[oryan_dunn]

I wonder if there's any latency issue using a Mimby for cable TV audio. Anybody doing it?

That'd have to be one slow DAC to not only have noticeable latency, but to have enough that it noticeably overcomes the latency of most modern TVs...

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Saw a lovely concert at the Symphony on Saturday. Krzysztof Urbański is quite a conductor -- I saw him last for the memorable "that's crap!" concert -- and he was in excellent form last night. In fact, I heard from an usher that apparently the woman who heckled him two weeks ago had been drinking and was, to use the usher's kind term, "tipsy" when she entered the auditorium. I can't imagine how schiitfaced I would have to be to behave so disrespectfully.

The Dvorak Cello Concerto was excellent, though it didn't stand out compared to the Karajan/Rostropovich that I'm familiar with. The Zauberflöte overture was fast. Maybe too fast. They say that whereas Wagner can tolerate any tempi from Böhm and Leinsdorf to Bernstein and Goodall, Mozart is much more delicate. Too fast, and he cannot blossom. Too slow, and he wilts. Harnoncourt's 2006 Figaro is one of the most intensely radical readings I have ever seen — and one of the most daring productions. It evoked the violence that many "more wigs n petticoats, ma'am!" productions sanitize from the story. The only shortcoming is the Cherubino. Isabelle Leonard is the finest living Cherubino, and had she sung the part, it would have been perfect. I'm sure every gay boy from San Francisco to Berlin has a crush on her.

As regards Urbanski's Zauberflöte: I could have done with more blossom. Finally, he performed something Polish and modernist that was just wonderful from beginning to end.

One of the most distracting things about the maestro was his predilection for theatrics. I could have sworn he mimed a fierce scratching motion at the oboe section as though he were Costanza during the Dvorak. His hips sashayed throughout the concert, which was conducted from memory, and he very much gave the impression of being the Barberini Faun, thirty-five but looking fully ten years younger, drunk on the music and in the throes of ecstasy. To speak with perfect candor, I was shocked — shocked! — to learn that he was married to a girl?? — his conducting practice was one of such distinct effeminacy, though I suppose Europeans are more advanced with respect to gender norms than the frontiers-people on this side of the pond.

For my next book I'm depicting a fictional production of Die Walkure. Debating Hunding as Hugh Hefner vs Hunding as Harvey Weinstein…I lean Weinstein, though I worry he’s insufficiently iconic.

 

[FLTWS]

Saw a lovely concert at the Symphony on Saturday. Krzysztof Urbański is quite a conductor -- I saw him last for the memorable "that's crap!" concert -- and he was in excellent form last night. In fact, I heard from an usher that apparently the woman who heckled him two weeks ago had been drinking and was, to use the usher's kind term, "tipsy" when she entered the auditorium. I can't imagine how schiitfaced I would have to be to behave so disrespectfully.

The Dvorak Cello Concerto was excellent, though it didn't stand out compared to the Karajan/Rostropovich that I'm familiar with. The Zauberflöte overture was fast. Maybe too fast. They say that whereas Wagner can tolerate any tempi from Böhm and Leinsdorf to Bernstein and Goodall, Mozart is much more delicate. Too fast, and he cannot blossom. Too slow, and he wilts. Harnoncourt's 2006 Figaro is one of the most intensely radical readings I have ever seen — and one of the most daring productions. It evoked the violence that many "more wigs n petticoats, ma'am!" productions sanitize from the story. The only shortcoming is the Cherubino. Isabelle Leonard is the finest living Cherubino, and had she sung the part, it would have been perfect. I'm sure every gay boy from San Francisco to Berlin has a crush on her.

As regards Urbanski's Zauberflöte: I could have done with more blossom. Finally, he performed something Polish and modernist that was just wonderful from beginning to end.

One of the most distracting things about the maestro was his predilection for theatrics. I could have sworn he mimed a fierce scratching motion at the oboe section as though he were Costanza during the Dvorak. His hips sashayed throughout the concert, which was conducted from memory, and he very much gave the impression of being the Barberini Faun, thirty-five but looking fully ten years younger, drunk on the music and in the throes of ecstasy. To speak with perfect candor, I was shocked — shocked! — to learn that he was married to a girl?? — his conducting practice was one of such distinct effeminacy, though I suppose Europeans are more advanced with respect to gender norms than the frontiers-people on this side of the pond.

For my next book I'm depicting a fictional production of Die Walkure. Debating Hunding as Hugh Hefner vs Hunding as Harvey Weinstein…I lean Weinstein, though I worry he’s insufficiently iconic.

Weinstein, I predict he will become iconic before too long. He is, by all reports, also a bully and I think he would fit in the role of Hunding better than Hugh. Type casting? Maybe.

 

[crazychile]

I wonder if there's any latency issue using a Mimby for cable TV audio. Anybody doing it?

I have an old Modi optical on my TV that feeds a set of wireless headphones. I don't notice any issues. And my setup has the extra disadvantage of having another A/D-D/A step with the headphones.

 

[Ableza]

Oversampling, times Nyquist rate NOT Nyquist frequency.

To be pedantic for a second, the minimum sampling RATE for digital music was determined by the desired FREQUENCY response, with max available FR being 1/2 sampling rate. Oversampling is a PCM sampling rate based on multiples of the Nyquist frequency at the standard 48kHz pro audio sampling rate. The Nyquist RATE is related but is a different thing.

 

[Alcophone]

Hey @Baldr, on Jason's thread I suggested Schiit could make the output of the Gadget available (say, in FLAC form) for a few sample recordings (and maybe with a few different settings on the Gadget, but definitely the Aaaah setting). Jason responded and suggested talking to you:

Early on, Mike processed some tracks to demonstrate what The Gadget did, and gave them to me (and a few others) as files. It's possible we could do this again, but (I think) we'd have to actually go through the ASCAP licensing, if the demo tracks were going to be widely available. It's best to ask Mike about this on his thread, maybe we can make this happen.

I said this in response:

Right, licensing is definitely the trickiest aspect of this. There are various sites that offer free/royalty free music that is in the public domain or CC licensed, etc.. I have never used them, though. Here is some classical music where the $25 standard license (per recording, presumably) would have you covered for any commercial use, in case that is worth it to you: http://www.freemusicpublicdomain.com/royalty-free-classical-music/
This site only seems to have Creative Commons licensed tracks, but that should in some cases work for you, too: http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Classical/
I am not a lawyer, of course.

There are more sites - maybe someone on this forum has experience with this? Are you buddies with David Chesky by any chance? :-D

Of course, I don't know what tuning they use, so apart from the license, music selection would be additional effort. But the premise of the Gadget seems to be that the modern tuning doesn't sound as good, so that should be easy to find

Anyway, I appreciate you thinking about it.

What do you think?

 

[AndreYew]

re. the recent Beethoven cycle discussion, I just heard a remarkable new(ish) recording of the Beethoven 5&7th symphonies by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck on Reference Recordings. When I first saw this recording, my reaction was the usual, "Who needs another Beethoven 5&7?" especially from an audiophile label. As it turns out, and I say this as a Carlos Kleiber fanboy, this is the most exciting, interesting recording of the 5th I've heard, and totally eclipses the Kleiber for me. The sound is pretty good too, and it comes as a multichannel SACD if you're into that. The CD layer is also HDCD encoded if you're into that. It has a slightly leaner, more precise version of the RR house sound: lots of warm reverb, but less than the Keith Johnson recordings, with things more naturally placed in their acoustic, and less extreme dynamics.

Never mind all of that stuff, because the qualities of this recording are audible even over FM radio, which is where I heard it first, and it made me sit in my car parked until it finished. The range of expression --- tempi and dynamics --- is wide and more importantly intelligently used. There are some historically-informed performances where you always feel like they're just showing off their crazy effects with little to negative benefit for the music. Not so here: Honeck (who apparently has extensively studied the music from historical sources) makes it sound like the most exciting, dramatic, and epic music. It's the 5th symphony you'd air conduct in your head, except it's real!

Just a couple of examples: the opening of the first movement starts with 4 slow, angry knocks, and then is contrasted against the faster response, so it sounds like there's an Olympian conversation going on. The opening of the 4th movement actually makes the orchestra sounds like it's growling. I have no idea how he does that, but it's very exciting, and there are all sorts of details I just don't hear in other recordings.

Check it out: it will be worth your time!

 

[FLTWS]

re. the recent Beethoven cycle discussion, I just heard a remarkable new(ish) recording of the Beethoven 5&7th symphonies by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck on Reference Recordings. When I first saw this recording, my reaction was the usual, "Who needs another Beethoven 5&7?" especially from an audiophile label. As it turns out, and I say this as a Carlos Kleiber fanboy, this is the most exciting, interesting recording of the 5th I've heard, and totally eclipses the Kleiber for me. The sound is pretty good too, and it comes as a multichannel SACD if you're into that. The CD layer is also HDCD encoded if you're into that. It has a slightly leaner, more precise version of the RR house sound: lots of warm reverb, but less than the Keith Johnson recordings, with things more naturally placed in their acoustic, and less extreme dynamics.

Never mind all of that stuff, because the qualities of this recording are audible even over FM radio, which is where I heard it first, and it made me sit in my car parked until it finished. The range of expression --- tempi and dynamics --- is wide and more importantly intelligently used. There are some historically-informed performances where you always feel like they're just showing off their crazy effects with little to negative benefit for the music. Not so here: Honeck (who apparently has extensively studied the music from historical sources) makes it sound like the most exciting, dramatic, and epic music. It's the 5th symphony you'd air conduct in your head, except it's real!

Just a couple of examples: the opening of the first movement starts with 4 slow, angry knocks, and then is contrasted against the faster response, so it sounds like there's an Olympian conversation going on. The opening of the 4th movement actually makes the orchestra sounds like it's growling. I have no idea how he does that, but it's very exciting, and there are all sorts of details I just don't hear in other recordings.

Check it out: it will be worth your time!

I've got 4 of Honeck's Mahler symphonies with Pittsburgh on the Exton label. Good performances all around and I especially like the recording quality and miking perspective. I will definitely check this out as Kleiber is my benchmark for these 2 works.

 

[RCBinTN]

Saw a lovely concert at the Symphony on Saturday. Krzysztof Urbański is quite a conductor -- I saw him last for the memorable "that's crap!" concert -- and he was in excellent form last night. In fact, I heard from an usher that apparently the woman who heckled him two weeks ago had been drinking and was, to use the usher's kind term, "tipsy" when she entered the auditorium. I can't imagine how schiitfaced I would have to be to behave so disrespectfully.

The Dvorak Cello Concerto was excellent, though it didn't stand out compared to the Karajan/Rostropovich that I'm familiar with. The Zauberflöte overture was fast. Maybe too fast. They say that whereas Wagner can tolerate any tempi from Böhm and Leinsdorf to Bernstein and Goodall, Mozart is much more delicate. Too fast, and he cannot blossom. Too slow, and he wilts. Harnoncourt's 2006 Figaro is one of the most intensely radical readings I have ever seen — and one of the most daring productions. It evoked the violence that many "more wigs n petticoats, ma'am!" productions sanitize from the story. The only shortcoming is the Cherubino. Isabelle Leonard is the finest living Cherubino, and had she sung the part, it would have been perfect. I'm sure every gay boy from San Francisco to Berlin has a crush on her.

As regards Urbanski's Zauberflöte: I could have done with more blossom. Finally, he performed something Polish and modernist that was just wonderful from beginning to end.

One of the most distracting things about the maestro was his predilection for theatrics. I could have sworn he mimed a fierce scratching motion at the oboe section as though he were Costanza during the Dvorak. His hips sashayed throughout the concert, which was conducted from memory, and he very much gave the impression of being the Barberini Faun, thirty-five but looking fully ten years younger, drunk on the music and in the throes of ecstasy. To speak with perfect candor, I was shocked — shocked! — to learn that he was married to a girl?? — his conducting practice was one of such distinct effeminacy, though I suppose Europeans are more advanced with respect to gender norms than the frontiers-people on this side of the pond.

For my next book I'm depicting a fictional production of Die Walkure. Debating Hunding as Hugh Hefner vs Hunding as Harvey Weinstein…I lean Weinstein, though I worry he’s insufficiently iconic.

I must say...that is the most interesting review of an operatic performance that I've ever read.
Anywhere, including on Baldr's thread.

 

[FLTWS]

I must say...that is the most interesting review of an operatic performance that I've ever read.
Anywhere, including on Baldr's thread.

I can't help but laugh every time I read "that's crap". As I am not a snicker-er but a belly out loud laugh-er, had I been there my laugh would have been the bigger faux pas of the concert.

 

[AndreYew]

I've got 4 of Honeck's Mahler symphonies with Pittsburgh on the Exton label. Good performances all around and I especially like the recording quality and miking perspective. I will definitely check this out as Kleiber is my benchmark for these 2 works.

Nice. I didn't realize they had done any Mahler recordings. Let know what you think of their Beethoven. Their recording of the Dvorak 8 on Reference Recordings is also very good.

 

[artur9]

The only shortcoming is the Cherubino. Isabelle Leonard is the finest living Cherubino, and had she sung the part, it would have been perfect. I'm sure every gay boy from San Francisco to Berlin has a crush on her.

I read this as "exclusively" gay boys and can't figure out why norms wouldn't also have a crush on her. Anyways.

A friend of mine is deep into music (but not opera) and didn't know the usage of the word travesty (from the french travesti) in the operatic context. Cherubino being a classic representation.

 

[artur9]

For those of you wondering why you might want more than one performance of a particular classical work this Classical Classroom episode does a wonderful job of showing how every performer brings something different to an interpretation. She uses Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor to illustrate. I think many will recognize it even if they are not all that familiar with classical.

 

[liamo]

For those of you wondering why you might want more than one performance of a particular classical work this Classical Classroom episode does a wonderful job of showing how every performer brings something different to an interpretation. She uses Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor to illustrate. I think many will recognize it even if they are not all that familiar with classical.

I haven’t been able to listen to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway for almost forty years but I can listen to Dolly Parton’s.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I'm getting my Sonarworks situation straightened out on my MacBook Pro so as to have a strong complement of musical sources ready for my Gadget trek. I'm planning to leave Venice around 11 so I should be comfortably on the Schiitr by quarter to noon. The question I have is the extent to which digital EQ is messed with by the Gadget.

Does the Schiitr still have an HD800? (Has it by any chance invested in replacement pads for that extremely well-worn HD800?) I can bring mine, though K1000 takes up less room, and would allow me to skip the carry-on and just take a personal item.