapiola without having to turn it down or suffer any clipping. The effect is quite reminiscent of vinyl, but without the nasty clicks and pops. The sound is not hard or clinical or compressed - most CD players have an output of 2mV or higher and the amp which channels this may have a sensitivity of,say 150mV ; technical tosh apart, it means that full volume is reached at around 9 o'clock, i.e. only a quarter of the way round the dial, thus depriving the listener of any enjoyment of dynamic range.
Simple, really, and well worth the outlay. If you have really good equipment where the CDX output and the amp's sensitivity are matched or even adjustable, you won't need attenuation - but most people do!