New releases

[Bryn]

Thanks from me too, HD. However, my amp, Cambridge Audio Azur 651A, doesn't take HDMI. What adapter do I need?

Does your amp not have Coaxial digital audio input, either? If that is the case, providing an external DAC is likely to add quite a lot to the overall cost, though the most basic could set you back less than £11 (includng UK p&p).

[Bryn]

I have the Sony UBP x800 m2. It has a coaxial digital output, so as long as your amp has a digital input, you should be able to use it.

Edited to add for Bryn,it also plays DVDAs

So I have since discovered. That it lacks an auxiliary analogue audio output seems very strange to me, however.

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks from me too, HD. However, my amp, Cambridge Audio Azur 651A, doesn't take HDMI. What adapter do I need?

I'd suggest using the Co-Ax output from the player into a box like that below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-EKLEVOR-Aluminum-Digital-Support/dp/B08M9L7J3L/ref=sr_1_9?adgrpid=51279331097&gclid=Cj0KCQiAveebBhD_ARIsAFaAvrFHijbdvw3LQakN5s1d6EnAm-kKcT-r-1RjYFPcIX8tEeBM5StEhlwaAtohEALw_wcB&hvadid=259100076208&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9046984&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2366743662331309819&hvtargid=kwd-308961850698&hydadcr=28180_1821132&keywords=coaxial+to+rca+converter&qid=1668978093&sr=8-9

and then straightforward RCA interconnects (L/R) from this kind of converter into the back of your amp. I rather regret this kind of lash-up (which I use between my laptop and the pre-amp) but, as connectivity becomes ever more out of synch as we all get older, it's difficult to avoid. Anyway, it works for me.

[LHC]

So I have since discovered. That it lacks an auxiliary analogue audio output seems very strange to me, however.

Earlier blu ray players all had analogue stereo outputs, and some even had multi-channel analogue outputs, but for some reason all manufacturers have decided to remove them and only provide HDMI outputs. The Sony at least provides a coaxial output.

[Petrushka]

I have the Sony UBP x800 m2. It has a coaxial digital output, so as long as your amp has a digital input, you should be able to use it.

Edited to add for Bryn,it also plays DVDAs

This is the rear panel of the Azur 651A https://www.manualslib.com/manual/53...?page=5#manual

[LHC]

This is the rear panel of the Azur 651A https://www.manualslib.com/manual/53...?page=5#manual

As you only have analogue inputs, a DAC convertor such as the one mentioned by HD in #2898 would be required to attach a modern blu ray player to your amp. You'd also have to plug it into a TV or other monitor using one of the HDMI connections in order to access the menus on any discs.

It's a shame you're not closer to London as I have an older blu ray player going spare which does have analogue outputs.

[Bryn]

Demus Westminster boxed set on Eloquence,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrv1HnSWRU8

[gurnemanz]

Demus Westminster boxed set on Eloquence,

Thanks for the nudge. Looks very tempting. Not so new now (issued 2021) but I'm reminded that Presto also have Jörg Demus' Complete Debussy Solo Piano as a very well-priced download. I have really enjoyed investigating these recordings over the last year.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8915356--debussy-the-complete-solo-piano-works

[MickyD]

Demus Westminster boxed set on Eloquence,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrv1HnSWRU8

But where oh where are the Demus DHM recordings? I've been waiting for them for years.

[Bryn]

But where oh where are the Demus DHM recordings? I've been waiting for them for years.

Sadly, with DHM being a Sony company these days, it's anybody's guess whether they will ever get a CD or download release.

[MickyD]

Sadly, with DHM being a Sony company these days, it's anybody's guess whether they will ever get a CD or download release.

I fear as much, Bryn. Such a shame, there is some real buried treasure there.

[Mandryka]

New release! What a distinctive organ! Interesting booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/39/000153693.pdf

To my mind Titelouze wrote the most interesting French baroque organ music. It takes colour in the registrations to make it come off the page - Berben may have grasped the bull by the horns successfully. A musical kaleidoscope.

(What do organists call it when a long note throbs?)

[Maclintick]

Like me Pet - wish there was a simple Blu Ray player that plugged into a good straightforward hifi system - very thoughtless of the ageist manufacturers!

Coincidentally, Cloughers, I posted this on the techie thread a couple of months back :

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?24349-CD-playback-from-Blu-Ray-player

FWIW, my Blu-Ray player is the extremely basic LG BP250 (£65 at Argos) which only has HDMI output. For CD playback I needed to strip the audio from the HDMI stream, & so acquired a cheap HDMI extractor to connect to my CA streaming DAC via optical SP-DIF.

https://www.orei.com/products/hda912-hdmi-digital-optical-audio-converter

The LPCM stream from the converter is rock-solid & the audio quality via the CA DAC excellent. In addition to the Toslink optical output it has an analogue 3.5 mm stereo jack which the manufacturers describe as "high-quality" although I have not investigated this....

[Barbirollians]

November's Gramophone is full of new releases that I want !

Bruckner 4 Rattle, the Sixteen Byrd album, Savall's Schubert 8 and 9, Zimerman in Szymanowski , Ibragimova in Telemann, Bychkov's Mahler 5, the live Rozhdestvensky Shostakovich 4 and 11 ,MGT in Weinberg, Chauvin's next Viviali instalment, Capucon and Wang in Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata, the Brodsky Schubert String Quintet, Bostridge/Vogt in Schwanengesang and Oropesa and Devos's recital discs for a start !

[jayne lee wilson]

I streamed the Savall Schubert Symphonies on Qobuz a while back, and they are very exciting and immediate readings and recordings. Lots of punch and power in the 9th (great for lovers of timpani - wow, or maybe whoa!). Typically spacious sound balances (with prominent brasses !), as per his Mozart and Beethoven Symphonies. Rhythm and momentum - You can feel, almost hear, Savall urging the players onward...but considering each lyrical respite.

The 8th is exceptional: tense, ominous, dark and fiery - yet can sing sweetly too. I hope he does the complete 8th one day; I hope he does the complete cycle. I hope.....

I'm glad Threasher referenced the Michi Gaigg live cycle on CPO, a favourite of mine for the complete set and perhaps the most startlingly radical of all.

I bought the Ibragimova Telemann Fantasies on CD, and play it as aubade/nocturne in the bedroom (I often favour Baroque instrumental in this role).
I found them somewhat austere, though apt to the late night, especially with my continuing health struggles.