newbee

Responses from newbee

reference recordings
The Bruckner 9 is an outstanding performance as well as recording. One of my Favorite RR's. His Copland 3 w/ Applachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common man is a good recording and performance as well. Assuming you just want some generic classica... 
reference recordings
If your question is based on sound quality, just about any of them. Hard to go wrong. The HDCD versions might be best if you have a unit which can decode them. If you are talking about performance quality, which performances are you interested in? 
RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 2
Ashkenazy rules in Rachmoninoff! Symphonies, PC's w/Previn, solo piano, and two piano's w/Previn. Very good recordings as well. Now that thats out of the way.....Listen to Hough before you buy. Despite all of the accolades, I found it a disappoint... 
Midrange hiss....VERY slight...with my Dared pre
Interestingly it may be just that and new has nothing to do with it. I have two new amps, both with high sensitivity (.5v and .8v)and two older amps by about 12 years which have much lower sensitivity (1.5V), some of the older ones even go down to... 
Midrange hiss....VERY slight...with my Dared pre
If you can't hear tube rush at normal/high volume listening levels, its NOT a problem! Even more so if you only hear it when you've got your ear within inches of the tweeter/midrange. Many fine units both SS and Tube, operating properly, will reve... 
How can you tell.......
Call Leonard at ARC and ask. He is the most reliable source. 
Tube pre w/single inputs vs. SS pre with balanced?
If you like the sound of tubes you will never find it in SS. You may find similar tonality but thats about it. Listen to one of those SS preamps that 'sound like tubes'. More than likely all you will hear is a darkish tonality which is NOT the sou... 
SP-10 plus MC SUT or Baby with Bathwater?
FWIW ARC doesn't (didn't) recommend step up transformers. As I recall its in the manual. Personally, if I 'had' to have a low noise cartridge I'd get a different pre-amp w/or w/o a built in phono. I chose a medium output cartridge instead. Life is... 
Good Grief. Another Tchaikovsky already.
Your tag line sez it all. That was my reaction when I saw the reviews. Thanks for the description. BTW I agree with you about Chung, totally! Try her Bruch if you haven't already (which I imagine you have). 
Clever Little Clock - high-end audio insanity?
ROTFLMAO. This thread just gets better with each passing day. 1st the clock, then power cords & cables, now God. Hard to imagine what could be next! Better than the comic's or politics by a far margin! :-)Come to think about it, why not politi... 
Audiophile Classical cds?
Several have recommended Zander. I concur! Don't overlook his latest, Mahler 1 which also includes 'Songs of a Wayfarer'. This is an outstanding recording, performance, and program. Other 'audiophile' greats would include Barber/Menotti Violin Con... 
Midrange hiss....VERY slight...with my Dared pre
Some tube preamps have a high noise floor. Some tubes are not 'low noise'. Some amps have high input sensitivity. Some speakers are very efficient. Any or all of these things, especially when combined (two or more), can cause a sound called "tube ... 
Looking for well recorded great piano on CD's
For classical, Volados playing Schubert is a no-brainer! Great Schubert and an excellent recording as well. Also, Paul Jacobs playing Debussy's Preludes on Non-such. And, for some thing really different, but very well done, are two albums from Tel... 
Spanish Guitar music
Grenados - 12 Dances - Angel & Celedonio Romero - Telarc 80216Julian Bream plays Grenados & Albeniz - RCA 14378Albinez, Grenados, and Rodrigo are generally 1st choices. 
For those interested in the PrimaLuna Prologue One
Aks434, "From Newbee's mail it sounds for serious listening Primaluna is not adequate." Whether it is adequate or not depends on your expectations, your speakers, and your wallet. FWIW, I just took a 3 week vacation, came back and turned on the On...