The music on this disc is fantastic. I bought it on John's recommendation -- he could have got a little money out of it it he were an Amazon Associate (hint, hint) -- and was pretty much blown away by the music.

THanks for the links. Just curious as to the quality of the recordings. I suspect the Yo-Yo Ma one would be good since it's recent. How about the others?

Right now my collection consists of all Yo-Yo Ma. I have his Bach Sic Unaccompanied Cello, Silk Road Journeys Beyond the Horizon, Soul of the Tango, Plays the Music of John WIlliams, and Essential Yo-Yo Ma. I just downloaded a bunch of flac recordings I found on the internet to see if I like them enough to buy. So far so good.

I definitely will add Jacqueline du Pre. I plan on buying this one of hers Amazon Link 1
I'll also check out your recommendation

Lalo, Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos

I have to say I find it very difficult to figure out what CD's to buy. I just type in a search in Google "best cello recordings" and then follow the links. I found most that way including a Jian Wang and
this

I finally got around to listening to Yo-Yo Ma Plays John Williams. WOw! Some of those tunes, especially tracks 2 and 3 really made my speakers sing!

I'm not sure what's better when listening to music like this, 2 channel or switching to PLII to get surround sound? I would assume the overall sound quality would be better from the M60's than the VP150 no?

Hi DanielB,

It really depends on the engineering of the source recording, whether or not it will "decode" into excellent sounding PLII. If the recording has generous ambience, DPLII will usually extract that and route it to the surrounds, producing a pleasant expansion of hall sound and upgrade in realism. If it's a dry studio job, it may not benefit at all from DPLII.

As to the VP150, I think it would be quite good with cello. I used to occasionally fault the 150 mainly on male/female vocals and orchestral horns and brasses.

Alan

Hey Alan, I was switching between 2 channel and PLII while listening to some tracks. Turns out I quite liked the sound of the VP150 with cello.

Dan, all of those suggested are of fine sound quality and allow full appreciation of the great music.

It really isn't a good idea in classical music to make a particular solo performer the overwhelmingly important factor in making a choice. Note that on three of the four suggestions, I made no mention of the identity of the cellist and only mentioned Ma because you'd heard his Bach Cello Suites. I happen to have him as the soloist on one of my cello recordings, but that certainly wasn't the determining factor. Ma is generally excellent, but these days there're many other cellists who perform as well or better on specific compositions.

My list was pretty much in order of preference, and the Dvorak Concerto/Schelomo/Kol Nidrei disc is the indispensable one which you should consider first.

I always listen to 2-channel recordings in surround using a mode such as DPLII. You of course have the option to set the center speaker to "No" if you prefer and listen with surround ambience, which is more significant than the center speaker.
All recordings, in my experience, benefit at least to some degree from this.

Hey John,

I'll definitely be adding the Dvorak Concerto/Schelomo/Kol Nidrei disc to my collection. I do have to say I do like Ma's work. I listened to Soul of the Tango and Brazil CD's. His were the easiest for me to find and start with but definitely won't be the only one.

Edgar Meyer... can't believe I forgot about him. Although I guess he mostly does bass...