For me its the first or very early LP's of: Allman Brothers - "Allman Joys" "Idyllwild South" Santana - "Santana" 200 g reissue Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Emerson Lake and Palmer" and, Beethoven - "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major" Rudolph Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
Leonard Bernstein conducts Wagner - Brunnhide’s Immolation Scene & Wesendonck Songs. New York Philharmonic with Eileen Farrell, soprano. Columbia Masterworks 1962
I finally got the new Symposium Foundation Rack Ultra and several sets of Rollerblock Jr HDSE. Everything is all set up, leveled, etc. A new Niagara 3000 connected to the newly installed dedicated 20 amp line (using 10 gauge romex). This was a serious upgrade, in total, to my system. I expected to hear a solid improvement in SQ. What I got went beyond my best expectations. Holy cow! It's like adding an entirely new high-end component(s). Recently reading some entries here of Pink Floyd records gave me reason to do just that, last night.
First up, to warm up the tubes and my ears... Elvis Costello, 'My Aim Is True' Tom Petty, 'Damn the Torpedoes' Then a small hit and a glass of wine. Next up... Pink Floyd, 'Meddle' the reissue on Pink Floyd Records - Excellent! Pink Floyd, 'The Wall' (all 4 sides). My original copy from when first released. Excellent condition. Phenomenal sound quality. I thought I knew my records very well. I'm now hearing musical information and the finest of nuances in the material I never knew was there. The depth, soundstage, imaging are fantastic, better then ever. Very 3-dimensional. This is a real treat!
Johnny Winter-Nothin' But The Blues Side 1 The 5TH Dimension-Greatest Hits Side 1 Vision Quest-Original Sound Track Side 1 Madcat-Gone Solo(Beancake BR-1183) Side 2 Jethro Tull-The Broadsword And The Beast Side 2(Broadsword) Ronnie Montrose-The Speed Of Sound Side 2 Jack and Mike Theobald-With Bluegrass Country(Shiloh SLP 4087) Side 2 Bach-The Four Suites For Orchestra(Angel SB-3763) Side 1
Leonard Bernstein conducts Beethoven’s Concerto No 2 for Piano and Orchestra, & Bach’s Concerto No 1 for Piano and Orchestra. Glenn Gould, piano with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. Columbia Masterworks 1957
A New Sound in America; Music for Organ and Brass. E. Power Biggs, organ and The Boston Brass Ensemble. Conducted by Richard Burgin. Canzonas of Gabrieli and Frescobaldi. Columbia Masterworks, probably late 50’s (59?)
From the notes on the album; ‘A Recording Premiere of the first true concert organ in America, built by D. A. Flentrop in 1958 for the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University.’
I’ve had Speed of Sound since it came out, along with all the Group albums and most of the Solo and Gamma stuff. I remember that back when it came out, like with much of his post Hagar work, I felt it was admirable but on balance a disappointment. Nevertheless, I’ve held on to it and will revisit it today with an open mind. @slaw Perhaps he never got his due because of people like me who, although full of admiration and the greatest enthusiasm for his early stuff didn’t appreciate a guy who was clearly a singular talent as a player but didn’t accept the idea of the importance of writing songs that fit other people’s taste (popular or otherwise).
@noromance I verified my original copy on Discogs. They state that the first UK pressings are verified by the inside of the gatefold, right side, showing "Produced by David Gilmour". Other pressings show "Written by Roger Waters". My copy shows "Produced by David Gilmour". That makes me feel I have a special copy. No wonder it sounds so awesome. And yes, the gear is "on fire". Never sounded so good.
Ronnie Montrose was a fantastic guitar player who couldn’t get out of his own way. He insisted on writing his own songs and the songs are almost all simply awful. He insisted on producing and arranging his own records and the production and arrangements are terrible. Especially the drums. Keyboards are pure 80s cheese. To me speed of sound is genius guitar licks over 80s pablum. It’s essentially unlistenable as music. Sort of a curiosity as an exercise in guitar technique. My feelings of disappointment return. This is a crying shame. Mental illness is a true bummer.
Our friend and fellow member @boxer12 asked me to listen to some interconnects he has developed. As you all may remember I had just purchased some ICs earlier this year. These were meant to be a great value/low cost purchase for me as I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole. I was content and willing to stay content. This offer to me was a blessing in that I could evaluate some ICs that seemingly have a lot of interesting construction techniques and materials.
I was sent two different 1M ICs. The one I’m listening to now was stated to need break-in.of at least 50 hours. As of now I have over 30 hours on them. I may write a review later under Member Reviews if Tim OKs it.
On the first day, I could hear changes, seemingly a golden glow, for lack of a better term. Day 2, the soundstage really started opening up. Every aspect was positive. Width, depth, pinpoint focus, dimensionality and just overall, more open. Bells have a shimmer and golden sheen, I guess this is greater tonality at it’s finest. Female vocals are more breathy.
The third day, I was kind of still in awe and very, very happy. So this is where I’m at now. If things improve more, I’ll be ecstatic.
@slaw Similarly, I have found that my interconnect and speaker cables definitely had a change (for the better) at about 30 hours of run-in time. I never thought of the change to be a "golden glow", as you put it. But all other aspects you described are exactly what I found to be, beginning at around 30 hours. The bottom line is that yes, indeed, these current day cables of more exotic materials and construction do have a run-in time. And they do settle in and sound much better. Years ago I would never had thought that to be the case. But listening is believing. And now I do believe! It sure is fun, too.
re: Ronnie Montrose I suppose so. Please don’t take it personally- I know you won’t. Was going to add that I would normally hesitate to say anything negative about a record because invariably that record will be liked by somebody and people do tend to take/make their music a serious personal matter. I thought though that the main thing about commenting on the later Montrose stuff is about the phenomenal disappointment. (I’m certainly not in the minority on this). It is of course of no consequence whatsoever that somebody else likes albums I have aversion to and vice versa. I like a lot of the music you post Bro and truly appreciate your taste and recommendations.
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