[miketlse]

I may have found the article you referenced—a 2009 review of the Bel Canto DAC3.

Wow, you have a very good memory!

You flatter me.
My subscription is only approx 3 years, so I suspect the article was much more recent, probably nearly 3 years ago at most.

 

[Christer]

And more fun stuff on Kingsway Hall from its Wikipedia entry:

Directly below Great Queen Street is the main line of the Underground Piccadilly line which opened on 15 December 1906, and under Kingsway was a branch, the rail extension from Holborn to Aldwych which opened 13 November 1907 and closed 1994. The sound of the underground could be heard on many recordings, and became known as the "Kingsway rumble". There were also recording problems created by road and construction noise, and even occasional interruptions from the clientele of the mission itself. Engineers complained that takes made with outside traffic noise could not be edited together with those made while traffic stopped for a red light.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsway_Hall

The hall was demolished in 1998 and a hotel now stands in its place.

If it weren't for the M Scaler, I would never have known

cheers,
muski

I have quite a few of the famous 60s and 70s mainly the DECCA/ EMI, Kingsway Hall recordings on LPs.

Some of them are among the best recordings from the analogue era imho.

And if my memory serves me right this time,there were even some recording sessions scheduled at either very late or very early hours to avoid the Rumble!

Either before the first train or after the last one.
Many early mornings and late nights there.

I wonder if the other GREAT classical recordings hall, Watford Town Hall is still around?
Or has it suffered the same fate as Kingsway Hall and Sofiensaal in Vienna?
Demolition?

The latest recording I have from there is Flute Mystery made by Morten Lindberg of 2L in 2009.

But like Kingsway Hall many good recordings have been made there.

By coincidence I actually played the rbcd layer of the classic 1959/Mercury/ Dorati/LSO/Stravinsky /Firebird via my HMS last night.
And frankly apart from a bit of tape saturation and hiss and some overload at the big climaxes once again, from a recording balance point of view it DEFINITELY doesn't get any better than the 1959 simple mic take from Watford Town Hall to deliver how an orchestra actually sounds live in a good hall.

Two or three mics and a good orchestra and hall is imho still all it takes.

I haven't played my promo copy of "Flute Mystery" for a long long time. But tonight I'll give it spin via optical and HMS to hear how it fares.
I remember Morten telling me about his "not all so rosy" experience there, quite well.
Vladimir Ashkenazy was conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra ,but the not so rosy incident, had nothing to do with him.


But I don't have the Previn /Ashkenazy Rach Dances for two pianos you mentioned in your post though.

My technically best recording of the orchestral version of Rachmaninov's Dances, is the one made by "prof Johnson" of Reference Recordings. It sounds terrific in its 24/176.4 download version via HMS.
Cheers Controversial Christer

 

[Siz.]

...I wonder if the other GREAT classical recordings hall, Watford Town Hall is still around?
Or has it suffered the same fate as Kingsway Hall and Sofiensaal in Vienna?
Demolition?...

I was in Watford today as it happens; and while a lot has changed, I can report that Watford Town Hall (The Watford Colosseum) is alive and well.

 

[Windseeker]

I've listened to a recording of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances for two pianos by Vladimir Ashkenazy & Andre Previn—today I heard things rumbling by (and discovered that it was recorded in Kingsway Hall which sits on a fairly busy London street).

Another recording venue that leaves me with similar experience is New York's Village Vanguard.

My favorite recording here is Bill Evans Trio's Waltz for Debby album. The sounds of subway train passing by can be heard with many revealing systems, but it feels particularly real with HMS.
Plus, one gets to hear fantastic bass play of Scott LaFaro. Again, HMS does an amazing job of bringing reality & musicality to his bass notes.

 

[musickid]

Chucho Valdes live at the Vanguard is quite special with the mscaler. You can almost touch and feel the live venue.

 

[rkt31]

Yes , though not much into western classical but I listened to firebird suite by reference recording on HMS and i would say it was unbelievable experience.

 

[rkt31]

But for that extra melodic experience stone rose by ola gjeilo is a great listen on HMS.

 

[ray-dude]

I've been doing a lot of experiments with the optical and USB inputs on my HMS. That got me curious about the BNC inputs to the HMS.

Without having to get a second HMS, does anyone have advice for how to get a 384kHz signal from a PC to one of the BNC inputs on the HMS? I've been eyeing DDC's like the Singxer or Matrix SPDIF2, but their BNC out is limited to 96kHz or 192kHz SPDIF (the higher 384kHz rates are only on the i2s interface). (I'm VERY new to the DDC and i2s thing...pointers/links to get less ignorant are always appreciated).

Has anyone tried interfacing a higher resolution signal from i2s to the HMS? Other strategies that make sense for getting higher resolution output (USB etc) to the BNC inputs of the HMS?

 

[dac64]

Best way to disperse heats!

 

[Ragnar-BY]

I have listened to Opera Aries by Michael Fabiano via M Scaler and TT2. Performance left me speechless. I tried to switch M Scaler to pass-through and it was sounding like "magic off/magic on" switch. Incredible effect.

@Rob Watts thank you for creating this amazing gear. M Scaler is really something that every music lover should try.

 

[Amberlamps]

I've been doing a lot of experiments with the optical and USB inputs on my HMS. That got me curious about the BNC inputs to the HMS.

Without having to get a second HMS, does anyone have advice for how to get a 384kHz signal from a PC to one of the BNC inputs on the HMS? I've been eyeing DDC's like the Singxer or Matrix SPDIF2, but their BNC out is limited to 96kHz or 192kHz SPDIF (the higher 384kHz rates are only on the i2s interface). (I'm VERY new to the DDC and i2s thing...pointers/links to get less ignorant are always appreciated).

Has anyone tried interfacing a higher resolution signal from i2s to the HMS? Other strategies that make sense for getting higher resolution output (USB etc) to the BNC inputs of the HMS?

An addon card for your pc maybe ? You do get cards with weird ports on them, i'd guess amazon or ebay.

You could do a hugo 2 to mscaler mod, but using a single bnc cable instead. One end of the bnc cable terminated with a 3.5mm jack, the other end using a bnc connector. That should plug in to your soundcards output port and will give you a max sample rate of 384khz.

Personally I would try and find an addon card that does what you need, but I'm sure someone or yourself could make up such a cable.

 

[miketlse]

An addon card for your pc maybe ? You do get cards with weird ports on them, i'd guess amazon or ebay.

You could do a hugo 2 to mscaler mod, but using a single bnc cable instead. One end of the bnc cable terminated with a 3.5mm jack, the other end using a bnc connector. That should plug in to your soundcards output port and will give you a max sample rate of 384khz.

Personally I would try and find an addon card that does what you need, but I'm sure someone or yourself could make up such a cable.

Is something like this of use?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...khz-coaxial-aesebu-i2s-hdmi-lvds-p-11975.html
[Edit] - the 768 is via hdmi output
384 output via rj45 socket
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...hz-2x-tcxo-power-supply-230v-otg-p-10547.html
768 via hdmi, but this is a cheap piece of kit
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...axial-32bit-768khz-dsd512-silver-p-13739.html

 

[ray-dude]

Is something like this of use?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...khz-coaxial-aesebu-i2s-hdmi-lvds-p-11975.html
[Edit] - the 768 is via hdmi output
384 output via rj45 socket
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...hz-2x-tcxo-power-supply-230v-otg-p-10547.html
768 via hdmi, but this is a cheap piece of kit
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...axial-32bit-768khz-dsd512-silver-p-13739.html

These were the models I was eyeing to experiment with. Alas, no clean pathto get >192kHz to the BNC input on HMS (other than another HMS or Hugo2)

 

[HumanMedia]

I've been doing a lot of experiments with the optical and USB inputs on my HMS. That got me curious about the BNC inputs to the HMS.

Without having to get a second HMS, does anyone have advice for how to get a 384kHz signal from a PC to one of the BNC inputs on the HMS? I've been eyeing DDC's like the Singxer or Matrix SPDIF2, but their BNC out is limited to 96kHz or 192kHz SPDIF (the higher 384kHz rates are only on the i2s interface). (I'm VERY new to the DDC and i2s thing...pointers/links to get less ignorant are always appreciated).

Has anyone tried interfacing a higher resolution signal from i2s to the HMS? Other strategies that make sense for getting higher resolution output (USB etc) to the BNC inputs of the HMS?

If you don’t mind another device in the chain, going out via USB to an Audiophilleo 1 MkII Special edition, will convert to and output 384khz over BNC SPDIF.

 

[dac64]

If you don’t mind another device in the chain, going out via USB to an Audiophilleo 1 Special edition, will convert to and output 384khz over BNC SPDIF.

Not appreciate for all the chord threds else they wouldn't buy chord!