[yonson]

A huge difference between A1 and A2? No, not huge. But it was noticeable and made my digital sources more "analog" sounding. I'm glad I upgraded, but it was not night and day and A1 was very, very good sounding. As to Gen 5 USB VS Unison, that was an instantly noticeable improvement and is highly recommended, especially if you use a computer as a source.

Thanks, yeah I would be using a computer as a source and it would be replacing my Oppo 205, which I happen to like how it sounds. I just don't watch enough 4K Blu Rays to keep it, plus they are pulling quite a premium right now...

 

[GumbyDammit223]

I know you're in CA, so maybe this doesn't help, but if you're in an area that suffers from winter, look for winter windshield washer fluid. Many of them use alcohol to keep them from freezing. [a tip I learned from beekeepers to find alcohol during the pandemic]

Was just reminded of this - pick up a bottle of Heet (the automotive fuel additive). It's isopropanol.

 

[earnmyturns]

Sad!

my 3.5mm extension cable seems to be adding noise but I can’t find rubbing alcohol at the drug store. What’s a good alternative to clean cables? I have plenty of hand sanitizer, lol

Hum... Not any problem with getting 70% isopropanol here in the Peninsula, at least not recently. Now, though, with COVID-19 going sideways in a hurry, who knows...

 

[gefski]

Sad!

my 3.5mm extension cable seems to be adding noise but I can’t find rubbing alcohol at the drug store. What’s a good alternative to clean cables? I have plenty of hand sanitizer, lol

I prefer deoxit red for serious corrosion, gold for routine cleaning. Qtips for exposed surfaces & male ends, cotton pipe cleaners for female. Polish completely dry after application. The only alky I would use is 99%, and all it does is remove residue, not corrosion.

 

[wout31]

So what does this have to do with Schiit? Or for that matter, its better competitors? How about the fact that the chief designers produce a by-and large unique sound. The Schiit digital sound is by and large a product of what I like. The influence was cemented when I met my hero designer, Peter Walker in the bar of the Blackstone Hotel in the very early 1970s, when CES shows were still in Chicago. Mr. Walker was the main design guy at Acoustical Mfg. Co., makers of the Quad Electrostatic Speaker. He explained to me that the purpose of a music reproduction system was to do just that – to reproduce the sound – to come as close as possible to the sound of the original.

I couldn't agree more (Look at my Avatar)

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

What’re people’s favorite transfers of the 1962 Knappertsbusch Parsifal? Also the Vickers one from two years later?

 

[Baldr]

What’re people’s favorite transfers of the 1962 Knappertsbusch Parsifal? Also the Vickers one from two years later?

I am well pleased by the original Phillips on the Knappertsbusch. The Vickers, however ??.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

https://www.amazon.com/Parsifal-Richard-Wagner/dp/B000UJC7WU/

This, I believe, is the Vickers/Knappertsbusch from 1964. I like the Vickers/Goodall performance but the sound isn't especially sumptuous.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

What’re people’s favorite transfers of the 1962 Knappertsbusch Parsifal? Also the Vickers one from two years later?

Uh.. I prefer the 1951 recording.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

It’s a lovely recording. I’ve had it for years. But I’d like to see HK’s range.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Sorry, you lost me there. HK?

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Sorry, you lost me there. HK?

Hans Knappertsbusch?

JC

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

I'm stupid.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

This was the first recording of Sempre Libera I ever heard - after buying it at the Royal Opera House in London while on a trip fifteen years ago and listening to it on a friend's laptop (much to their chagrin).



Sills's phrasing is so effortless, fluent, and charming. I don't think she's a better singer than the singular La Divina - but hers is a wonderful addition to the discography. Not quite so technically dazzling as Sutherland's, but given to better acting and, altogether, a more persuasive reading of the role.

 

[nick n]

Puccini sounds better than he is, and Wagner is better than he sounds.

I do keep an eye in here yet never post.
This reminded me of something you may all appreciate.
A while back I found an Audio Critic article about a particular classical release.
It is Mono due to the age, and some recorded in Dresden just before the venue was bombed out of existence so it captures the never again to be found effect of that place.
"The tracks that amazed me were recorded on September 21, 1944, in the acoustically marvelous State Opera House (Semperoper) of Dresden, which was pulverized, along with the rest of the city, in the much-debated air raid the following February."

Please scroll down past the blue/red lined graphs to an entry titled A Unique and Unexpected Audio Experience.( 27 April, 2009 )
I should mention it did make me grab the CD release right away and am not disappointed though I am not an expert with classical.
Of particular interest is the advanced German tape machines used to record this, apparently nobody else had that.

https://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_web1.htm#acl
hope this is of interest.

~N