[Gofspar]

Welp, I did it.
 
heres HD 600's with Audeze Vegan pads.
 
http://imgur.com/gallery/qmY8M

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Welp, I did it.
 
heres HD 600's with Audeze Vegan pads.
 
http://imgur.com/gallery/qmY8M

Looks amazing! Nice monitor speakers, what are they mate?

 

[Argyris]

A lot of the poorly recorded material in my library skews toward being bright, peaky and harsh, with pronounced sibilance. The HD 600 actually helps me here as it doesn't add any additional energy to an already problematic area of these recordings, so in all but the worst cases I can listen without any fatigue. They're still bad recordings, but they're not painful to listen to anymore.
 
What really kills a recording for me is excessive dynamic compression. If it's so bad you can hear transients getting chopped off, the volume pumping, and the trailing portions of pianos and reverb ringing unnaturally loud, it just comes across as dull and lifeless. The actual tonal balance doesn't even matter; I've heard recordings like this that were actually tipped toward the treble or midrange, and they still just sounded rolled off and dead. This recording of a song my mother begged me to download and put on her iPod is one of the worst I've come across in a while for compression. I'm not a massive fan of the song, anyway, but I feel like even if I loved it, it would be difficult to enjoy.

 

[Argyris]

  Welp, I did it.
 
heres HD 600's with Audeze Vegan pads.
 
http://imgur.com/gallery/qmY8M

 
How does the HD 600 sound with those on there?

 

[David58117]

  My bad, Naxos, thank you. Yes, there are many factors involved in getting good classical recordings. I find most I play are rather underwhelming, but the genre is massive so my sample size has been small. A huge classical aficionado I worked with a number of years ago also agreed that it is challenging to find good classical recordings (he was the one who suggested Naxos as a good label). 

 
Naxos has good stuff, but they are a budget label - although they have gotten better over the years.  I don't really go by labels too much anymore, but Naxos isn't a label I equate with audiophile quality, and I have sooo many releases of theirs to back that up.  They're more the label you go to when you're looking for hard to find/rarely recorded music, which is what they excel at.  

 

[Argyris]

   
Naxos has good stuff, but they are a budget label - although they have gotten better over the years.  I don't really go by labels too much anymore, but Naxos isn't a label I equate with audiophile quality, and I have sooo many releases of theirs to back that up.  They're more the label you go to when you're looking for hard to find/rarely recorded music, which is what they excel at.  

 
I've heard enough of them to say that that's accurate. The recording is usually solid, but rarely jaw-droppingly awesome. But they're inexpensive, the performances are usually pretty good (if by lesser known artists and groups), and their catalogue is massive.
 
They did manage to hit it out of the park on this recording, though. It's an uncanny rendition of a small, intimate chapel, and as I mentioned earlier, it also happens to be my favorite performance of the Requiem.

 

[Gofspar]

  Looks amazing! Nice monitor speakers, what are they mate?

Fluance SX6 in Walnut, they're on sale right now.
http://www.fluance.com/sx6-high-definition-two-way-bookshelf-loudspeakers-natural-walnut

   
How does the HD 600 sound with those on there?

http://i.imgur.com/OUbnZYa.jpg
 
heres with the foam inserts along with the pad adapter, since the audeze pads already have dampening I got rid of the foam inserts and they aren't as dark but have the same amount of impact. so add like 2db more around 5k to 7k.
 
biggest thing was the sound stage, absolutely insane.

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Fluance SX6 in Walnut, they're on sale right now.
http://www.fluance.com/sx6-high-definition-two-way-bookshelf-loudspeakers-natural-walnut
http://i.imgur.com/OUbnZYa.jpg
 

Nice, I live in the same province so driving distance! I'm more interested in the Bluetooth room unit, that is peaking my interest.

 

[Tayyab Pirzada]

  Nice, I live in the same province so driving distance! I'm more interested in the Bluetooth room unit, that is peaking my interest.

wow another canadian 

 

[Argyris]

  Fluance SX6 in Walnut, they're on sale right now.
http://www.fluance.com/sx6-high-definition-two-way-bookshelf-loudspeakers-natural-walnut
http://i.imgur.com/OUbnZYa.jpg
 

 
Those look really nice. I like that they post the actual frequency response, warts and all. It shows they're confident in their products and their customers' ability to interpret a chart. I also like how they're not insanely expensive. This has definitely piqued my interest.

 

[painted klown]

   
Naxos has good stuff, but they are a budget label - although they have gotten better over the years.  I don't really go by labels too much anymore, but Naxos isn't a label I equate with audiophile quality, and I have sooo many releases of theirs to back that up.  They're more the label you go to when you're looking for hard to find/rarely recorded music, which is what they excel at.  

Being new to classical music, I am not familiar with the labels at all really. I recently picked up a small lot of classical music and have been enjoying it immensely. Prior to this, I was under the impression that nearly all classical music was well recorded and mastered. I found this to not really be the case at all.
 
Could you suggest some record labels that are essentially known for releasing high quality classical?

 

[FLTWS]

  Being new to classical music, I am not familiar with the labels at all really. I recently picked up a small lot of classical music and have been enjoying it immensely. Prior to this, I was under the impression that nearly all classical music was well recorded and mastered. I found this to not really be the case at all.
 
Could you suggest some record labels that are essentially known for releasing high quality classical?

 
Are you looking for a high degree of recording fidelity or performances that deliver the truth of the music. High quality and great performances of the music you might want to hear may not usually be found together. Not always, but often in my experience. But then again, opinions will always differ.
 
The best recorded quality seems to come from smaller independent operations, try Sheffield, Chesky, Reference Recordings, Telarc. Or, some of the specialized re-mastered releases using K2 tech with many mastered by JVC,
 
Of the majors I'm partial to 60, 70 and 80's Decca, but I have equal numbers of DG, Philips, and EMI/Angel. Performance generally trumps recorded quality for me, but not always.
 
If your looking for some high quality stuff to evaluate equipment here's some I rely on (CD's only and not all classical):
 
Sheffield: The Wagner / Prokofiev album, The Missing Linc album
Chesky: Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc, Holst Planets
Reference Recordings: Britten's Orchestra, Bruckner 9th, Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Epic: Stanley Clarke "School Days"
Verve K2 (Re)Mastering: Diana Krall "The Look of Love" (XRCD 24)
K2 HD Re-Mastering: Beethoven 6th Sym - Walter Col. SO. / Strauss's Also Sprach... Mehta with LAP orig. Decca / Stravinsky's Le Sacre...Solti with Chi.SO (XRCD Re- Master by JVC) orig. Decca /  Holst Planets...Previn with LSO (XRCD 24 Hi-Q Records) orig EMI. 
K2 HD Mastering 24 bit 100kHz: Beethoven 9th...Solti with Chi. SO orig. Decca / Tchaikovsky Sym 4,5,and 6... Mravinsky and Leningrad Phil., Beethoven Piano Sonatas...Gilels orig. DG / Beethoven 5the and 7th...Kleiber with VPO orig. DG.
 
I have a lot of the original stock CD releases of the above re-mastered items as well. There are some very good performances in this group, but that always varies for different listeners.
 
A final note: well recorded material tends to sound good on most equipment, I find flaws in recordings can be just as valuable in comparing equipment.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Frankly, the very hit and miss quality of recording is ultimately my barrier to purchasing and enjoying some classical music. Performances matter less to me, it isn't unimportant, but I'm not so well versed that I can easily tell what constitutes a better performance. I think that is also likely to be subjective; however, recording quality while still somewhat subjective, is much less so, and I can tell a well recorded work from a poorly one easily so hence my emphasis on recording quality. My ex is classically trained in violin, and much of her family is as well so there were always classical CDs around the house. I would say the vast majority of the time the recordings were horrid, to poor with the odd gem in the mix. Let's face it, a poor recording of a full on orchestral piece is no less jarring and unpleasant on the ear than an overly compressed pop song, both can be very hard to take. Somebody in a thread spent a good time explaining the many factors that effect the ultimate quality of classical recordings, he articulated the issues very well, but essentially it boiled down to the obvious, not all classical recordings or performances are equal, and there are so many in this vast genre that one can spend a fortune on poor recordings, which as I mentioned at the start, has prevented me from doing so.

 

[DomieMic65]

Guys a quick question!
I am waiting mine to arrive in a few days...
I happen to have a 650 cable and also the HD25Aluminum witch I love!
I am thinking of putting the HD650 cable to the 600s and the 600 cable to the 25s as long as there is a way to put it though the headband and attach it on the right side of the phones!
I don't want to mess with the original 600 sound though.. at the beginning anyway!
Does the 650 cable change a lot the sound of the 600?

 

[StanD]

Guys a quick question!
I am waiting mine to arrive in a few days...
I happen to have a 650 cable and also the HD25Aluminum witch I love!
I am thinking of putting the HD650 cable to the 600s and the 600 cable to the 25s as long as there is a way to put it though the headband and attach it on the right side of the phones!
I don't want to mess with the original 600 sound though.. at the beginning anyway!
Does the 650 cable change a lot the sound of the 600?

IMO, no change in SQ. It seems to be sturdier, however, the stock cable never failed for me. I passed it along to a friend that needed a replacement cable for his 650.