Classical Music - SQ or Musicality?

[tomayresss]

I'm a massive fan of the Amadeus Quartet and own a lot of their recordings, the majority of which are what you might call 'bad sound quality' due to them being fairly old recordings, but I find them head and shoulders above more recent recordings of string quartets which have 'perfect sound quality' with regards to musical involvement. They bring me much closer to the musical event. Was wondering whether people share this view?

Do you think it would be a bad idea to take recordings like these to demo hifi? Even though they are what I enjoy?

Apologies if my questions are silly or the answers are obvious - I read these forums a lot but am still a massive hifi noob 🙂

Tom.

 

[matthewpiano]

When you audition you should use the recordings you listen to the most. Just make sure that you also take some newer recordings as well to ensure the equipment can hit the spot with those as well.

Historic recordings can be very involving. There are some recordings of the very young Claudio Arrau playing the piano (on the Pearl label), and some of the young Count John McCormack (for example) that bring the music right into the room in spite of the surface noise and imperfections. Some of the restorations being done by Ward Marston and others bring these vintage recordings, and consequently the music on them, to life in a quite incredible way.

Furthermore, a lot of the older (but not quite so vintage) classical recordings stand head and shoulders above more recent ones, although the last 12-18 months seems to have seen a return to form, particularly for EMI Classics who are putting out some beautifully engineered recordings.

Many of my favourite recordings are EMI and Decca ones from the 1960s and 1970s. Stuff like Boult conducting Holst, and Jacqueline du Pre playing the Elgar Cello Concerto. I love the Decca opera recordings from that period as well. The Decca 'La Boheme' with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto is absolutely divine.

 

[tomayresss]

Thanks for your reply Matthew - sounds very sensible to me. I too own a 70s recording of The Planets conducted by Boult and LPO? which I love.

The other question I had about this was - is the sound I'm describing a typically 'analogue' sound? Or would that be something different altogether? I really enjoy the raw sound of the performance that I described in my first post, and was wondering if I could translate this preference into hifi terms. If I could do this, it may well aid people with suggestions for kit I should buy, should the situation arise.