Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions cd mods...Music Hall MMF-CD25

I was just about to post something about the pilot of the DH3. I think he has a small magnet on the co-pilot's seatbelt buckle. He swears it makes the plane fly better. He doesn't have any proof, and the co-pilot thinks he's goofy, and there is no (known) reason whatsoever that the magnet affects the aerodynamics - but dangit, he paid $2,000 dollars for that thing at AeroPhile.com, and he is POSITIVE that plane is flying better now...

Alright, enough of that, sorry...heh heh...

Assuming you're serious...My only recording here is Alfred Brendel, 1975 or so. Tempo's just right for me. There are so many great recordings though - it's impossible to prefer the same one two days in a row!

But the intro has lots of silence and fading notes - perfect for this type of "testing." The beginning of the d-minor("tempest") 1st movement has similar good quiet moments.

Absolutely serious, BR; I've got about a thousand classical CDs, and of course it's the music that's really the bottom line. If you search old posts for a topic such as "classical" you'll find me(along with the sorely-missed sushi)as a frequent contributor. Unfortunately there hasn't been much traffic in that area recently.

On the Pathetique, my favorite is Arrau on Philips(along with Appassionata and Moonlight), stately and dynamic in turn, with good sound from the '60s. I've listened to others and borrowed some from libraries, of course. The Brendel that I heard and liked was his digital re-make from the '90s.

Dang, John, that makes me sad a little bit.
FWIW, the Rachmaninov that you recommended gets alot of play time at my house - particularly Concerto #1. I love that piece.

Yeah Mark, it is a little bit sad. There's a whole world of beautiful music waiting for us out there if we'll just listen.

Nope, not the same track.. I compressed them all with FLAC and got pretty different bitrates for each one even though all the WAVs had the same filesizes and bitrates.

I'm using Shure e3cs. The output is from a hissy, poppy laptop headphone out, but I don't hear anything different using pcabx..

Johnk, that's great, really - and you're absolutely right, it's all about the music.

The Brendel I mentioned is also a Philips - my "moonlight" is Maurizio Pollini (Deutsche Grammophon). The only Appassionata I have handy is by the - ahem - world renown Daniel Barenboim (also DG), I lucked out there, most others I hear seem too fast at the end.

In the meantime, Thasp, I haven't counted the bits on the tracks myself, so I'm sticking with "They're all the same! I know it! I know it!" Maybe your bit-counter doesn't have the correct weight of golden feet on the bottom, and this has thrown it off.

I tried again without ABXing. Even with placeabo as a factor, they all sound the same.

I suppose these differences in a $100-$300 refurb NAD orHK CDP and a $5000 krell CDP really aren't anything to go nuts about. I'm going to try a spectral analyzer next, since I already know that without assistance I'll have no clue whatsoever what to look for.

Maybe I should wait until I get my ears drained before I try this stuff. Heh.

Bren R.,

Well I know you did not get the response you were hoping for with this test, but gives us the answers, pretty please.

Johnny

Sorry wasn't holding out... was out of town (sorry we missed each other, NeverHappy) and now into the busy season...

The answer key is:
1 - Jitter errors (evenly spaced)
2 - Elevated noise floor
3 - Clean

Bren R.

Wow. Johnny was right on.