[Harry Lavo]

"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
This is the best piece on the high end listening experience I have ever
read in this forum. I'm annotating simply to keep the discussion going.


I'm flattered, thanks.


"Harry Lavo" wrote in message
. ..
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
[snip]
The Bis recording captures that in glorious sound...the strings,
particularly as I said of the cello and violas, have a depth, luster, and
bite to them that is completely natural to them, without any of the
"edge" that often creeps into digital recording of strings. I've been
privy to listening to and often recording literally dozens upon dozens of
string trios, quartets, and quintets (even a few sextets) and this is as
good as it gets in a commercial medium.

Now we turn to the Channel Classics recording of piano-cello Sonatas.
Many folk think Channel Classics right now to be doing the best job of
recording chamber music of any company...I don't agree as a general
statement. I find many of their recordings have too much "room sound"
and they tend to record in overly bright, live venues.
[snip]

In my estimation, chamber music is an even greater "fit" to multichannel
sound than orchestral music. The very best orchestral recordings tend to
knock down the walls, but five channels is barely enough to really
simulate a large venue. On the other hand, five speakers and the
intimacy of a living room or listening room are a much more natural
environment for chamber music, and the "gap" between recorded sound and
room sound is narrower, so the recordings develop a "they are here"
inimacy when well recorded that is really captivating. The "holographic"
sound stage that is so difficult to create in a multi-purpose listening
environment with stereo is relatively easy to create with multichannel.

I was an "early adopter" of synthesized surround, but I have shied away
from SACD/DVD-A, because of the cost, and because early indications were
that the commercial offerings were not acoustically well thought out. But
with recent reports from you and Kalman Rubinson, I should rethink that.

Having 1500 disks, most of the obtained from bargain bins, I was in no
mood to repurchase. On philosophical grounds, I prefer not to hem in my
taste by a technical requirement. If I were to develop a strong preference
for the advanced formats, the diversity of choice would lessen, and that
could diminish my personal aesthetic sense.

Back in the mid-seventies during the brief quad era, I had a Dynopter and
two small ADC speakers supplementing the main speaker pair. Despite the
crudeness of the setup, I received as much pleasure from matrix setting on
many recordings (especially jazz and folk) as I did from the quad gear I
also used.

The one thing my current system doesn't have, because I use three audio-only
preamps, is some form of synthesized surround. I expect that it could add
to the listening pleasure on many stereo-only jazz recordings.


I have three synthesizers in my system: a Sony TA-E1000ESD, a Sony EP9ES,
and a Yamaha RXV1. My original argument in favor of synthesized surround
was that delay time, which varies with speaker setup, was not adjustable,
at least with early SACD/DVD-A systems, and that the speaker arrangement
was unnaturally constrained to one geometry. Perhaps part or all of this
is now invalid; certainly, the positive reports cannot be ignored.

I used to natter JA about the absence of inclusion of synthesized
multichannel. Ironically, my interest in multichannel has been somewhat
displaced by the acquisition and placement of four pairs of main speakers.
To my surprise, I found that there was a way to place each set so as to
mimick or evoke the sound of a particular hall:
Thiel 2.3: Carnegie Hall
Polk LSi15: Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center, Philadelphia
NEAR 50m: I recently discovered these to mimick Merkin Hall in NYC.
Kef Reference III: unknown.

The NEARs are placed on a diagonal with a very large 120 degree spread.
Unlike any other speaker I've experienced, there is no hole in the center,
perhaps due to the rather small 3 inch metal midrange. If the angle spread
is reduced, tonality suffers, perhaps due to interaural crosstalk from the
wide dispersion.

The diagional placement sometimes works very well...I've used it at times in
the past. Never had speakers at 120 degrees, however.

Sitting close to a pair of speakers with a 120 degree sound stage angle,
and no hole, provides an experience I thought was the province of
multichannel surround. The Thiels are flatter, but are better at 90
degrees, and the Polks less than that, perhaps 60 degrees. The Kefs are
stuffed into the corners, and are part of a rectangular IEC 5.1 array.

What is the cost of these disks? What are the prospects for continued
production? Wasn't the continued support of Sony in question?

The disks can be very expensive bought from specialty retailers, and
especially if you buy Japanese or Hong Kong imports I don't. I buy mostly
from CDNow, occassionally from Amazon and other places. They generally
discount off 10-20% and so I end up paying $13.00-17.00 per disk. However,
sometimes you can get specials at places like J&R Music World, or closeouts
at the Bershire Music Outlet that are down in the "under $10" range. Then
there is eBay, which a lot of folk use....


So, last night I had a concert....

I agree with Shhhh! and Arny that everything else being equal, a live
performance of chamber music in a wonderful setting really is "something
better". But short of that, being able to recreate that environment in
the home, when the opportunity and mood are right, as happened for me
last night, is a wonderful thing. When I think back to the very
beginning of the Hi-Fi Era (and I was there in the early '50's) it amazes
and delights me that now, within one man's lifetime, I can be treated to
music that is so close to "being there".

I'm not sure it really does get better than this.
Only once have I heard live acoustics with enthusiasm that rivals yours.
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society used to have the use of a hall in
the new Convention Center, seating about a thousand. The stage had a
little curved shell of hard wood behind the ensemble, the Skampa String
Quartet. The sound I heard from a not particularly favorable seat was far
superior to the CD I bought on the way out the door.

BTW, with respect to our possible future collaboration, I have now wired
up the listening room to the DAW, so that the IEC array with the Kefs as
mains may now be used for multichannel mastering. It involved a 48 foot
FireWire run, a 64 foot USB run, and 75 feet of video cable.

Wow, that's a feat. I too can go quad to the main system from either my
4-track MTR-12 or from the DAW in the basement, but for me that is simply a
through-the-floor passthrough of four analog cables.