[simorag]

Just read your eloquent contribution while listening to *I contain multitudes* by Bob Dylan and he mentions the Beethoven sonatas…just saying. That’s what I do next then, obviously.

Such a wonderful idea! Here are some of my favorite cycles (sadly Gilels did not made a complete one, but still...), two XX century piano legends and one of the most compelling recent releases from a young yet very insightful and mature pianist. Great, great sonics comes as a welcome bonus with the Levit disc

 

[simorag]

Brahms 1st piano concerto on a few legendary, quite different, interpretations.

The sensitivity and profundity of Serkin, the touch and romantic warmth of Freire (best sonics of the lot), the virtuosic grand sounding young Fleisher, the impetuous, intuitive vintage Richter.
Such a joy to compare and rediscover again and again one of the great romantic piano repertoire testament pieces.

Gilels is my favorite when it comes to the 1st / 2nd pairing.

Just a great balance between eloquence, elegance, structural grasp and sheer emotional power!

By the way, the Valkyria penchant for flesh and blood injections really helps reviving some otherwise dry sounding old recordings

 

[Axel]

Brahms 1st piano concerto on a few legendary, quite different, interpretations.

The sensitivity and profundity of Serkin, the touch and romantic warmth of Freire (best sonics of the lot), the virtuosic grand sounding young Fleisher, the impetuous, intuitive vintage Richter.
Such a joy to compare and rediscover again and again one of the great romantic piano repertoire testament pieces.






Gilels is my favorite when it comes to the 1st / 2nd pairing.




Just a great balance between eloquence, elegance, structural grasp and sheer emotional power!

By the way, the Valkyria penchant for flesh and blood injections really helps reviving some otherwise dry sounding old recordings

Excellent!
Try Curzon for No. 1, Backhaus and Zimerman for No. 2.
Pollini is also excellent with Abbado and Bohm.

 

[simorag]

After a piano marathon lasting several months now, I had a strings galore stint.

It's easy fo fall in love for the throaty, genuine tone the Valkyria offers with cello, viola and the thunderous, heavily resonant stroke of double bass when called for.

My aging ears are more and more seeking the comfort of darker colors, and my brain lingers onto floating, moderately intricate, not aggressive interplay between instruments with an authentic, humane, palpable (not overly airy) timbre.

Here is a list of albums I really loved lately. The Valkyria, and the AIC-10, are ideally suited for this music, and for the peculiar type of presentation I seem to enjoy.

 

[simorag]

Paradoxes of being human, on the verge of self-annihilation, yet capable of sublime creations ... strange, fascinating, terrible creatures we are.

 

[simorag]

Today I had the luxury of having the great Emil Gilels being my host (wonders of streaming)

His rendition of the Grieg Lyric Pieces is a caleidoscope of all human emotions, driven by a calm, apparently light, darkness, which exploits infancy innocent basic tunes, folkloric roots, violent outages, to touch deeply rooted foundational feelings in a discrete yet unsettling fashion.

This disc is a recording marvel and contains a spectacular Shostakovich 15th from Ormandy and his trusted Philly orchestra.
Gilels follows with a mostly idiomatic 2nd sonata.
The limpid yet full bodied sound of the great Ukrainian pianist is perfectly suited to Shostakovich writing.

I raved about Gilels Brahms piano concertos before, but the true gem of this disc are the Fantasien.
Gilels was always a very solid Brahms interpreter, but some of his performances are really on a scale of their own. The op 116 and the op 117 are among them.

 

[simorag]

A recent release from Linn records available on Qobuz, from the very competent Butt / Dunedin Consort combo.

Glorious sound as usual from Linn, but what a difference between the AB-1266 and the Valkyria presentation!

With such airy recordings, with extreme instrument separation, detail resolution, huge dynamics swings and overall highly technical audiophile-oriented parameters, the AB-1266 tend to shine. In this case they produce a very deep soundstage, projected at a distance to the listener, say balcony-level theatre experience. Instruments are still very well identifiable in space, but their color is somewhat homogenized.

The Valkyria puts you more in front-row location, by slightly sacrificing depth to the advantage of stage width. The immersive perception is further enhanced by a more palpable overall sound, with notably more body on the strings and - more importantly - the percussions. Impact is way more visceral, and the textural density and nuance differentiation between the various sections of the strings is definitely more realistic.

AB-1266 has more sparkle at the top, resulting in a more incisive brass display. Switching from the G73-R to my treasured '57 Mullard in the AIC-10 changes the AB-1266 tonal balance towards a more rich, saturated midrange and increases instruments size, which is beneficial (for my tastes) for this album (actually the Mullard is my preferred tube with the Abyss more generally).

Still, the overall sense of there-ness and emotional / physical engagement conveyed by the Valkyria is on another level here.

 

[spotforscott]

FYI, selling my Valkyria. Love them but selling off my headphone system - my new home can accommodate a 2 channel system

 

[simorag]

Tried the Valkyria with a full dCS Lina system at the dealer.
A rather different presentation compared to my system at home, but it looked like a splendid pairing nevertheless.
Extemely clean sounding, explosive dynamics, ultrafine grain with smooth and refined treble.
The Lina amp had more than enough drive for the V.

 

[xtr4]

Tried the Valkyria with a full dCS Lina system at the dealer.
A rather different presentation compared to my system at home, but it looked like a splendid pairing nevertheless.
Extemely clean sounding, explosive dynamics, ultrafine grain with smooth and refined treble.
The Lina amp had more than enough drive for the V.

Love the angle with the reflections. Makes the Lina seem as though it has a wood fascia.

 

[ufospls2]

Has anyone been able to confirm if the PULSAR is indeed the exact same driver and tuning as the Valkyria minus the Titanium housing? I've only found a few impressions from CanJams and one person did say they sounded different in a large way. At the same time I've found comments saying they are the exact same minus the housing material.

I think there may be a bit of a language barrier with some of the Spirit Torino stuff which might be why it's been hard to figure out.

 

[xtr4]

Has anyone been able to confirm if the PULSAR is indeed the exact same driver and tuning as the Valkyria minus the Titanium housing? I've only found a few impressions from CanJams and one person did say they sounded different in a large way. At the same time I've found comments saying they are the exact same minus the housing material.

I think there may be a bit of a language barrier with some of the Spirit Torino stuff which might be why it's been hard to figure out.

A quick check on their website indicates that while they have the same driver, the cable material (silver plated copper (Pulsar) vs silver + copper (Valkyria)) and housing material would probably lead to tuning differences.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Could someone compare the Pulsar and Valkyria at a dealer so far?

Since there are no measurements around, I asked the manufacturer directly to provide some, let's see if they provide some

 

[ThanatosVI]

I inquired about some measurements and comparisons between Pulsar and Valkyria.

Good thing is, the Support answered immediately and provided some of the Pulsar.
They said measurements of the Valkyria are very similar, the differences are msinly in detail retrieval since "Titanium is much stiffer and allows the isobaric engine to have a very high acoustic focus."

Does seem to have plenty bass.
While it does have a midbass hump it doesn't seem to roll off too hard in the subbass

 

[Axel]

They said measurements of the Valkyria are very similar, the differences are msinly in detail retrieval since "Titanium is much stiffer and allows the isobaric engine to have a very high acoustic focus."

Any subtle change in these levels can provide the difference that "justifies" the upgrade.
Measurements tell very little IMHO, and different materials can have a marginal effect on the overall sound.
Just my 2 cents.