Blu-Spec CD of Ozawa/J. Norman/BSO M3 (Philips)

[barry guerrero]

I don't know if a BluSpec actually sounds any better or not, but here's one of a very under-rated M3. Jessye Norman gets put to better use here than in her early Abbado/VPO recording. If nothing else, the BSO trombones are simply unbelievable at the climax of the last movement's long brass chorale.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/mahler-symphony-no-3/hnum/6621843

[ctcdaggett]

Right you are.  All Mahler/Ozawa Philips BSO have been Blue-Speced (2).  All available from Amazon and Japan dealers.  Better sound?  I haven't a clue. About a year ago I sent Tom Fine (son of Mercury Engineer C. Robert Fine) a pair of Munch Daphnis & Chloe CD's.  One was straight redbook, the other a made in Japan Blue-Spec.  He stated the the two were bit-for-bit identical.

Unrelated, all the DG Bernstein Mahler series will be released September 23 as "SHM" discs.  Sound improvement?  Also, not a clue.

bob berkman, mojave desert

[AZContrabassoon]

What I don't need, or want, is yet another remastering of anyone's Mahler. What I DO want is the same treatment Decca gave the Solti Ring - the whole thing on one Blu Ray disk. Wouldn't it be great to have the entire Bernstein on one single disk? Or the Solti, Kubelik, Ozawa, Haitink...

[waderice]

What I don't need, or want, is yet another remastering of anyone's Mahler. What I DO want is the same treatment Decca gave the Solti Ring - the whole thing on one Blu Ray disk. Wouldn't it be great to have the entire Bernstein on one single disk? Or the Solti, Kubelik, Ozawa, Haitink...

We ALL want a given conductor's complete Mahler symphonies on one Blu-ray disk.  But the manufacturers won't let it be that way - they make more money by putting one symphony on one disk, etc.  You get the picture. 

Wade

[barry guerrero]

To my mind, the biggest scam of all is the 'return to vinyl' movement. People are buying ridiculously expensive heavy-weight vinyl, then playing it back on cheesy Audio Technica turntables that they pick up at Urban Outfitters or Target. Few of them seem to understand that what it is that they like about vinyl is, in fact, a form of distortion: the dramatic roll-off of the high end on most playback equipment. The record industry should have introduced a line of CD's ages ago, attenuated to duplicate what it is that people like hearing with vinyl.

Personally, I have no desire to return to side breaks, static guns, vinyl vacuum cleaners (the only way to truly get an LP clean), expensive cartridges, endless adjustments, constant worrying about the needle. They can have it.

[ChrisH]

You all realize that you can burn an entire cycle, plus DLVDE, Klagende and the songs,  on a DVD8 with room to spare.

[barry guerrero]

No, do tell!  I imagine all you need is a dvd burner?

[ChrisH]

You do need a DVD burner, and a software to burn with. I used powerDVD in the past when I've done this. The audio can be converted to DTS, which is much better than AAC.

Honestly, doing something like is really just hassle for what you're wanting to do, and is also a big reason why I don't think something like this will get more popular. Everything is going digital.

For $100.00 you could by a usb dac, run it to your stereo from your laptop/computer and have everything you own at your fingertips. Much easier than ripping physical discs.

[justininsf]

Vehemence has a good suggestion and that is what I am doing now, I run all music from my computer.  You earlier mentioned vinyl, I can't imagine even using CD's and DVD's and blu-rays anymore, let alone VINYL!

Whenever I get a new CD I usually rip it to my computer in a lossless format, but honestly using MP3 or AAC is fine, which will save you hard drive space.  I have all my music organized into folders on a disk drive, as you can imagine the Mahler folder is one of the larger ones.

[Roland Flessner]

Some people these days--not necessarily you, justininsf--sniff at "physical media" as though it were hopelessly antiquated. But, I still do nearly all my serious listening on CDs.

For portable listening, I rip to Ogg Vorbis format, which is compressed but IMHO far superior to MP3. I can't distinguish a 192K .ogg file from the original, but I certainly can with a 256K MP3. I will not download MP3s unless it is a desperate emergency. Some sites, especially in Europe, offer FLAC, which is lossless (and DRM free). That is how I have so far acquired Stenz M5, M6 and M7. I burn it to CD anyway so I can play it on the best equipment at my disposal.

I think the FLAC spec supports up to eight channels, thus surround-sound downloads are a possibility, eventually.

For listening at work, I use a Sandisk ClipZip player (which supports a variety of formats, including FLAC and .ogg). With good headphones, the sound is excellent. But note that the player has apparently been discontinued and the replacement (Clip Sport) adds a gap of silence between tracks, a big problem in classical music. I have ways to combine tracks, but it's tedious and should not be necessary.

Barry, I'm amused by your comments about vinyl, and I mostly agree. Everything else aside, vinyl is a bad choice for the composer to whom this forum is devoted, because you can't squeeze enough information into a groove and play it back without distortion and rapid wear. However, quieter stuff, including acoustic strings, can sound really nice on vinyl.

It's kind of a strange journey the world has been on: 1) ditch CDs for bad-sounding downloads, 2) notice that music sounds better than that on a cheap plastic turntable, 3) rip your vinyl to a compressed format and lose most of the quality, and 4) play it back on cheesy earbuds. Me, I'm glad I listen on CD and will continue to do so for a long time.

[justininsf]

There's a whole range, from people who laugh at antiquated mediums, to those that hear too much digititus in non-analog sound and find it absolutely worthwhile to use high end vinyl rigs.  I lean more towards the former, but recognize everyone perceives and appreciates sound differently and manages their method of music consumption accordingly.

I completely appreciate the convenience of having a digital library that is keyword searchable which results in 1 of thousands or millions of tracks being found within seconds, and admit I prioritize that over ultimate quality in sound reproduction. 

As I went to the symphony a few months ago I thought to myself that I have never ever heard any system that could reproduce sound exactly as I heard it then, not even really close, but then again maybe i need to spend more time searching out better systems!

I should also note that we, as classical lovers, are kind of lucky.  I know other music lovers who are very much into specific masters/remasters of certain albums (I'm talking non-classical like rock, pop, etc), but I've noticed a lot of orchestral music is recorded pretty well.  Even recordings from 50 years ago today can sound pretty amazing.

[John Kim]

I heard the Blu-spec CD of Ozawa/BSO/Philips M9th+M10 Adagio. Although the sound is better with more highs in particular, I cannot say the improvement is enough to justify getting the set.

In general, however, I highly endorse Blu-spec CDs over regular CDs.

For example, I have Inbal/FRSO/Denon M9+M10 Adagio and I can attest that in this case not only they improved the sound but they also remastered the original tracks.

[sbugala]

I sent away to Japan for the Blu-Spec Cd of this M3, and I can't say I'm overwhelmed. Sometimes, the remastering more than justifies it. In this case, I'd say pass. If you can get the original issue, settle for that. I'd probably trade someone for that if someone's up for it. Maybe your gear will bring out more with it.