Modern Recorded Sound

[gradus]

Could I just add that its worth keeping an eye on eBay for speakers by the recognised high quality manufacturers, particularly if you don't insist on having current models from the manufacturers range.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My advice would be to avoid gimmicky speakers like Bose Acoustimass like the plague.

[Mandryka]

I'm no audiophile, but I reckon you can't go too far wrong with a pair of Mordaunt-Shorts.

[Basil]

Could I just add that its worth keeping an eye on eBay for speakers by the recognised high quality manufacturers, particularly if you don't insist on having current models from the manufacturers range.

Perhaps I've been particularly unlucky, but of the three things I've bought on e-bay, all described as 'in perfect working order, 2 were seriously broken!

Caveat emptor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps I've been particularly unlucky, but of the three things I've bought on e-bay, all described as 'in perfect working order, 2 were seriously broken!

I always advise my pupils NOT to buy musical instruments on eBay. Loudspeakers might be worth considering though.

[Basil]

One of the two seriously broken items was a pair of loudspeakers!

Royd Apex, both tweeters were pushed in and the surround of both bass/mids were torn.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh, I see. I'll keep quiet then.

[Basil]

Oh, I see. I'll keep quiet then.

Don't be like that!

Just offering an opinion based on personal experience.

I'd recommend this place for a decent second hand section.

http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=10

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No, I wasn't taking umbridge. :) I just didn't have the full picture of your experience.
Thanks for the weblink.

[Basil]

Thanks for the weblink.

Just ignore the 'audio' section, full of odd folk who think the kit is more important than the music!

[gradus]

Well I must be fortunate as both my speaker purchases on ebay were fine. I do hope that you got your money back.

[Cellini]

This is not the first time, by some margin, that I have felt seriously disappointed and baffled by modern recorded sound. I should add that I listened to the normal stereo CD not the SACD.

Has anyone else heard this disc? Are any recording engineers (TonyF, DugganAudio) on this forum as they were on the BBC boards who may wish to comment? Something is clearly amiss with modern recorded sound and I'd be interested in hearing other people's views on this or other discs as part of a general debate on the issue.

Personally I do not think there is anything wrong with modern recorded sound, providing the producers and engineers are of the highest quality, the venue accoustics are good, and as ferret says, there are not too many mics in use. Then the musical content must also live up to the sound being offered, which is often not the case.

A recording is a recording, and this is often overlooked by people who think it can be like real life.

[Dave2002]

I've stopped buying new release from one of the majors because I can't get on with the sound they currently produce - some of their discs have recently won awards so somone must like what they're doing.

I agree with others that there are many factors. However, I also suspect that your own equipment may have something to do with it. Many years ago I tended to prefer recordings by EMI and (dare I admit to it here) CBS, whereas it was clear that many reviewers in mags such as Gramophone liked Decca. One day I met another classical music enthusiast and he played some LPs on his equipment - using what was at the time a high quality turntable, and a Decca arm and pickup. On his kit the Decca records sounded really great. I have also heard some very good reproduction of Sony/CBS recordings, but not in domestic environments. Notwithstanding that though, I do still like some of the early EMI recordings. I think there may really be differences in sound quality between different labels - though whether it's the equipment which they use or the way the engineers/producers position the microphones, and process the sound afterwards I can't say. Given that, it then does seem perfectly possible that the equipment you use to replay the recordings could also introduce a bias to or against a particular recording company's offerings.

I used to live next door to a Decca recording engineer/technician, and I think he was involved in some recordings with Dutoit as he often went to Canada. He wasn't the principal engineer though. He was a nice guy, but his main interest was in loud pop music, and he may not actually have known what would be a good sound to aim for - though I'm sure that some of the recordings he was involved in came out well.

How engineers go about setting things up and recording I don't know. Do they "suck it and see", or do they actually try to get reproducible results each time, for example by analysing the frequency response and reverb times in locations, and using systematic processes and check lists to try to maintain quality? I suspect some do, and others don't.

I find CD Review the ideal way of getting some idea of recording quality, more often than not what I hear puts me off buying the disc unless it's an exceptional perfomance.

The problem with this is that the quality of R3's sound will colour what you hear, though there may be other factors which will come through. Many CDs and SACDs have, in some respects at least, better sound quality than R3 is capable of passing transparently. Still, you can usually rule out obvious duff recordings by listening to CD Review.

[mangerton]

Dave, that's very interesting. Please can you, (or anyone else) indicate what the different roles of recording producer and engineer are, and how they inter-relate?

[Pianorak]

The Decca recording of Ashkenazy playing Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux is labelled: Plays on SACD & CD players - super audio CD.
The sound reproduction if played on my conventional CD player abysmal. My question: Do SACDs ideally require a special SACD player?
It's the only SACD I have so far - and I really don't want another one.