Karajan Beethoven on Blu Ray

[richardfinegold]

I have the earlier release with the symphonies on CD as well as the Blu Ray, and I'm pretty sure the Blu Ray Audio disc is only 2 channel PCM audio, mastered at 24/96. There is no multichannel option. However, as well as all 9 symphonies, it also include audio of Karajan rehearsing three movements from the 9th Symphony.

The sound quality on the Blu Ray is exceptional, and much better than any of the previous CD releases.

That is possible; I just remembered that my AVR will play in "surround mode" even if the material isn't multichannel encoded. I did a quick comparison of the First movements of the first symphony between this and the Vanska/Minnesota recording on SACD, which is definitely encoded for multichannel. The Vanska beats the Karajan in every way imaginable sonically, but it was recorded 50 years later, in DSD, so it doesn't mean much.
I didn't buy the Karajan expecting a multichannel spectacular. As indicated earlier I have primarily listened in 2 channel with my Universal Player in 2 channel mode. What is important is that it is greatly improved sound, at a very low price, and takes up virtually no storage space.
Most Blu Ray players offer a digital out, usually Tos Link, besides HDMI. I have two surround systems, both of which have Sony Blu Rays, which cost less than a nice dinner for my wife and I, and they sound great, albeit look cheap and plasticky.
My two channel system has an Oppo Universal Player, but I tried one of the Sony's there and it worked fine

[Dave2002]

It looks as though cheapish Blu-Ray players might work - though may only have an HDMI output, not an SPDIF/TOSLINK one. Here is one such (chosen as a typical cheap model) - http://www.tesco.com/direct/lg-bp255...r/234-9484.prd which can be bought for less than £40. This should work with AV amps/receivers. See the user manual for that model at - http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-BP255

I think there are also converters to insert in the HDMI link which can convert to SPDIF/TOSLINK for feed to a 2 channel DAC.
See https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...l_902jf9fc0b_b

I don't know whether there are potential quality losses in using conversion kit, such as from that last link. Some devices may be better than others.

It may indeed be simpler to go for the option with the CD discs as well as the Blu Ray - and simply not use the Blu-Ray disc! The cost of setting up a system to play the Karajan Blu-Ray audio disc, plus the faff etc., may mitigate against its purchase, though some people will be able to use it without additional equipment.

Some of this could have gone in the Techie section, but I thought it might be relevant to prospective purchasers of the Karajan Blu-Ray looking for a bargain. I note also that there is a hierarchy of "excellence". Some have written that the audio quality is the best for these recordings to date - and I don't dispute that. However, there is still an opinion that modern recordings are actually still much better, so the main reason for buying this Blu Ray (or the +CDs combination) is to get the best remastering specifically of Karajan's work. For better sound (if that is wanted) other performances in more recent recordings would still be better.