2. music
  3. 1072916553

Surprised by quality?

I've been listening to my music on crappy speakers for years now. Finally, I bought a decent pair of speakers, and have been listening to all of my music over again, searching for the quality of reproduction and tone, and all that good stuff. There have been a few recordings, though, that have surprised me with their quality. One of these is Seven Mary Three-- American Standard. The cymbals sound like cymbals, the drums sound like drums, and the guitar has exactly that crunch which I liked to pretend it did with my old system. Also, there are the Glenn Miller recordings from the 30's and 40's. I expected digitally remastered music from that long ago to lack something. I've discovered that they do not in any way. What recordings have you listened to that surprised you with their high(or low) quality?
midficollege

Showing 2 responses by rar1

rar1's avatar
rar1
1,752 posts
 
About four years ago, I came across several recordings by Louis Armstrong that were just so engaging and melodic, that it almost instantaneously changed the types of music that I listened to.

These recordings were:
- Louis plays Fats Waller
- Louis plays W.C. Handy
- Louis and Duke Ellington (the Summit)
- Ella (Fitzgerald) and Louis Again

The sonics on these recordings range from good to excellent ... in fact the two "Louis plays" recordings benefit from the SACD treatment as it removes some of the harshness from the brass. An anecedote ... the best sound from an equipment demo that I have ever heard (in 30 years) was at the Home Entertainment show (of all places) in NYC a few years back. In the Music Hall room was a Creek 5350 amplifier driving a pair of EPOS M15 floorstanders with a Music Hall MM7 turntable playing "The Summit" by Armstrong and Ellington (a mid fi lover's dream system). The sound of Duke's piano playing along with Louis' singing on the song "Duke's Place" was nothing short of stunning (from both a music lover and audiophile perspective).

Of recent recordings, Mark O Connor's, "In Full Swing" (2003) is a sonic and performance marvel. The music is a combination of swing and classical and sounds absolutely arresting in either redbook or SACD forms.

I am value driven and tend to favor mid fi systems (my systems are a testament to this) ... one of the biggest thrills is to come upon either the recording or piece of equipment (i.e. NAD 320BEE amp) that reveals details that I never heard before.

Regards, Rich
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,752 posts
 
Bombay:

I may have given you the incorrect impression about the SACD versions of the "Louis Plays" recordings. If you own/have listened to the redbook versions of these recordings, in a few places, the recording of the brass is so harsh as to be painful. My guess is that this was a fault of how the performance was captured on tape, as opposed to the musician's playing technique. Armstrong's bands were known for little turnover among band members and for being well rehearsed with little deviation from their play book.

Live brass has more than just bite to its sound ... it has incredible volume to its sound and the recording equipment probably maxed out in this case. The SACD version softens this maxing out a touch. To my ears, reducing the harshness made sense, as the recording is more listenable, while retaining its original character. You may want to seek out these recordings and judge for yourself ... I would be curious as to your comments.

Regards, Rich
More to discover