Another best-ever listening experience

[jeffreybehr]

Happens every halfyear or so...when the moon, planets, and stars align, the electricity is purer, it's very quiet in the house, I'm ready to sit and do nothing but listen and love the music, etc.. The music this time was Gustav Hosts's The Planets, Suite for Large Orchestra, one of my maybe-top-10 pieces; the multichannel* recording is by CHANDOS with Richard Hickox conducting the BBC PO, on an SACD, #CHSA5086.

My system is listed below and is mostly unchanged for months.. However, recently one channel of my Aesthetix Atlas Eclipse monoamps died--it won't turn on--so I removed them and installed the Moon 400Ms, which are absolutely stock but for one set of CARDAS bindingposts.. Because the Aesthetix amps have the 1st-order hi-pass filters required by the Vandersteens, I don't have external filters used to drive other amps; I'm using the hi-pass filter of the prepro (probably 2nd-order), so the bass response is all afoul, but the system still has plenty of bottom-octave energy...probably too much.. This weekend I moved the V-steen 7.2s farther apart about 8 inches each, which broadened the stage considerably without decreasing center density.

What did I hear tonite? First, instruments that I had NEVER heard in any Planets recording, especially relatively quiet percussion stuff.. More individual instuments in the orchestra, all sounding as real as I've ever heard.. More dynamic range, especially at the bottom of the range...ppppp, anyone? A gorgeous-sounding and VERY-well-conducted orchestra playing beautiful music!

Still unresolved in my system is occasional courseness/hardness in the violins, which I attribute, perhaps incorrectly, to CHANDOS's use of PCM (24/96) for their original recordings (and probably mixing, too).. I do NOT hear such degree of hardness in the multichannel recordings by Channel Classics, PentaTone, some BIS, or OEHMS, all of which are recorded in DSD.. Or it could be from my 80-year-old ears and my use of hearingaids.

FWIW, I had a different pair of hi-end speakers (which will remain unnamed) in the system for a few days. Sure am glad to have the V-steen 7.2s back.

Happy listening!

* I listen to 5- or 5.1-channel recordings with only 4 channels, that is, with the center and '.1' channels disabled; sounds more natural to me.




System. Oppo UDP-205 driving a newish Marantz AV10 pre/pro via HDMI; main poweramps are temporarilyMoon/Simaudio 400Ms driving Vandersteen Seven Mk.IIs which wear ISOAcoustic Gaia-1 feet on their fronts; subwoofers turned off; Emotiva XPA Gen. 3 Eleven|1.5S driving the V'steen VCC-5 centerchannel, a pair of HHR Walsh-type surround speakers, and 3 pairs of ELAC B-6 rear-surround and ceiling speakers.. Main Power and interconnect are AudioQuest Dragons; custom speakercable featuring Mundorf silver/gold conductors. PS Audio P20 power regenerator. ISOAcoustic Orea footers under DPs, Marantz AV10, and some poweramps.

 

[Al M.]

Nice report on your listening experience!

The coarseness/hardness on violins is not a PCM thing, it's the quality of the digital playback. Orchestral violins on good recordings should sound smooth, silky, and highly resolved in texture -- including from 16/44 Redbook CD. They do on my CD playback, it's in my signature (if on the phone, you may need to turn it sideways to see it). The DAC doesn't do DSD, however.

 

[ecwl]

Still unresolved in my system is occasional courseness/hardness in the violins, which I attribute, perhaps incorrectly, to CHANDOS's use of PCM (24/96) for their original recordings (and probably mixing, too).. I do NOT hear such degree of hardness in the multichannel recordings by Channel Classics, PentaTone, some BIS, or OEHMS, all of which are recorded in DSD.. Or it could be from my 80-year-old ears and my use of hearingaids.

I just listened to The Planets from that recording via streaming the stereo 24/96 and I didn’t hear any coarseness/hardness in the violins. So I doubt the problem is with the recording or the SACD multichannel transfer but you never know. But then I also didn’t find the recording quality of this album to be that much more superior to some of the other The Planets I’ve listened to. But maybe it’s your more experienced ears compared to my 48-year-old ones who can appreciate the difference more.

If you moved your speakers 16” apart, it is always possible that you accidentally changed the speaker tweeter to toe in extra to fire into your ears which would raise the treble level, making the violin sound harsher. Or it could be a Marantz AV10 settings issue (or maybe even digital room correction setting issue). Would be interesting to see if you truly don’t hear the additional harshness in all the other albums you mentioned using your current setup.

Regardless, if things sounded great otherwise, that’s fantastic. Enjoy.