Newest Tapes from Ed Pong - April-May 2018

astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
1,547
1,017
1,715
SF Bay Area
I recently received Ed's new tapes all featuring the spectacular Tatsuki Narita on violin, accompanied by Yun-Yang Lee on piano, recorded by Ed in his home studio/concert hall with great Studer tape machines lovingly modified by Tony Ma. I've had a chance to carefully listen to the one titled "Tatsuki Narita" featuring five pieces in a studio recording (no audience). There are three virtuoistic pieces, including the Saint-Saens Danse Macabre and Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, and two beautiful, emotional blockbusters - Bloch's Nigun, and Massenet's Meditation from Thais. The sonics that Ed gets out of his recordings, including fine touches to the violin and piano voicing as well continuing small tweaks to his electronics, just continue get better and better - when they are already at the top. The other three tapes are from a live recital in the same venue. I haven't gotten a chance to give those as close a listen. The "Tatsuki Narita" tape is one to get.

Larry
 
Jan 18, 2012
2,322
2,409
1,475
Drobak Norway
so they´re here on my salon table:
Tatsuki Narita
Schubert Grand Fantasy
Wagner, Listzt-Isoldes Liebestod etc

first out is Tatsuki.....
whow I was totally taken aback by the incredible dynamic range....took a little reduction in normal system playback volume to get the correct and natural level.
then everything fell into place
unrestrained dynamics
rich, glorious but not overdone harmonics......come to think of the late Harvey Gizmos expression King tone with respect to how magnetics have this fantastic impact on sound reproduction
same experience here......
just plain sounds right and connect to all the right emotional buttons
a great part of this is of cource due to world class musicians
it´s a privilige to have them "present" in my humble system in Norway
not to forget the tedious process of refining the recording process and Tony-San fantastic technical skills in developing the cutting edge in recording electronics, with the holy grails of audio tubes and components
BRAVO !
best
Leif
 
Jan 18, 2012
2,322
2,409
1,475
Drobak Norway
hello again folks
finally got to listen to my latest tape from Ed´s superb catalogue after an incredible heatwave since I returned from Munich:
Shubert Grand Fantasy is my latest favourite among his recordings
first of all a fabulous performance by both
very dramatic and very enjoyable
delicate and dynamic at the same time
this is the recording where I feel I´m closest to the real performance @Ed´s place
easily lays out the room and the acoustics throught the extreme transparency and "atmospheric" resolution
a must for any of you out there......
again, well done guys
best
Leif
 

tapepath

Well-Known Member
Feb 19, 2014
104
131
318
I've received my copy of Ed's recording of Tatsuki Narita and Yun-Yang Lee and have listened to it twice. It's an amazing performance both from the players and from Ed's recording efforts. The risk of playing such challenging music is that the performer will be so committed to getting through the technical pyrotechnics that the soul of the music will be missing. That is not what happens here, all the playing wizardry is brilliant, never a flaw, but the emotion is never lost either. I can't help but think of the thousands of hours of practice that level of musical skill and feeling must have required to give that kind of performance. The recording itself is equally brilliant, the tape starts, a piece of your listening room disappears and a piece of Ed's home concert hall takes its place. The sound quality reestablishes what materials each instrument is made from. You can easily hear the differences between a violin string that is bowed versus strings that are plucked by fingers or tapped by a bow. All these different transients clearly captured by the tape recorder's resolution capability not by having the microphones placed too close to the instruments. This is much harder to accomplish, it's relatively easy to get an impressive sound by placing the microphone directly beside the piano or even inside the piano or so close to the violin that nothing escapes. But, that's not realistic and it's not what Ed wants to give his listeners. He wants you to hear everything clearly placed in front of you as if you were really there as an invited guest.
Highest recommendation.
 

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