Hidden cost of HiFi upgrade

[Kevin Stephens]

Since I got my new system last week I've been working through the clasical half of my CD collection, the good recordings sound fantasic, but I've got a growing pile of CDs to be discarded and replaced with better recordings; too many budget buys in the past I guess.

Can anybody point me in the direction of a reliable guide to the best recordings/performance classical music?

For rock it seems a bit easier; just pay out for the re-masters!

 

[John Duncan]

Where better than http://www.gramophone.co.uk/recrecordings.asp...?

EDIT - note that you need to register to go into more detail for each recording, your WHF username won't work there IIRC.

 

[matthewpiano]

The bible is the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.

In terms of sound quality, generally, I say the following:

Chandos, Hyperion, ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Decca, and LSO Live are consistently excellent. Philips recordings from the 60s/70s are usually also very good.

With Naxos, the earlier recordings are awful but those from the last 7-8 years are mostly excellent.

EMI and Deutsche Grammophon are much more variable. Both can sound a bit muddy, but the EMI Great Recordings of the Century series and the DG Originals series tend to be exceptions to this.

Many of the Brilliant Classics releases are excellent, mostly being re-releases of material from other labels such as the now defunct Collins Classics.

Nimbus recordings are interesting. The ambisonic microphone they use gives much more information about the acoustic of the recording space. It often works very well but can take some getting used to compared to the drier sound of more conventional studio recordings.

 

[Anonymous]

The Penguin Guide is a valuable reference, as matthewpiano says.ÿ

I'd add Telarc and Pentatone to the list of consistently excellent labels, certainly in terms of production.

 

[the record spot]

Kevin Stephens:

For rock it seems a bit easier; just pay out for the re-masters!

Ummmm, actually Kevin...!

Finding the best sounding recordings would mean I'd suggest you seek out some good analogue discs with digital mastering the only digital element in the chain. I'm finding more and more that the discs which really sound good are the original release AAD versions. The only remasters I buy today are the ones which offer extra tracks (and enolugh interesting versions to make it worth my while).

We always had good sounding discs out there, some not all obviously, you don't get 100% all the time, but we were fed a line by the record companies a lot of the time. Many remasters are overly compressed, too loud and robbed of the dynamics many original recordings had.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, sadly most of the re-masters are iffy at best. Try the Kinks re-masters to hear what a poor re-master sounds like.

 

[Anonymous]

Another vote for both the Penguin guide and the Gramophone archive / magazine. I use both.

Note also that there's a new edition of the Penguin guide anually, and often you can pick up last year's cheaply (currently ?5 in Dublin).

Hedgehog

 

[chebby]

matthewpiano:Nimbus recordings are interesting. The ambisonic microphone they use gives much more information about the acoustic of the recording space. It often works very well but can take some getting used to compared to the drier sound of more conventional studio recordings.

Especially fascinating is the combination of Technics SL15*, 6 metre acoustic horn, thorn needle diaphragm pickup, and Ambisonic microphone used for transferring old 78 discs to CD....

http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/pv_transfer.html

*Actually I think they meant Technics SP15 as the SL15 is a closed lid paralell tracker and the pickup would not fit but I may be wrong.