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Vinyl Asylum: Classical records for which there was fantastic improvement, and some disappointments still by jdaniel@jps.net

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Classical records for which there was fantastic improvement, and some disappointments still

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Had a chance to do some serious, but infinitely more relaxed listening this morning. I've picked some records that hopefully many will have picked up over the years.

Kubelik's Janacek Gagolitic Mass on DGG. The final two sections, one with a pretty "nasal" organ solo and the other containing some extremely raucous music for fluttering, delightfully-grotesque and playful trumpets and all sorts of other hee-hawing...the improvement was incredible: I could hear all kinds of extra detail and the instruments maintained their "roundness" and individual tonalities. It was just a mess before.

Arnold's Lyrita Cornish Dances: my system used to lose a little bit of its composure during the brass chorale in the very last dance, (end of side two). This time around it remained absolutely clear and didn't thin.

MTT's Orff Carmina Burana: the two last big choral sections--this is a great but perhaps unfair test piece, as the record is a little too stuffed with music and you've got a big, slow repetitive choral section (Ave forsissima) holding its chords while high unison strings comment, right at the very end of the record. Again, fantastically better separation of strings and choir with both maintaining their timbres and textures and space.

Some disappointments:

Haitink Debussy's Jeux: spectacular recording in the quiet sections but the louder sections still cause the cart to lose composure; the sound thins and gets crass. I don't know if it's a bad record or saturation on the recording.

Argerich's Chopin Sonata #3/DGG, the last pages of the final mov't: I still get a complete loss of sparkle and separation of the notes. If your system can handle this, my hat's off to you.

The TAS-listed Mercury Rodrigo Guitar Concerto, second mov't big string theme: strings are still thin and dry as can be.

In any case, I'm going to do a little more listening, but the improvement has been big enough for me to consider shelving my plans for a cart upgrade and I may go for a phono-stage in its place.


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