I don't know what those are. I asked him for a custom device based on exactly what I wanted.
Ron’s New System
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
passive linelevel filters....very good...hipass-lopass whatever you need
I guess it must be this because everything else Marchand makes is active... I personally want to go with the XM126 tube crossover someday.... Thought about the Line level passives many times but they are not flexible, which I need for design work...
Although I surely respect your music preferences - Shostakovitch is one of my preferred composers - I will risk to say that it is also because you never listened to it in an adequate system. Shostakovitch symphonies are extremely challenging for sound systems - the jagged and disjointed parts must be listened in parity with the flowing, almost lyrical sections and can't be spliced. Few systems can show its music explicitly to someone who has no previous experience with the composer.
IMO the typical Shostakovitch audiophile sessions are an invitation to disaster.
I suggest you get good seats tickets for a live performance of the 5th Symphony - at the risk that at the end of last movement you will feel disappointed on how limited are our systems compared to the real relentless buildup to fortissimo hammered out by the full orchestra. And probably sorry that the the orchestra stopped when you were really enjoying and wanting more of it!
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Heard lots of live Shostakovich but he is still not one of my favorite composers...too angular and jangly. Much prefer the works of Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and even Stravinsky to Shostakovich and it has nothing to do with the sound quality of a stereo.
THere are plenty of challenging composers that I much prefer the music of than Shostakovich. Not that I dislike his works but really not in my top composers list...or even top Russian composers list.
In fact no. Shostakovitch is very accessible. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman fans know about it.
But yes, in many others senses - psychologically , interpretative, for example - Shostakovitch music is known to be challenging.
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came to think of I know close to nothing about Portuguese composers, even though I love the country and have been around a lot
any recommendations?
any recommendations?
Same here, one of my favorite 20th century composers. It took a while for me to get there, however, until I realized just how strikingly unique his musical textures often are. In this context, his skills of orchestration are extraordinary, too.
As you suggest, the psychological, emotional narrative can be challenging -- just like with Mahler, by the way.
For example, the Allegretto finale of the Eighth Symphony can feel a bit lightweight and insignificant, until you realize that it parallels quite closely in both thematic material and large-scale structure the tragic, war-themed first movement -- in a parody that turns out to be brutally subversive (at least that's how I perceive it).
Really interesting to read the history of Shostakovich in the Stalin era. He was firmly under the thumb. The government propagandadists would write speeches for him which he would deliver with a dour and depleted look on his face.In fact no. Shostakovitch is very accessible. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman fans know about it.
But yes, in many others senses - psychologically , interpretative, for example - Shostakovitch music is known to be challenging.
Of course, in return, he was not packed off to Siberia and instead lived a comfortable life in his state supplied Dacha.
Thrilling music like no other.
Let us know what you think about Schnitke and Webern.
There's not a day that goes by after I come home from a concert at Carnegie or Geffen Hall that I feel that my uber home stereo system is even close to being able to reproduce live music in a truly believable way or as an accurate semblance of live music. Enjoyable? Yes, definitely. Realistic? Give me a break. In fact it's hard to believe any audiophile with any system at any cost in any room believes that genuine authenticity to a live orchestra performance can be faithfully reproduced in their listening space at home. You don't need to listen to a Shostakovich symphony or any Warp 9 music to prove that. Far simpler material will suffice to demonstrate this.
Regarding Shostakovich, I must admit that I cannot, for the life of me, warm up to his symphonies, despite years of prodding by friends who are professional orchestra musicians. For me, they all sound like Russian military circa WWI or prison music heard somewhere in the Gulag. However, what leapt Shostakovich to the top tier of my favorite composers are his string quartets, which are some of the most brilliant pieces of musical ever composed IMHO. Although many surely love his symphonies, it is his string quartets that made it easy for me to understand why he is considered a musical genius by those who adore him. They contain emotional depth, technical innovation, and personal expression that often revealed more of Shostakovich’s inner world than his symphonies, which were written under public and political scrutiny according to several sources. The string quartets were psychological journeys with lyrical beauty paired with some occasional atonal violence with elements of humor and dance in the mix as well. These are intricate spiritual pieces that cover the emotional waterfront from cheerfulness to internal suffering and despair he experienced under the Soviet regime. But they are nevertheless just mesmerizing and wonderful pieces of music!
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I am with you. The closest I have ever come to 'realistic' was the Genesis 1s...and that is why I have been so focused on air displacement and 4-towers. It is not to literally blow my socks off...it is because the effortless ability to displace and move air taught me something about what I look for as I continue to think about the future of the system.
The next closest was the Rockport Arrakis...again scale, size created not just an envelope, it gave an effortless power and energy the instruments and voices that seems to bring them to life (as in lifelike) in a way that I have not experienced any other way. I absolutely love that great systems give nuance, details, inflections and insights into music playing...and that has been a great learning experience for me as an audiophile as the system has continued to become more resolving (which has taken time because i never ever go for etched in order to eek out that last bit of detail and getting both natural/organic and detail is tough in my experience).
Nevertheless, while it has been a wonderful ongoing pursuit, it is NOT my ultimate pursuit which remains the ever increase in effortless scale...not necessarily BIG environments scale, but rather that the power of even an individual instrument approaches the power of that instrument in real life.
Elliot G.
Dealer - Bending Wave
Shostakovich’s best-known quartet is the no 8. The Borodin Quartet (EMI) recordings are my preferred set.
Elliot G.
Dealer - Bending Wave
Elliot G.
Dealer - Bending Wave
BTW I agree with you. I have never heard a system that produces a full orchestra that ever fooled me even though I can really enjoy it .I listen to far more Jazz every day and those records can come close. First IMO they are generally the best records of any music I listen too and the scale of them is something a big system can do. The overall quality of is just better. Most pop stuff is so manipulated that even when it sounds great it is not what it sounds like live.
In my opinion and a subject that HP and I discussed many times under the influence was is it actually something that can be reproduced? After going to Carnegie with HP , Arnie Nudel and Mike Kay we had these intoxicated discussions and never really had a definitive decision. The sound has gotten so much better but the sound of a live Orchestra is not within reach.
I would love to try in a really big space with a big time budget
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