[Baldr]

Following last week's intensive listening of Mahler's Symphonies, I'm now getting re-familiarized with the Bruckner corpus. Fantastic corpus, the best corpus. It's just tremendous.

Whose Mahler and Bruckner?

 

[Baldr]

@Baldr

Would you mind commenting on the zero crossing glitch and the poor performance of the SE summed outputs on the Yggy and Gumby?

There seems to be a lot of controversy on a computer forum about it.

I suppose this merits an annual comment:

I have commented extensively on that other forum. The summary is that if anyone is concerned about aberrations that are over -110 db below peak output then you have no reason to buy almost any audio product period and are far too OCD for us to even value as a rational client. The client base of thousands and the multitude of reviews (including a recent one from pronouncing us the best value ever in the history of high end audio) alone dismiss the dyspeptic comments that have no basis in the real audio world. If you worry about inaudible minutiae you are far better off buying the gear of others and whimpering to their makers.

 

[Pandahead]

Life is short, enjoy your tunes, island or no island

 

[HumanFly]

I wonder if Mike or anyone else has plans to visit Hamburg soon?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/augmented-reality/what-perfect-sound-looks-like/

Wauw! That is a jawdropping piece of design right there.
Its almost a symphony of rythm and flow on its own.
No orchestra needed

 

[pctazhp]

I suppose this merits an annual comment:

I have commented extensively on that other forum. The summary is that if anyone is concerned about aberrations that are over -110 db below peak output then you have no reason to buy almost any audio product period and are far too OCD for us to even value as a rational client. The client base of thousands and the multitude of reviews (including a recent one from pronouncing us the best value ever in the history of high end audio) alone dismiss the dyspeptic comments that have no basis in the real audio world. If you worry about inaudible minutiae you are far better off buying the gear of others and whimpering to their makers.

Mike: I love and respect that attitude. When I started getting into high end headphones about a year and a half ago, I bought Bimby because back in my audiophile days I owned your Theta5. It was what started to wean me away from vinyl. I love my Bimby and if I ever upgrade it will be up the Schiit line. Really though, if I'm missing something with Bimby I can't imagine what it is.Right now my wife would prefer I don't find out )))

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Whose Mahler and Bruckner?

I confess I'm doing a lot of my listening on my $175 klipsch active monitors at school, as those are the only audio possession I trust my middle schoolers not to ruin, and which I would not miss were they destroyed. They sound *fine*, but I have so little experience in 2-channel listening that I really can have no educated opinion. Having reading classes in which music is acceptable accompaniment allows a lot of great listening to be done. If anyone has any passive speaker suggestions (for under 2k a pair), I'm all ears. Panache puts out 100W into 8ohms, 200W into 4. I'm inclined to prefer floor standing.

That said -- Jochum Bruckner (with some Furtwangler and Karajan). And Walter/Solti Mahler, with some Klemperer, Abbado, Boulez, Rattle, and Karajan.

 

[FLTWS]

I confess I'm doing a lot of my listening on my $175 klipsch active monitors at school, as those are the only audio possession I trust my middle schoolers not to ruin, and which I would not miss were they destroyed. They sound *fine*, but I have so little experience in 2-channel listening that I really can have no educated opinion. Having reading classes in which music is acceptable accompaniment allows a lot of great listening to be done. If anyone has any passive speaker suggestions (for under 2k a pair), I'm all ears. Panache puts out 100W into 8ohms, 200W into 4. I'm inclined to prefer floor standing.

No suggestions on speakers as I've been out iot that game since 2004, but 2K will give you a lot of nice choices for your ears to pick from.

That said -- Jochum Bruckner (with some Furtwangler and Karajan). And Solti Mahler, with some Klemperer, Abbado, Boulez, Rattle, and Karajan.

You might find this of interest on Bruckner:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Bruckner_symphonies_PWJQ.htm

As for Mahler, Tony Duggan did a terrific survey of all the symphonies. Sadly, he passed away in 2012.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Mahler/index.html

 

[Zojokkeli]

I confess I'm doing a lot of my listening on my $175 klipsch active monitors at school, as those are the only audio possession I trust my middle schoolers not to ruin, and which I would not miss were they destroyed. They sound *fine*, but I have so little experience in 2-channel listening that I really can have no educated opinion. Having reading classes in which music is acceptable accompaniment allows a lot of great listening to be done. If anyone has any passive speaker suggestions (for under 2k a pair), I'm all ears. Panache puts out 100W into 8ohms, 200W into 4. I'm inclined to prefer floor standing.

That said -- Jochum Bruckner (with some Furtwangler and Karajan). And Solti Mahler, with some Klemperer, Abbado, Boulez, Rattle, and Karajan.

Elac's Debut series are supposedly great for the money. I'm gravitating towards Elac's offerings myself, when I move to a bigger place.

 

[KoshNaranek]

I confess I'm doing a lot of my listening on my $175 klipsch active monitors at school, as those are the only audio possession I trust my middle schoolers not to ruin, and which I would not miss were they destroyed. They sound *fine*, but I have so little experience in 2-channel listening that I really can have no educated opinion. Having reading classes in which music is acceptable accompaniment allows a lot of great listening to be done. If anyone has any passive speaker suggestions (for under 2k a pair), I'm all ears. Panache puts out 100W into 8ohms, 200W into 4. I'm inclined to prefer floor standing.

That said -- Jochum Bruckner (with some Furtwangler and Karajan). And Solti Mahler, with some Klemperer, Abbado, Boulez, Rattle, and Karajan.

If you can go as high as $2100, Music Direct has Wharfedale Jade 7 for the pair
I would recommend Freya and twin Vidar to drive them as bass can suck a lot of power.

The Wharfedale 10.7 are also on clearance for $700. Single Vidar should be fine for them.

These speakers have a warm British sound to them. The highs are a bit rolled off but are quite pleasant. If I was setting up another system for my parents, I would get one of them.

For myself, I prefer electrostatic speakers. I own two pairs of Martin Logans and I like the Magnepans. Both of these require a lot of current. One Vidar may be OK, but I think I would prefer two.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I didn't realize electrostatic speaks could be driven by conventional amps. As I say, I'm exceedingly new to the 2-channel lineup. Some candidates that caught my were were the B&W 683 S2, Q Acoustics Concept 40, and Spendor A6R.

 

[QueYo]

Whose Mahler and Bruckner?

Who's Mahler? And Bruckner?

(Funnier with bad spelling and punctuation.)

 

[KoshNaranek]

I didn't realize electrostatic speaks could be driven by conventional amps. As I say, I'm exceedingly new to the 2-channel lineup. Some candidates that caught my were were the B&W 683 S2, Q Acoustics Concept 40, and Spendor A6R.

Electrostatic speakers can be driven from conventional amps but require a power source to charge the panels. That means they need to be plugged into the wall as well as the amp.

If you like the B&W, I think you will like the Wharfdales, but they are bit warmer. I am not familiar with the other two. YMMV


Edited for stupidity

 

[artur9]

As I say, I'm exceedingly new to the 2-channel lineup. .

2 channel is a world unto itself. I wish I could hear all the different types of speakers driven by good clean electronics.

Things like the BBC style speakers: Spendor, Harbeth.
Planar(?) speakers: Martin Logan, ESL, Janszen, Magnepans(used to own SMG IIIa, loved them but they need room).
Small single driver speakers: Airtight Bonsai, Role Audio. Cambridge Audio BMR/Minx (own these)
Small coaxial: Trenner&Friedl Sun
Large heavy hitters: Legacy Audio, Totem, Vienna Acoustic Liszt, Sonus Faber, Wilsons (yuck)
Small floor standers: Joseph Audio Profile (loved them at C.A.P.), PSB T<somethings>, Vienna Acoustics Mozarts.
Monitors: Joseph Audio Prism, Vienna Acoustics Haydn (own these), Sonus Faber Venere 1.5, Totem Rain
Exotics: Larsen, Ohm Walsh,
Line Arrays: Carver's Amazing Line source, Steinway Lyngdorf, Pipedreams

There are really a ridiculous number of speakers out there with all kinds of designs. And crazy expensive sometimes.

Would love to hear a Gauder Acoustik floor stander.

 

[Baldr]

That said -- Jochum Bruckner (with some Furtwangler and Karajan). And Walter/Solti Mahler, with some Klemperer, Abbado, Boulez, Rattle, and Karajan.

I am a total sucker for Mahler Symphonic Cycles - I thought I had them all until I met a UCSD music prof at the recent CanJam, who told me about three new ones: Gary Bertini, Marcus Stenz, and the Best IMHO, Michael Gielen. I am amazed at what these apparent "second string" orchestras can provide. I have it on good authority that Vaclav Neumann's Czech Phil cycle is equally amazing.

RE Bruckner, the older EMI Jochum cycle is also amazing, but I am really liking (God the spelling) the Skrowaczewski/deutsche radio philharmonie saarbrucken kaiserslautern cycle. Amazing!!!

Oh, BTW any Mahler symphony conducted by Jascha Horenstein is reconstructed in a way that no one else can imagine symphonies - his 8th could convert atheists to deists.

 

[wink]

It needs to convert atheists to theists, preferably trinitarians..............