Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?

@lowrider57 Yeah, that Pristine Furtwangler certainly comes with a hefty price. About the Tape to Tape website, I have doubts that a hard copy, gold plated CD will sound equal to the DSD download as the gold CD isn’t an SACD. Some folks will say that DSD is just a shell unless it was recorded in DSD but my ears seem to tell me different, maybe it’s the filtering but who knows? I haven’t done so yet but I’m going to purchase a DSD 128 download from Tape to Tape and post my impression.

It’s a little difficult for me to separate the conductor from the orchestra. Of the three choices listed by the OP I’d have to choose Furtwangler with the Vienna or Berlin. One of my all time favorites not previously mentioned is Eduard Van Beinum and the Royal Concertgebouw.

The great violinist David Oistrakh  was also a fine conductor.

@lowrider57 Here's a nice Furtwängler box set of the Vienna at the Salzburg Festival. The recordings were cleaned up. I own it and will say that it's nice being able to hear him in live performance.

https://www.orfeomusic.de/CatalogueDetail/?id=C409048L

@mahler123 I remember a number of RCA and DG studio recordings of Furtwängler. Also, Warner released the complete studio recordings and it's a 55 CD box set. I'm thinking that would include the RIAS recordings. Anyway, that seems like a good amount to me. I'm unsure as to how many live recordings there are, I was thinking not a lot. I only know of the Salzburg Festival. the Lucerne Festival and a number of radio broadcasts. I don't know anything about the Music & Arts releases.

Yes, I realize there aren't a lot of van Beinum releases. The Andante label issued a van Beinum set which very good. So what van Beinum RC recordings do you recommend?

For anyone interested, I just came upon this High Definition Tape Transfers website. The reviews are good and there are a fair number of classical and jazz recordings available. Here's the Furtwängler page. https://www.highdeftapetransfers.ca/collections/wilhelm-furtwangler-collection

@lowrider57 Yeah, I can recommend the d'Orfeo label in general. I was at the record store today and we were talking about the lawsuit against MOFI. The context of the discussion centered around whether all analogue remastering is actually superior to having digital somewhere in the chain and we both agreed that digital technology is a massive asset. In other words, I'm so glad that recordings from that era are now as good as they are. Also, I'm surprised that the d'Orfeo label is on Qobuz! I'm going to switch from Tidal to Qobuz.

@lowrider57 Forgot to mention, I know of some of the Music & Arts releases but not many. I own the Lili Kraus Mozart Solo Piano Box Set and it is superb.

@lowrider57 They're located in Canada so I'd suspect they'd been obligated to pay out royalties. However copyright laws only extend to about fifty years (at least with artwork). As far as DG recordings, I would be a skeptic but who knows? It always seemed odd to me that the Archive Production (a division of DG) pressings were superior to the DG pressings.

I'm looking at buying a DSD download of Bill Evans' 'Waltz for Debbie" and if I like that, then possibly Szell/Strauss. If you order something, then please share your opinion of the quality. You can always reach me direct too. Cheers.

@lowrider57 Well regardless of the type of download you purchase, I would guess that it would still be better than waiting for a package to ship from Canada (that is if you live in the US). But I agree that based on the information, even a standard Redbook CD from this source is very promising. My own personal preferences would opt for a 24/96 file over a 24/44.1 Yeah, I've stored files on a flash drive, maybe not ideal but pretty simple nonetheless. As for my purchase, I'm still looking at the catalogue.

@lowrider57 Wish I could hear that Atma-sphere amp, speakers too! Will look for PM, chilli'n.

@lowrider57 I purchased one of the later Bryston BDP Pi transports that supports DSD 128, HDCD and PCM 24/192. My DAC is the Ayre QB9 Twenty upgraded and supports DSD 256, PCM 384 and HDCD. So I can playback DSD 128 but no higher. The Ayre QB9 original version I bought back in 2011. I remember back then, when we chatted about the Herbert von Karajan Beethoven Symphonies Japanese remasters. That was a while ago and the upgrades have kept it up to date all these years, thank you Ayre! The Bryston serves me fine now but I’d like to own the Naim streamer some day. My amp is an ASR Emitter II Exclusive and my speakers are Quad 2905’s. I use Hi Diamond interconnects and speaker cables. My USB cable is a Wireworld Platinum Starlight. Also, when I upgraded my Ayre, I was thinking that I would no longer need my Uptone Audio ISO Regen and LP1 linear power supply but I still prefer it.

How do you like your Audio Note 2.1X Signature and when did you purchase it? Everything PS Audio makes is of high quality. I’m not really familiar with the Bluesound Node2i. Please share your thoughts.