[artur9]

My youngest just attended an opera in the Opera Bastille.

Anyone else been there?

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I saw Parsifal there on a Friday in June 2022. I then said yes thank you barman I'd like another, and went again on Monday.

The design is weird - I felt like I was in some combination of a mixed-use development, medical center, and airplane terminal. It opened in 1989 and the design and experience are extremely, indeed exuberantly, dated to that specific point in time.

 

[jmimac351]

Sorry Guys for missing the SoCal CanJam as I am still getting used to my walker and hate to look like a total spazz. I stayed home playing with my newest four DAC protos. Well, after building DACs for well over forty years, I thought I knew a lot. Funny thing about these DACs was they were built all for some future low end to low middle range products. I typically start building new idea products about a year or so before I have refined them enough to put them in production. One of these stuck out as being in many ways the best thing I have ever built. More on that one in a bit.

Here is the result I did not expect.

3. One of the cheap DACs sounded waaaaaaaaaaaaay too *** good. This what I should know after forty some years of building DACs. I have to find out why this cheap DAC if built sounds so good. I do not believe in the engineering paranormal so perhaps I am missing out on some engineering spec. We shall see. More on this as it is revealed.

The "cheap DAC" Mike was referring to here... I assume it became the Modius with AKM4493?

Does anyone know for sure?

 

[rtaylor76]

The "cheap DAC" Mike was referring to here... I assume it became the Modius with AKM4493?

Does anyone know for sure?

I think it was Modius E. Of course they did not move to ESS until after the fire. I think Mike’s post was before the fire.

I do know I see over and over again that the Modius E sounds better than it gets credit for.

 

[jmimac351]

I think it was Modius E. Of course they did not move to ESS until after the fire. I think Mike’s post was before the fire.

I do know I see over and over again that the Modius E sounds better than it gets credit for.

Thank you.

I have a DAC with the AKM4493 (RME ADI-2 DAC FS) and another with the ESS ES9038Q2M (Ayre QB-9 Twenty). Both cost many multiplies of either Modius version. It would be interesting to play with one... but knowing exactly which one he was referring to would be good to know.

 

[Plautus001]

I think it was Modius E. Of course they did not move to ESS until after the fire. I think Mike’s post was before the fire.

I do know I see over and over again that the Modius E sounds better than it gets credit for.

If it was before the fire... Doesn't that mean it was NOT the ESS?

Jason only started playing withESS after the fire...

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

This summer's highlights include Dudamel's Mahler 6 in Berlin, followed by Runnacles's Tristan two weeks later. In between, Simon Rattle is performing Bruckner 4, which I'm seeing on successive nights at the state opera and at the Philharmonie. Same conductor, same orchestra, same piece — acoustic a/bing.

 

[artur9]

This summer's highlights include Dudamel's Mahler 6 in Berlin,...

Where in Berlin? My youngest just saw production of RUSALKA there. StaatsOpera?

 

[rkw]

Where in Berlin? My youngest just saw production of RUSALKA there. StaatsOpera?

The Philharmonie
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/concerts/calendar/details/55088/#highlight=dudamel

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Salonen leaves at the end of next season; Dudamel is leaving in June of 2026. California orchestras are losing their stars...what're the chances EPS comes back to LA? He seems to love the weather in the golden state

 

[rkw]

what're the chances EPS comes back to LA?

Possible but before San Francisco, Salonen had said he didn't want another music director position. San Francisco enticed him with promises of things he liked (such as experimental and educational programs) which they are now backing out on, leading him to quit.

For San Francisco, I predict that they will choose a woman. It would fit the character of San Francisco to do it as a progressive statement, and there will be some pressure from the community. A good number of female conductors have already guest conducted the SFS and were well received: Simone Young, Nathalie Stutzmann, Elim Chan, Susanna Malkki, Dalia Stasevska, Karina Canellakis, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

And I forgot to mention - James Conlon retiring as well. Next season at LA Opera is pretty stripped down - no Wagner, no Strauss. The Ring seems to have been the company's high water mark, and that was 15 years ago.

I hope we get Susanna. I thought she might be picked up by Chicago. A woman would be fitting. In any case, our acoustics are so bad I kind of would prefer to fly down to LA to hear them five times a year at Disney Hall. I wish we could bulldoze Davies Hall and build a hall that actually sounds good. I like Eun-Sun Kim, though I haven't heard her conduct late Wagner (I did not fly to Houston to hear her Parsifal, but it seems to have been well received). And of course Frau was excellent.

 

[rkw]

I wish we could bulldoze Davies Hall and build a hall that actually sounds good.

A major renovation has been proposed.

https://sfyimby.com/2023/09/significant-san-francisco-symphony-hall-renovation-proposed.html​

https://irontongue.blogspot.com/2023/09/breaking-sfs-planning-major-davies.html​

However, it is odd to be happening while the Symphony is having financial issues and cutting back on expenses and programs.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

First the master chorale playing Margaret Bonds’s Credo—a fantastic piece by a magnificent though neglected Black composer—and now Gauthier capuçon playing Elgar with Simone young, and Vaughan Williams’s 8th after intermission.

Praise be to the Disney acoustics!

 

[artur9]

My youngest, who is 21, just watched their 21st live performance of an opera, Medea, in Paris.